Of all the pieces of information I've gained from reading
That Use To be Us, this is the most frustrating: we are a divided nation. If our elected officials remain divided, how can we ever hope for reasonable solutions that will get us back to where we use to be. Friedman and Mandelbaum say that "political polarization--even hostility--between the country's two major political parties is not new. But the American political system is not only more polarized... it is paralyzed." It is time to put aside differences in political ideology, and fight for the greater good.
What a surprise is was when members of both sides came together this year to save the oil refineries in Philadelphia and Delaware county. This article was published in the Philly Inquirer back in July, and now hundreds of refinery workers are back to work. The quote below detailed how both sides of the political spectrum came together because saving jobs and keeping oil prices down were important goals for everyone:
The Hail Mary marriage of Sunoco and Carlyle Group owes much of its success to the unusual cooperation among the Democratic White House, Republican Gov. Corbett, Democrat Mayor Nutter, and Brady, one of the most liberal members of Congress. They were joined by Sunoco, Carlyle and the United Steelworkers, which represents refinery workers.
"This is a rare example of federal, state and local officials, business and labor, Republicans and Democrats, all coming together for one common purpose," said Marchick, Carlyle's chief lobbyist.
The players pledged to keep the process confidential, with the understanding that it would become public if successful. There was an unspoken prohibition on grandstanding.
"You never saw me at a press conference," Brady said. "You never saw me in the newspaper."
Corbett, in an interview, said he understood that rivals would get to share the credit if the deal went through. From his perspective, keeping the refinery operating was a winner – saving jobs and advancing his vision of Pennsylvania as the nation's "energy capital."
"Obviously, if you take it from a political perspective, this is important to the White House. They're going to be able to count this in an election year. . . . Working together and getting this done was a lot better than seeing this facility shut down."
It just goes to show that what we learned in Kindergarten applies to politics--Play nicely! If we expected more cooperation from our elected officials we should also expect greater and far reaching change. We might actually have the chance to live and act sustainably, rather than acting situationally, which as the writers point out, that impulsive instant gratification behavior is what got us in this mess in the first place.
No comments:
Post a Comment