The Fight Over Inaction

It's not quite live blogging or live tweeting the shutdown, but as long as this tragicomic charade goes on I might as well write about it. After all, this blog is dedicated to politics (or rather, I'd like to think, to policy), but since policy is on a standstill while political posturing is on full display, I have little choice but to blog about the shutdown or just sit on my hands.

I wish there were something exciting to say, but a shutdown is inaction by definition, and there is only so much to say about inaction. Today is day four of the government shutdown. The sun still came up today, so I suppose it can't be that bad. I do wonder how long it will continue and how bad it could get. Despite assurances from John Boehner that he won't let the tea party force a default in two weeks, I'm still a bit pessimistic about the prospects of this ending soon. All the power is in the hands of Boehner; if he allows a vote in the House on a clean bill we get a government again. If not they'll be another blog on day seven or day nine or whenever I choose to next write about the nothingness going on in Washington. Of course I'm nervous about the power being in the hands of the ambitious yet timid and vapid John Boehner, but I think he'll ultimately realize he's committing political suicide no matter he does at this point and just fold. When? I guess we'll see.

The saddest part about all of this to me is that we are fighting about NOT doing something. What happened to we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard? Though I support Obamacare, I'm still tepid about it. I'm not here to proclaim that it will solve all of our nation's healthcare and healthcare cost issues, but it's an attempt, and not a bad one at that. And instead of fighting to make it better or propose something new and different, the tea party is just anti-it. They are anti-everything-Obama. There are no fresh ideas. There is no action. Our government has shutdown not because our politicians are squabbling about how we should improve our country, but because they're fighting over undoing attempts to improve our country.

Republican leaders at every level recognize this, and make a very valid point: the fanatical and suicidal obsession of the tea party with Obamacare and Obama-everything has completely overshadowed or derailed anything good Republicans have done at other levels of government. Republican governors in particular are annoyed feeling as though some of the good work they've done hasn't gotten any attention and could help change the national discourse about Republicans. The tea party has held the economy hostage, yes, but they've also hijacked the national debate to the detriment of nearly everyone, including Republicans.

It's certainly true that I don't know much about the reforms that Republicans are attempting in some states, and while I assume I would disagree with some, I know for a fact that others are good. Louisiana and Tennessee, both piloted by Republican governors are remaking the face of public education in their states, I believe for the better, but even if you disagree with my analysis, the comparison with Obamacare is undeniable - it is an attempt to fix a broken system that is in desperate need of fresh ideas.

What America needs is leadership - at all levels - that paints a real vision of a better future and explains, in candid terms, the hard work that will be needed to get there and how we can and should get there together. America's strength, our size and diversity, can be our weakness when we become fragmented. Squabbling over not doing thing fragments us into a society incapable of moving forward - we need not look much further than RIGHT NOW to see that is the case. But if we fought over different ideas for improving the country - a prerequisite for which is having ideas to improve the country - we would at least be starting from the common ground of wanting to make a better future together. That has not been the foundation for public discourse in some time, no matter what our politicians claim. The fight over inaction has led us to just that, painful inaction. It's time to restart the machine of government with the goal of taking action to make things better and debating our competing ideas to achieve that end rather than waging fanatical and ill-fated wars to prevent anyone from taking steps to improve America.