A Nation of Not Doing

The problem with American politics, it seems to me, is that we have become a nation of not doing rather than a nation of doing. In this blog I often harken back to the ideas and words of JFK: we do this not because it is easy, but because it is hard. I'm only 27, but is it true that we were once a nation of staring down problems and solving them rather than whining about why we can't do hard things?

I ask this question today, because the "debate" in our nation's capitol for the past few years has been about not doing things, particularly, not fixing the nation's broken healthcare system by giving Obamacare a chance to play out. It is true that there have been and still are reasons to doubt that Obamacare will be effective, and the disastrous rollout of the online federal healthcare exchanges have added to the anxiety. But to every tea party politician predicting doomsday and the impending arrival of socialist America, my question is, what is your solution?

As I have said repeatedly, I'm not here to claim that Obamacare is the be all, end all solution to our healthcare woes. I am here to say that Obamacare is an attempt to fix the issue, and in that sense it is already vastly superior to anything the tea party led Republican party has offered, because their only solution to anything lately has been the undoing of Obamacare and thus a return to the unsustainable and ethically indefensible status quo. I remember when the Republican crusade against Obamacare began, and the Republican line of attack was "repeal and replace." The replace part of that mantra was quickly dropped when it became evident that Republicans had no ideas for replacing Obamacare. So they stuck with the "end of freedom as we know it," line of attack, shut down the government, and continue to stew over non-issues rather than offering solutions. This watering-down of the political discourse has contributed to our becoming a nation of do not.

As often as I find myself lambasting Republicans and the tea party in particular - and rightly so as they are deserving of our national ire - I must take time in this post to throw some scorn in the direction of Democrats as well, although at the local level, and in the state - or rather city - of New York in particular.

Like healthcare, or nation's public education system is in an extreme state of disrepair. The consequences of our woefully bad public education for our nation's future will be disastrous. In the debate about how to fix education, it is more often Democrats who are fresh out of ideas, and nowhere is this more evident than in New York City's mayoral election in which the Democrat who will coast to victory on Tuesday, Bill De Blasio, has threatened to charge charter schools rent to use public space. Without getting into the specifics of this issue here, suffice it to say that charters - which are public schools! - are an attempt to help fix the woeful state of public education. While there are some bad charter schools, there are also some great ones. The good ones are far superior alternatives to the hapless traditional public schools that are often just next door, or in New York, within the same building as traditional public schools! But rather than embracing charter schools and trying to improve the bad ones by holding them more accountable, De Blasio has taken the same approach used by the tea party in the national debate on healthcare and threatened to charge rent to public charter schools. If successful, this would amount to a near death blow to the movement, deprive tens of thousands of New York City's children of good schools, and be just another example of America's descent into a nation of do not. Why bother taking a politically tough approach to a huge problem in an effort to solve it, when I can simply sit back and embrace a disastrous status quo?

So Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of driving our nation in the wrong direction, a direction of helplessness in the face of daunting issues. A direction that would make JFK and his challenge to the nation sick. Why aren't we a nation of doing this because it is hard? What will it take to make us that nation again? I can't say I know, but I can say that if we don't figure it out quickly we will become the first nation to end up on the ash-heap of history because we willfully chose the easy route to our own descent rather than the difficult choice of remaking ourselves in a better fashion. America's future has always been and will always be down the path of solving problems by doing what is difficult. If we lose the political will to do that, we lose our future, we lose our identity, and ultimately we may very well lose ourselves. It's time for a recommitment to making tough choices, and solving tough problems. That is the American way.