Revolutions tend to happen when a group of people get so fed up with the current state of affairs that they form a cohesive unit strong enough to rise up against whatever agent is allowing the status quo to perpetuate. No one is calling for a revolution in the United States. We are still the most stable and most economically well-off nation in the world. But it would be foolish to continue believing that we aren't a country that is faced with very real problems that need very real attention in the very near future. What we need, instead, is a call for Post-Partisan Politics.""
The ""post"" terminology might be a little too avante gard, but we have had post-modernist movements in art, and post-structuralist movements in philosophy. We might as well have a post-partisan movement in politics. The idea is that we, as a country, need to move past our divisive politics, the type of politics that focuses on wedge issues and cultural wars, and start focusing on working toward solutions to the questions that we face together as a country. The questions are very real and very apparent: our economy is on the verge of a prolific recession, our health care system leaves tens of millions uninsured and uncounted millions more under-insured, our public school systems are failing the kids that need our help the most. We have placed ourselves in an untenable position in a war of choice: We can't leave effectively and we can't stay safely. We have a public infrastructure that has taken a back seat to individual and corporate economic advancement and is now in serious disrepair. We have legal and illegal immigration issues that need serious discussion, and we have both energy and environmental policies that to date offer no long-term solutions for how we need to proceed in the 21st century. The questions are easy. The answers are difficult - they do not have five point plans, they do not have 10-second sound bites and they don't have partisan answers.
What we do currently have are politicians who think it is more important to get elected than to actually govern. Somewhere down the line, we lost something very important in the election process: the idea of being a public servant. More often than not, representatives are elected based more on their means rather than their substance and on how they divide, not how they reason. If we as a nation continue along this path of partisan divides, and culture wars and wedge issues, problems will not get solved, and we will be breaking a common oath that we ought to share as citizens: to leave this thing we call a country better off for those that follow us.
A call for post-partisan politics is one that should focus on collaboration, cooperation and coalitions. At one time, the United States must have had a sense of purpose, a shared vision of where we ought to be heading. We were good once, weren't we? We solved the problems that faced our nation and we helped others in need. We were that green flashing light, a beacon of freedom on the opposite shore. But we have lost this brotherhood somewhere. Maybe our government never worked on the foundations of mutual cooperation and mutual benefit. That idea may just be halcyon days of yesteryear. But our degradation into either/or politics is not the way out of our current mess.
A very smart founding father once wrote, ""The best compromise leaves both sides dissatisfied."" Our current dysfunctional government needs to come to the table with the knowledge that they all have beliefs, talents and deficiencies, and that by sitting down and discussing their differences - and their similarities - they can come to pragmatic solutions to the problems that need their attention. We are entering a 21st century where there are no guidelines on how proceed. Technology has allowed information to disseminate at speeds we haven't yet caught on to. Global economies are taking over and interdependence is taking precedence. Multiculturalism and tolerance are concepts we all need to embrace. Mutlilateral engagements and diplomacy is something we need to heed at all costs.
A well functioning government has politicians across the whole continuum of the left/right debate. We cannot continue to let our government function as if every issue is a battle for ideological control of our nation, as it subordinates the real issues. We need a few socialists and a few libertarians. We need hockey moms and law professors. We need war heros and working class kids. We need all these types because they are reflections of our country, they are the pieces that make up the totality. The art of compromise is the what politics is at its most proximate level. We need our government to start working for the citizens that own it, to help us all find ""the better angels of our nature"" so that we might begin again building a ""more perfect union"" that we all call home.
Joseph Koss is a junior majoring in secondary education in social studies. Please send responses to opinion@dailycardinal.com.
