Jean Ritchie singing Blue Diamond Mine....
Friday, February 19, 2010
Friday, February 5, 2010
Partisan Politics
John W Phipps in his blog, http://johnwphipps.blogspot.com/ , was talking about the Federal Deficit and peripherally about partisan politics. One comment was to the effect that partisan politics was not necessarily bad. That got me to thinking, was partisan politics bad?
Partisan politics is the way the government is run, that seems very evident. It has been run that way as long as I can remember. It seems that the partisanship is running deeper now, and more vehemently. I have observed for some time, that what the Dems (or the GOP) introduce this year as a good idea will become the most horrible idea of all time, when re-introduced by the opposing party. The same bill with the same results is a bad bill when introduced by the 'other guys' party.
So is this bad? Or is it good that our government is run that way. Or is it 'not run' that way? It seems that getting anything done is more difficult that way. I am not sure that getting anything done is a good thing. That is dependent on whether or not what is getting done affects me positively or negatively. Notice I said 'affects me' positively or negatively. That is a key point. Whether or not I am in favor of a particular piece of legislation makes a huge difference. If I favor the legislation and the opposing party is not allowing it to pass, then partisan politics is definitely bad. If my favored legislation is going to be passed because of partisan politics then partisan-ism is good. In that case, getting something done is good as well.
But that all begs the question. I believe that basically partisan politics is not a good thing. It is bad. No one is looking at the legislation on the merits of the legislation or how that Bill affects the citizens of the US of A. We have elected individuals who do not even have the courtesy to consider the pros and cons of a piece of legislation. It is easier to be a member of Congress if nothing has to be considered except which party introduced it. I don't believe Congress was elected to do the easy way out. I believe they were elected to consider the pros and cons and vote accordingly. (Actually, they are supposed the vote the conscious of their constituents, but usually getting a consensus is impossible.) Partisan Politics keeps that from happening. So there is much legislation that is ill-considered and just plain detrimental to us Citizens.
My answer to the original question is Yes, Partisan Politics is bad, even when my ox is not the one being gored. If 'business as usual', the 'status quo' is one's goal, the partisan politics is not a bad thing. If one believes as I do, that we are paying those people to think and to not just blindly follow their party leadership then partisan politics is bad. Bad. Bad!
Partisan politics is the way the government is run, that seems very evident. It has been run that way as long as I can remember. It seems that the partisanship is running deeper now, and more vehemently. I have observed for some time, that what the Dems (or the GOP) introduce this year as a good idea will become the most horrible idea of all time, when re-introduced by the opposing party. The same bill with the same results is a bad bill when introduced by the 'other guys' party.
So is this bad? Or is it good that our government is run that way. Or is it 'not run' that way? It seems that getting anything done is more difficult that way. I am not sure that getting anything done is a good thing. That is dependent on whether or not what is getting done affects me positively or negatively. Notice I said 'affects me' positively or negatively. That is a key point. Whether or not I am in favor of a particular piece of legislation makes a huge difference. If I favor the legislation and the opposing party is not allowing it to pass, then partisan politics is definitely bad. If my favored legislation is going to be passed because of partisan politics then partisan-ism is good. In that case, getting something done is good as well.
But that all begs the question. I believe that basically partisan politics is not a good thing. It is bad. No one is looking at the legislation on the merits of the legislation or how that Bill affects the citizens of the US of A. We have elected individuals who do not even have the courtesy to consider the pros and cons of a piece of legislation. It is easier to be a member of Congress if nothing has to be considered except which party introduced it. I don't believe Congress was elected to do the easy way out. I believe they were elected to consider the pros and cons and vote accordingly. (Actually, they are supposed the vote the conscious of their constituents, but usually getting a consensus is impossible.) Partisan Politics keeps that from happening. So there is much legislation that is ill-considered and just plain detrimental to us Citizens.
My answer to the original question is Yes, Partisan Politics is bad, even when my ox is not the one being gored. If 'business as usual', the 'status quo' is one's goal, the partisan politics is not a bad thing. If one believes as I do, that we are paying those people to think and to not just blindly follow their party leadership then partisan politics is bad. Bad. Bad!
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