Left, Right, Independent, Tea Party-ers, who cares for the sake of the country get it together. Apart-isanship is dragging America and the urgency of her challenges down.
What is going on here? We simply do not have the luxury of not working together.
Our challenges are too steep, the climb too vertical, the weight of our problems is too significant.
In a recent GPS (Global Public Square) interview conducted by Fareed Zakaria, with James Baker, who has served as White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of the Treasury, Secretary of State, Baker had this to say.
James Baker:
"And so, it's become a zero-sum game, and it's not good. It's not good for the country. The American people are tired of a Congress that is not doing the people's business. A congress and a -- and a government -- you shouldn't just limit it to Congress. Congress and government, because the sniping and partisanship comes from both sides."
Fareed Zakaria:
"But you don't have in the Republican Party the kind of Howard Bakers of the Senate who were people who became famous for creating these compromised legislations. What you have is a lot of people who were very powerful with the base. They reinforced themselves with -- by that, they fundraise on that basis.
They don't -- they can't make a deal with -- with the Democrats. That would -- it would destroy their -- I mean, Rush Limbaugh would be out denouncing them tomorrow."
James Baker:
"Also, you also don't have the Danny Rostenkowskis and the Bill Bradleys and the Russell Longs on the Democratic side either. There's been a polarization of both parties. It's not just the -- the Republican Party.
But my answer to that would be why didn't they try? They didn't try. How do you know that if you have -- if you'd given them a real say in the formulation of policy that you wouldn't have been able to pull over some of the more moderate Republicans? They just -- they never -- they didn't try."
What is the cost of "Apart-isanship" and where is it going to take us? Nowhere good that is for sure. Nowhere that the American people want to go; the costs are too high. If we are not careful we all may end up living in Bickersville. The town where no one listens and everyone is shouting. The town where nothing ever gets done, scary budget deficits run amuck and are not balanced, infrastructure crumbles, health care costs soar, unemployment lingers, other countries surpass us in a world class education, we lose innovation and manufacturing of alternative energies to China and Germany. In Bickersville the American dream has soured instead of soared. The American people are running out of time in broken Bickersville.
President Obama had to experience Bickersville, and in truth he may have been caught off guard about how deeply polarizing Congress and governing have become. Bi-partisanship was a campaign promise that he is having a tough time keeping. Bickersville is not where the American people want to live. They want to live in Getitdonesville, they want their American dream back. They want to have hope for their children again, live in the land of the brave and the home of the free and equal opportunity for all. Getitdonesville is the real America. Bickersville is where there is no political will to make the tough changes and sacrifices that we need to. And that my friends is not the American way.
Goodbye to Bickersville
Hello to Getitdonesville
Goodbye to polarization, gridlock, and stagnation
Hello to movement, action, and getting it done
Goodbye to leaving the responsibility of the mess for our children to clean up
Hello to cleaning up our own mess and acting like responsible adults