No Labels?
One of the more recent developments in American politics is the "No Labels" idea.
There a few things people in the political class need to understand. Congress has never had such low poll number and in my opinion there are three reasons for the ultimate contempt of the public for their elected representatives.
The representatives play to the true believers in their parties.
Base Republicans believe government is bad, taxes are worse and unless you are a social conservative where women, minorities, gay rights, are at best marginally important. Guns and the military and reactionary supreme court justices are also issues you can run on.
Base Democrats never met a government program they did not like. Government can solve all of our problems, let's throw some money at it. The rich should pay all the taxes, the government should protect everybody, without guns or a military.
Both Democrats and Republicans now have unpopular wars, popular programs and people in office that are unable to do much of anything about the deficits that exist because of current plan of putting tough decisions off.
Meanwhile business as usual means continuing the 24/7 campaign that includes raising money from the already rich and powerful to main themselves in office and an unsustainable status quo. The budget deficit situation needs to be solved by the people in this country or I'm afraid it will be acted upon by forces out of our control.
The two party system as previously envisioned moved elected officials towards the middle in thought and action and towards compromise where both sides are represented in a decision.
Now the two party system has devolved into something that rewards standing your ground, rather than legislating, approving appointments and doing oversight of governmental activities. No labels might require a more deliberate approach that won't satisfy everybody but it surely will be better than rewarding the system in place now. Government seems to be for sale and the public good doesn't seem to matter.
I wonder how my representative would vote if they could actually vote without labeling their actions either republican or democratic. Why should the lunatic fringe of either party be able to determine what is best for the rest of us.
Good government can be just that, good government. It does not need to meet litmus tests. There are at least better practices if we can't always agree on the "best" practices.
Taxes, health care, education, and foreign policy in the minds of most people are not particularly partisan. These are shared responsibilities of everyone.
There a few things people in the political class need to understand. Congress has never had such low poll number and in my opinion there are three reasons for the ultimate contempt of the public for their elected representatives.
The representatives play to the true believers in their parties.
Base Republicans believe government is bad, taxes are worse and unless you are a social conservative where women, minorities, gay rights, are at best marginally important. Guns and the military and reactionary supreme court justices are also issues you can run on.
Base Democrats never met a government program they did not like. Government can solve all of our problems, let's throw some money at it. The rich should pay all the taxes, the government should protect everybody, without guns or a military.
Both Democrats and Republicans now have unpopular wars, popular programs and people in office that are unable to do much of anything about the deficits that exist because of current plan of putting tough decisions off.
Meanwhile business as usual means continuing the 24/7 campaign that includes raising money from the already rich and powerful to main themselves in office and an unsustainable status quo. The budget deficit situation needs to be solved by the people in this country or I'm afraid it will be acted upon by forces out of our control.
The two party system as previously envisioned moved elected officials towards the middle in thought and action and towards compromise where both sides are represented in a decision.
Now the two party system has devolved into something that rewards standing your ground, rather than legislating, approving appointments and doing oversight of governmental activities. No labels might require a more deliberate approach that won't satisfy everybody but it surely will be better than rewarding the system in place now. Government seems to be for sale and the public good doesn't seem to matter.
I wonder how my representative would vote if they could actually vote without labeling their actions either republican or democratic. Why should the lunatic fringe of either party be able to determine what is best for the rest of us.
Good government can be just that, good government. It does not need to meet litmus tests. There are at least better practices if we can't always agree on the "best" practices.
Taxes, health care, education, and foreign policy in the minds of most people are not particularly partisan. These are shared responsibilities of everyone.
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