The Finger

Just wondering.....
If you were hanging from a "cliff" by one hand, would you loosen your grip to point a finger at your opponent? Our elected officials are losing their grip. Let them know that partisan finger pointing instead of constructive leadership will certainly send us over the edge.
Just my thoughts, feel free to take your shots.

Wake Up Call

     Will somebody please tell Speaker Boehner that Republicans lost the general election? In his address on the election and the looming fiscal cliff, he began with the obligatory congratulations and promises of cooperation, compromise and unity, but near the end of the speech, his dialog became infused with "will not" "does not", "cannot", "isn't" and his tried and true "under the right circumstances". 

     As Republicans (yes I remain a Republican) we must recognize that the philosophy of obstructionism, exclusion and drawing lines in the sand is what is driving moderate Republicans into the demographic of ticket splitters and far too often out of party politics altogether. We can surrender the Republican Party to the Tea Party extremist or return to a moderate party of fiscal conservatism, military conservatism, social balance and inclusion, and above all a platform that recognizes the values of a majority. 

     The talking heads speak to the next four years as defining President Obama’s legacy. I would submit, that the next four years will define the legacy and potentially the demise of the Republican Party if serious introspection doesn’t take place at the top. Remember, we are supposed to be the “United” States of America.

     Please wake up Mr. Boehner, or your legacy will be that of the man who drove this country over two cliffs; the fiscal cliff and tragically the party cliff.  Obstinence, which you insisted on for the last four years, will not serve the nation nor the party in the coming four years.

Where is the Red White and Blue

    
Republican Sen. Olympia Snowe has announced she is leaving the Senate, explaining her departure as having been brought on by a political environment in which as a country we have come to view ourselves in terms of red or blue states instead of a Red, White and Blue nation.
How very sad. How very true.

Between the hardline left and the Tea Party right, our leaders have lost their sense of nation. Is it any wonder that our status in the world is crumbling? Our leaders (in both parties) couldn't agree to turn on the heat if they were standing in a blizzard. We have few congressmen and women who are capable of addressing issues with the interest of the nation at heart; and now those few moderates in both parties are abandoning ship rather than play a role in the continued decline of our nation.

Lincoln's government of the people, by the people, for people has become a government of the manipulated, by the obstructionist, for the elite. The concept of middle ground has been lost and we have been left with a polarity in our government that reaches from Washington to Small Town USA. In the seventies it was a popular theme on TV talk shows to discuss sound bite politics. They pontificated (and were indeed accurate) about how the political activity of the day was often distilled into a small bite of dialog that usually engendered some highly emotional response.  Today our leaders are leading by “issue bites” with fixation on one issue or another preventing progress on any issue.

We have become a nation that is so divided on singular issues that we refuse to consider any option unless it includes a complete embrace of our own narrow beliefs.  So, we end up with health and welfare legislation that is totally stonewalled because of a single element.   We watch as gas prices go through the roof while our leaders debate pipelines that could alleviate the situation.  Our leaders want a black or white solution in a country that is too complex to be monochromatic.  The time has come.  Not for revolution but rather for resolution.  Resolve to tell your leaders to take off the blinders and get back to work as a nation.

We must send a message to Washington that our leaders must work together or find other work.
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