Our Kids in Washington

OK, that’s it.  I’m fed up.  And so are many millions of other Americans.  It’s time the Senate and the Congressional folks grew up.

Grew up?  Yep.  Let’s look at a few imaginary, but very realistic bits of political dialogue.  The first one applies to the Republican blocking of key administrative appointments by the White House, but could also apply to health care reform. 

Harry:  Dad says we need to pick up all these toys and get ‘em put away by 3:00.

Mitch.  I’m busy.

Harry:  Come on, Mitch.  We gotta do it.

Mitch:  Nope.  Ain’t gonna.

Harry:  Dad says you gotta.  And I say you gotta.

Mitch:  I say I don’t, and to prove it I’ll hold my breath til I’m blue in the face*

Harry:  Look, we’re going to Grandma’s this weekend.  If Dad has to put all those toys in the boxes while we’re gone, he’s gonna tan our hides when we get back.

Mitch:  Last time you were the one who wouldn’t pick ‘em up.  So don’t blame me.

Harry:  Mitch, that was last time.  This time Dad means it, and so do I.  Now move your little butt and do it.

Mitch.  I don’t care.  I ain’t gonna, and you can’t make me!

* “Blue in the face” = filibuster

Sounds familiar, no?  Now, ask yourself how old these speakers are.  If you came up with 10 and 7, you’d be right …the point is that this is the way little kids, especially boys, deal with each other.  Power plays (filibusters, blocking appointments),  walking out on meetings, being "spoilers"  and exhibiting general mulishness are the way the Republicans are playing today --- but don’t worry, the Democrats have their share.

Here's another one:

Nancy:  Oh, boy, oh boy!  We’re gonna have a party!  We’ve waited and waited, and now it’s time to get the music playing and roll out the declarations, I mean decorations.  And presents!  We’ll have presents for everybody!  Good health care is finally going to happen.

Beaner:  You have no right to throw a party.  My pals and me  just can’t put up with you and your presents.  I’m here to tell you that no way will we approve.  Besides, we have the best health care in the world. No need to do anything different.

Nancy:  You can help pick them out.  Come on, Beaner, everybody but you and your friends knows it’s the right thing to do. What about the studies showing that we pay twice as much as all the other countries do, and still die sooner and have millions of people who can’t come to the party.

Beaner: Don't care. No.

Nancy:  Please?

Beaner:  No.

Nancy:  Pretty please?   With sugar on it?

Beaner:  No.  My pals and me, we’re all part of the same gang, and we don’t care what we have to do to stop you, but it’s NO NO NO!  Stopping you is more important than what’s right or wrong. Truth or lies, doesn’t matter.  Stopping you is a really, really big deal for us.  NO.  We ain’t gonna !

______

What we have in Washington is a blood feud between the Crips and Bloods (or Sharks and Jets, if you’re old enough to remember West Side Story.)  When you’re a Jet, you’re a Jet all the way, from your first cigarette til your last dyin’ day.

The current attitude in both the House and Senate appears to be that party loyalty matters more than anything else.  And the way to make your party right isn’t to have the great ideas or even to cooperate:  it’s to make the other party wrong!

Making people wrong is a guaranteed way to tie up the system and prevent discussion and collaborative decision making.  The Palestinians make the Israelis wrong (and vice-versa), the North Koreans do it to the US, we do it to the Iranians, and to the Taliban.  The Islamic extremists would literally rather die than even consider talking to us.  And it seems to me most of the talk radio people are on the same wavelength as the Jihadists. only the content differs; the tone is the same.

Holding your breath til you’re blue, stonewalling, filibustering (or even threatening one –  how strange is that?), blocking the other party’s nominees because you just want to show you’re stubborn and “you can’t make me” --- these are all behaviors we can associate with emotionally immature people.

Our politicians are acting like children.  They squall, sulk, pout, threaten, whine, call each other names, and attempt to beat up on their siblings.

Nowhere, it seems, are they actually ready to govern themselves or anybody else.  No one really wants to address issues that are critically important to the nation (and Obama has identified most of them) particularly if addressing these issues might annoy their party base.

I’m so disgusted, I just wanna take my ball and go home!