politics

I find the elected leadership and political processes of our country to be in a sorry state of affairs when the goal of one party is to unseat the other party.

John Boehner (R, OH) said about the president's agenda, "We're going to do everything — and I mean everything we can do — to kill it, stop it, slow it down, whatever we can." And Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R, KY) said, “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term president.”

Admittedly I'm biased, because I believe that deficit reduction is a good thing, and that universal health care and the redistribution of wealth (besides being good things) are appropriate Christian responses to the sickness and poverty that are rampant within the borders of such a wealthy nation as ours. So, admittedly I'm biased toward the current administration. But regardless of which political party is the majority in office, it is not OK that a politician's goal be to stop an agenda or to remove someone from office.

What I want from the leadership is that they honestly and faithfully work for what is best for our country. I don't even need them to agree with me ~ I just want them to have my best interest in mind. And I don't see that happening.

When a politician's agenda is to remove someone from office in two years, that means they will be spending the next two years not concerned about my best interest. When a politician is interested in blocking their colleague's agenda, they're not working for my best interest.

This partisan fighting, apparently based simply on the fact that you're on opposite sides of the aisle, is tearing our country apart. Maybe if you took an evening to have dinner with each other, it would help. No cameras, no reporters, no talking about politics. Maybe, just maybe, if you spent time around people with whom you disagree, you'd recognize that they actually are people. Most of us who live and work outside the beltway do this already ~ we have friendships with people who don't vote the same way we do. And we realize that it's hard to demonize someone who you just spent a lovely evening with.

Elected leaders, you don't have to agree with your colleagues' agendas. You can still work with them. You don't have to like that any one particular person is in office; but that's who's there, so please do what you can to actually talk with one another, and listen to one another, and work together to make our country stronger.

$0.02