Politics in the United States can be likened to a tug-of-war. In a tug-of-war teams try to force each other across a line by pulling on a rope.
The winner is the team that pulls the other team across the line first.
Today there is a perpetual tug-of-war that rages between Democrats and Republicans to be the majority party in Congress. Congress operates as a pure democracy in which the majority party rules.
The "struggle" in this tug-of-war revolves around the immediate necessity of winning as many seats as possible in the next election cycle. After all, the party that elects the
most members "wins" the big prize, that party gets to be the majority party - the party in power.
Yeaaaaaaaa!
However, with a winner comes a loser.
Who is the loser in this political tug-of-war for party dominance? Ultimately, We the People lose.
And how do we lose? For party members and their leaders the process of governing is reduced to doing what is politically expedient to pacify voters. Instead of long-term solutions to the Nation's problems we get policies that reflect the short-sighted and short-term necessity of winning as many seats as possible during the next election cycle.
Robert Black
Arlington, Virginia
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