I’ve
increasingly avoided political topics recently.
To what end I’ve argued with myself.
Here we’re about to celebrate our independence while, as citizens and
voters, we are held hostage by an intransigent Congress that can’t even address
some of the basic needs of our society.
High on my priority list is our decaying infrastructure, inability to
control the widespread distribution of assault weapons, addressing immigration
reform with some realism, and an economy that is being held together by
artificial means. And those are just the domestic issues.
But
I’m not alone in ranting with disappointment.
Barry Ritholtz wrote an insightful article on this subject for Bloomberg
View, Is This the Worst Congress
Ever? I can’t wait until he expands
on his thoughts as he promises in a future article, particularly on the Federal
Reserve’s role in this. Read his commentary. It is well worth while.
Meanwhile,
we “celebrate” the 4th with the long drive from Florida to
Connecticut. I now dread the drive up
I95. In years gone by we actually enjoyed
the trip but now it is mostly drudgery having to share crowded roads and hotels
with people who rarely smile at you or might even just shoot you, depending on
how the dice rolls nowadays. Fewer seem to
exhibit some simple common courtesy. It’s
become worse over the years, or perhaps I’ve become embittered with age, I can’t
tell.
It’s
an in-your-face-I’ve-got-mine-so-to-hell-with-you attitude, so incongruous with
the spirit of the 4th. I was
reminded of this on a recent drive to the airport to pick up my son. I saw a
bumper sticker on a pickup truck – probably from the time of Obama’s 2008
presidential race when he had emphasized it is a time for change. Easy to remember, cleaver I thought, but a
worryingly way of thinking of about half the State it seems: I’ll keep
my God, I’ll keep my guns, I’ll keep my money, YOU can keep the change!
I’m
all for freedom of speech. But this
“in-your-face” slogan anecdotally underscores everything that is dysfunctional
with our present political system.
Compromise and consideration of the other person’s point of view be
damned! The story of our forefathers’ struggle to conceive a new nation out many
points of view is what July 4th must be remembered for the next time
we, the citizens, go to the polls to vote.
E Pluribus Unum! Unless we
can find common ground so our legislature works, and we can stop the march
towards divisiveness and corporatocracy, July 4th will be nothing
more than a fireworks show for the general amusement of a non-enlightened
population.
