As long as I can remember, we have had terrible political divisions in our country. The only time Democrats and Republicans seem able to work together are in times of crisis, like after the attacks of Sept. 11 or Pearl Harbor. The politics of our country, specifically of Congress, are inherently wrong and against what Americans want.
Senators and representatives aren’t actually voting based on what their constituents want, unless they are up for re-election (see Sens. Ben Nelson and Blanche Lincoln). In fact, I would argue most aren’t actually voting based on what they want or believe is best for the country.
Now, I’m going to focus more on the Republicans, simply because in my brief history with politics I have experienced this phenomenon with Republicans more than Democrats.
Sadly, the people in Congress have become puppets of their superiors, voting on what the current party line is. That party line could be something like not working with Democrats on anything they propose, even if it’s a bill like Sen. Al Franken’s that closed a loophole that prevented a woman who was raped by employees of Halliburton while in Iraq to sue. The Republicans, instead of voting on the issue based on what they actually believe — which I’m assuming is that rape is wrong — chose to vote with the party line of blocking every Democratic bill, no matter what.
I’m reminded of the Franken bill by the recent election of Scott Brown in Massachusetts, who supported a bill in Massachusetts that forced every citizen of the state to purchase health care. The bill was very similar to the controversial bill currently being debated in Congress — the bill that Brown ran his campaign on. This time, however, Brown ran his campaign based on being the 41st Republican in the Senate to filibuster the health care bill, one that he supported in his own state. Apparently, it was good enough for his own state, but it’s devastating for the entire country.
I suspect Brown actually supports the health care bill, as I suspect many Republicans are in favor of health care reform. I also suspect there are many Democrats who don’t support the bill or wouldn’t vote for it if they didn’t have to vote along their party lines.Remember the health care bill that the U.S. House of Representatives passed? It had, surprisingly, one Republican vote supporting it: Rep. Joseph Cao. Within hours of voting for it, Cao had fundraisers canceled. He was being punished for voting for something he believed in, and because of that, he said, he won’t vote for the merger bill.
This isn’t the way to conduct good business. We need to promote democratic values by promoting free thinking in our Congressmen and Congresswomen. As a country, we don’t get anywhere when we constantly bicker and put the values of a few in front of the needs of millions.
That is why I believe a drastic change is needed in Congress, to either a three- or zero-party system. If there was a truly independent party with power, its members of Congress could vote with their hearts and stay in the middle, where most Americans are. Similarly, if there were no political parties, there would be no allegiances. As President Obama said in his State of the Union address to Congress, “We were sent here to serve our citizens, not our ambitions.”
If, as President Obama declared Wednesday, the health care bill will reduce the deficit over the next 20 years, then members of Congress have a fiscal responsibility to pass the bill. I know this is a simplistic take on the situation, but sometimes politics can be simple. We have a tremendous deficit. If we can help millions of people in the country in the short term while saving money in the long term, we have a responsibility to do it — regardless of whether it’s a health care bill or an anti-rape amendment to a government contract, and regardless of which political parties propose the idea.
