Stop The Not-So-Merry-Go-Round

Because of this constant fighting and bickering amongst political parties, there is no unified vision or purposeful mission to serve the greater good of all. Accordingly, today’s politicians are not bipartisan servants of we the people. They are partisan servants to their own political parties.

Instead of using the power of their entrusted political capital to solve the many problems at hand, our elected representatives are using their political clout to influence upcoming elections in order to retain political power. Unfortunately, this entrusted power is being used to accomplish absolutely nothing other than preventing the opposing party from presenting their agenda.

Such is the ill-fated merry-go-round that our politicians are dizzily riding to nowhere while our citizenry watches hopelessly from the sideline. Like quarrelsome and petty kindergarten children, our leaders argue and fight over unilateral ideology instead of implementing universal ideas. Make no mistake; politics is not a game or a sport with one side winning and the other side losing. Instead, it’s about making America and our communities the safest, the best and the most productive place to live together in a free and democratic society.

Consequently, if we are going to survive as a united nation that is indivisible with liberty and justice for all, then the divisive and self-serving politics of both major political parties must cease immediately.

Highway Robbery

For the first time in history, we are not leaving our country better than we found it, particularly when it comes to traffic and transportation. Heretofore, every generation always built better trails, pathways, dirt roads, paved streets, highways and freeways to advance the next generation’s freedom of mobility and thereby ensuring them with greater independence.

Now we are forced to drive in oppressive gridlock, which imprisons us and robs us of our freedom, earning power, creativity, happiness and quality time with family and friends. Tragically, there is no relief in sight. This is simply immoral and un-American.

Yet today’s politicians refuse to accept responsibility and seek the right answers, even though future generations are depending upon them to make the right decisions in their best interests, just as previous generations did in our best interests.

One Law: Self-Government

The television news we watch, the radio stations we listen to and the newspapers we read now have defined our politics. Definite and defying lines have been drawn to separate us a society. We no longer have rational debates about what is best for our country, but irrational diatribes about what is best for our political party. In spite of this critical opposition toward one another, we all still want the same basic things, such as equal treatment, equal justice and the equal opportunity to follow our dreams. This is simply carrying out the great promise of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. So who could argue with that … and why? Consequently we don’t need thousands of politicians making thousand upon thousands of new laws that divide us.

To the contrary, one ancient law is sufficient. It still holds a common thread with all religions and philosophies that helped unite civilized people throughout time, and that is: “Do unto others as you would like others to do unto you.”__

A New Vision

Proverbs 29:18 forewarns: “Where there is not vision, the people perish.” Nonetheless, rather than planning ahead for their constituents, the only vision today’s politicians have is getting re-elected to another term in office while they gamble away our future to powerful campaign donors, lobbyists and special interest groups. As responsible voters, we need to unite with a new vision and end this betrayal, this unjust monopoly of our trust and stop voting for any incumbent who has made a career out of politics and has put himself/herself above our best interests.

New Leadership

As we make our way into the 21st century, what ever happened to the type of visionary leader of yore who sought the right answer to end hopeless gridlock and set a goal to build 45,000 miles of interstate freeway to connect all 48 contiguous states and subsequently unite us as one nation?

Where’s the kind of visionary leader of the 20th century who sought the right answer to challenge outer space by setting the goal of sending man to the moon and achieving it, which united all Americans in this remarkable accomplishment?

Why don’t we have these kind of visionary leaders today and why can’t they seek the right answers that will unite us instead of constantly dividing us?

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said that “A genuine leader is not a searcher for consensus but a molder of consensus.” So true, and we are in dire need of such political leadership.

We need someone who can bring us together with new, forward-thinking ideas, and we need that leader now.__

A New Pledge

In the final analysis, our elected representatives must renounce their negative partisanship. They must start finding positive solutions for today’s problems that will bring us together as fellow Americans.

Thus, in addition to jointly reciting America’s “Pledge of Allegiance” before each legislative session, we need to mandate that our public servants also pledge, in earnest and in solidarity, “Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.” “Divide and rule, the politician cries; Unite and lead, is watchword of the wise” — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe(1749-1832).

Robert L. Rosebrock is a Vietnam-era Veteran.