Americans Have Had Enough

It's no surprise that 60% of Americans think we should throw out the entire Congress. I would actually expect that number to rise in the coming weeks. Our so called political leaders, if you can call them that, have worked extremely hard to earn this type of sentiment. It's been decades in the making and likely not to change anytime soon.

In good conscience it would be very difficult for me to associate myself today with either one of the two major parties. If I had to choose it would come down to the one that is the lesser of two evils. One thing I know for sure is that we've got a group of individuals in Congress, many of which forgot long ago why they were elected. I do not know of one member that truly has the will much less the charisma to be a bipartisan consensus builder. Democrats and Republicans have become experts at spouting their own party dictated political talking points, and are unwilling to do anything but blame each other for the dire problems we have.

John F. Kennedy said in his 1961 Inaugural Address, "So Let us begin anew -- remembering on both sides that civility is not a sign of weakness, and sincerity is always subject to proof.  Let us never negotiate out of fear, but let us never fear to negotiate. Let both sides explore what problems unite us instead of belaboring those problems which divide us." There's not on single member of Congress that's exempt from what amounts to a blatant failure to live up to the expectations we justly placed in them when we made the decision to send them to Washington. Those words President Kennedy spoke in 1961 hold even more truth today.

The time for blame must come to an end. Whether they realize it or not, our Congressman have pushed this country and its Constitution to the brink of doing irreparable damage to the very foundation of what once made this nation the most unique in all the world. We no longer have the time for the never ending hypocrisy and political rhetoric that somehow seems to causally manifest into false hope that somehow tomorrow is going to be miraculously different. It took decades for Congress to become the dysfunctional, hyper partisan institution it is today. It's an institution that has been corrupted by anger, self serving emotional power and greed, made up of an overwhelming majority of individuals too weak to do the job we elected them to do.

In this new media/social media era, we've got a group of individuals representing us, many of which haven't had an original thought in years, trying to convince us that they know what's best. They function like a group of robots that receive their daily marching orders and then have their helpless staff members send out the same old material to their weary, disheartened constituents. We're tired of sending people to Washington that say they'll be different, that we hope will be different, yet ultimately end up being just another part of the problem, incapable of offering real solutions.

There are many of us that may not like certain parts of Obamacare, but it is the law of the land. It's one thing for the Republican Party to prove a point, it's an entirely different thing to perpetuate an ongoing government shutdown in an economy that has in reality never moved completely out of recession. If the Affordable Care Act does in fact pull the hinges completely off of our economy as many have said, the Republicans would have one heck of a platform to run on in 2014. Instead they'd rather show Americans that in spite of what they'd like us to think, when it's all said and done, their motivations are no different than the Democrats. They would foolishly rather keep posturing politically over doing what's best for the country. If Speaker Boehner had any control over the fractured party he's presiding over, he'd of held a press conference a week ago on the heals of Senator Cruz's filibuster, and told the American people that while he and his Republican colleagues believe funding Obamacare will have tragic consequences, the party is not willing to put the country through a prolonged shutdown that could further harm our economy, and further dissuade confidence. We did the best we could, he should have said, but now it's time to move on for the good of the country. Had he of done that, it would have been a win for the Republican Party. That potential win in my opinion has turned into a major loss.

Today, it's more than clear that the American people have had enough. We don't trust Washington and all it stands for. That goes for both Democrats and Republicans. This country has an overwhelming amount of very real, very serious problems that should unite our elected officials and encourage them to put aside the divisiveness that for decades they have been unable to get beyond. We are not too big to fail. No entity or government is too big too fail. We've seen mega financial institutions fail in the last few years and we've seen countries on the verge of failing. We are rapidly approaching $17 trillion dollars in debt. Our individual share of that debt is nearly $53,000.00 per American, yet the chuckleheads in Washington want to argue about Obamacare. No matter how you cut it, we've been cooking the books in this country for far too long. I know it, you know it, and we have no choice but to make sure Washington knows it. It's time for Congress to get back to conducting the people's business, or go home and stay home.

Not my Father's Congress

For 12 years my late father served as an impassioned, loyal public servant as a member of The United States House of Representatives. He did so purely for the love of country and the constituents he had the chance to represent. Although not in ideological agreement with many of those he served with, Marvin Leath was able to forge relationships that transcended party affiliations. Leath's Law of Loyalty was based on finding common ground, rising above purely political differences to serve the greater good. He did this by developing political relationships that were not defined by campaign contributions from special interests or careless demagoguery from political opposition. There was no other possible way a small town conservative banker from Waco, Texas could have had the personal relationships he had with the likes of Chuck Schumer, Barney Frank, Charlie Rangel, Ron Dellums, Barbara Boxer, just to name a few. In his day, in his time, his philosophy was life is nothing but relationships. In fact, when he retired, political scholar Norman Ornstein called him,"A Bridge Between the Parties." He's the only politician in history I know of that retired with a 96% approval rating and name recognition of 98%. That's a fact.

The Congressman once said,"Well, relationships--I learned--I think I was about six years old that relationships--human relationships are what makes the world go round. It's not that youto get to know somebody or be nice to somebody just so you can get something out of them. It's just that if I don't know you or you don't know me, neither one of us can influence each other about anything, because we don't have the respect or the trust or the understanding." Further more he said,"I've spent my entire life making relationships, which means that if you've got those kind of relationships, your fortunate enough that you can pick up the telephone and do more in five minutes than some people can in six months because they dont 'have the relationships. They don't--and not only do people have to know you, they have to trust you."(From the Oral Memoirs of James Marvin Leath, Baylor Institute of Oral History, 2001)

Where has my father's vision for America gone I often wonder? Sure, I speak of him often, but that aside to this day he's the best, most effective politician I've ever known. Sadly, our governing bodies have seemingly turned into entities that care more about the fight than they do about what's best for our country. They rely more on high priced consultants to create their views rather than the people that elected them. Political talking points, often filled with half truths and innuendo have taken the place of remembering why they were elected in the first place. Walking the middle and political correctness have taken the place of creating policy based on what's just and right. As dad used to say, there's not one degree of political risk in being honest with those you serve. Well, today there's a lot of dishonesty and heck of a lot of political liability that goes along with it. There's no working together, no real bipartisanship. Today America has a government none of us should be too proud of. The road we're headed down cannot be navigated by the tools we're using. Today members of opposite parties are simply unable despite their disagreements, able to agree on how to govern. The ways in which our elected representatives are choosing to navigate our government is not working. Without change it is doomed to fail and that my friends benefits none of us.