It's All Politics

As I read through this and looked at all problems in getting us back to being what we used to be, as cliché as it may be, it keeps coming back to politics. And that ain’t good. 

Looking back, a couple of characters keep coming back to me with reasons for optimism and pessimism. One person is firmer South Carolina state representative Bob Inglis.  I’m glad I got to know a bit about him from the book; he was the representative who had the discussion about Medicare with one of his constituents. The constituent wanted the government to keep their hands off “his” Medicare. Inglis pointed out the unpleasant but true fact that just about all of us use up more than we put into programs like Medicare and that we are not the self made success stories we often tell ourselves we are.  It seemed along the same lines as Obama saying that we all got where we are with the help of others. We need the social/governmental programs to enjoy the lives that we have. It might be Medicare for some, education for others, but we have to get comfortable with giving money to the government when the direct benefit to ourselves isn’t obvious. Inglis’ willingness to confront the man with the unwelcome truth, setting him straight at a town hall meeting even though to me it seemed to be political suicide, was admirable.  Soon after this meeting he lost in his reelection bid big time (71%-29%) to a Tea Party sponsored candidate.

Inglis, who according to his Wikipedia page had a 93.5% rating from the American Conservative Union, wasn’t conservative enough due to his occasional votes outside the strict party lines. He tried to find a middle road or at least open a dialogue on such issues as climate change, the stimulus, the troop surge in Iraq, etc. and we see what the result was. There’s no place for reasoned discussion any more.

I know South Carolina may not be a fair example; it’s extreme. But with the political parties demanding stricter adherence to the platform positions, I see this happening all over the country. PA had its own example in Arlen Specter, who, regardless of what you thought of him, was very comfortable with crossing party lines. Today you’re labeled a R.I.N.O. if you do that and are sent packing.