When was the last time you woke up in the morning and said:
"Honey, let's go the Post Office and buy some stamps! The line is usually long enough that I can get through a few chapters of Moby Dick, and the people who work there are so friendly and helpful."
Or how about this:
"Kids, the nice people from the IRS are coming to our house for a field audit! Let's get ready for some fun!"
Or perhaps:
"Mom, I just came back from a three hour wait at the county clerk's office for a copy of my birth certificate. They couldn't find it but if we fill out this giant stack of forms I should have it in a few weeks!"
Here is another set of circumstances:
"Kids, the car hasn't been running properly so your mother and I have decided to get rid of it and walk everywhere."
"The Bible does not mention the use of electronic devices so we are no longer going to use them!"
"Johnny burned himself on the stove so we are ridding our household of this dangerous device!"
This is my simplistic assessment of our two polarized political parties who share one similarity -- the politicians representing them refuse to consider reform and tout their policies as infallible. I have been hard pressed to find anyone -- rich or poor -- who believes our government runs efficiently. If people have no faith in the government then how are we going to convince them to pay more of their hard earned money in taxes? Conversely, those same people are not ready to eliminate entire government agencies because they are bloated and poorly run.
A few months ago on a Fox News Live webcast, I joked that if President Obama really wanted to understand our frustration with government, he should send some cabinet members to work incognito at various government agencies, like on the television show, Undercover Boss. This evoked some laughs from my fellow panelists, but as I look at our lawmakers continued inability to trim a budget, perhaps it's not such a bad idea after all.
I am Democrat. I've always been a Democrat but I must give props to Mitt Romney. He has been the only candidate from either party to discuss serious fiscal reform and in the only display of bipartisanship he has been met with attacks from both parties as a result. He has changed his stance on abortion and on health care. These and other policy flip-flops have come as a result of trying to appease Republican social conservatives, who clearly are out of touch with America's economic woes.
Romney's forte as a businessman was to take inefficiently run companies and streamline them into profitable businesses, which he did many times. The RNC should realize this is something that will elect a president rather than a reactionary stance on abortion.
Many fiscal conservatives I've interviewed voted for Obama because of their disdain for Sarah Palin and the GOP's kowtowing to the far right on social issues. These same people may vote for Romney if he's not impeded by the social conservatives steering the GOP.
Meanwhile, I suggest President Obama and his staff watch a few episodes of Undercover Boss.