If There Was Ever A Time For Bi-Partisan-ship, It's Now.

Okay, the wake up call has been delivered, the American people are severley disenchanted with the direction of our nation. President Obama will not likely have a very good second half to his presidency if our course is not seriously changed. The Tea Party woke up the sleeping elephant, and the torch has, at least in part, been passed. Now the Republicans have to decide what to do with the torch before it burns them.

For years I have heard AM radio conservatives yelp about how bi-partisanship is akin to treason to your own party, and only allows your voice to be stifled or diluted. This approach is akin to slapping one's hand's over one's ears and pretending your enemies simply don't exist. And the liberals have hardly shown that the extended hand of compromise would be anything less than torn off and eaten. Or perhaps the problem is right there in that statement...why do the two political parties view each other as enemies?

Sure, there are some radical differences in theory and approach, but in these days of worry and want, the idelogical arguments we all have need to be put in perspective. When the nation is floundering, which is more important: saving people or saving principles? 

Now here's where the problem comes in, it being that we have too many ideologs and too few leaders. Look, it's very easy to shout dogma, belief and political theory all day long, and maybe it makes the speaker feel empowered by the thrill of their bombast. But who does it help? What worries me is that, while basking in the warm glow of secure jobs, the newly elected (and re-elected) Republicans will do nothing but continue to watch the president's policies flounder. And, being the academic elitist that he is, I highly doubt Mr. Obama would admit to the flaws in his actions to date. So he'll continue on course, unemployment may get worse, the foreclosure situation will continue to fester, and in 2012 the Repubs will have to answer for their failure to correct the nation's direction.

Wouldn't it be better for a bold coalition of moderate Democrats and Republicans to form a plan, bring it to the people, and actually include us in planning a new direction for our nation, especially in the economic sense. Yes, they would be decried, and yes, they would be laughed at. But consider this; the Tea Party has already confirmed the fact that a third party option is much more than viable. I said in a previous posting that from this situation in our history, heroes could emerge. I really believe that the American people are looking for a new group of politicians outside of the Washington echo chamber of corruption and bickering, But the real new vocie of reason and progess will not come from extremes, it will come from the mainstream. And the far ends of our glorious parties have been steering this American craft far too long. In truth, they are the people we need to take the nation back from. 

Mike Grefski (now, with added fiber!)