The concept of government, regardless of party affiliation, seems like a pretty good idea. Let’s get some smart people to work on the big problems and keep the shared infrastructure of society running smoothly. There will be problems, and these people may make mistakes, but we have them there to help solve problems and we elect them and hold them accountable.
The idea that government causes problems is borne of frustration. A friend of mine was assaulted in New York City and is now legally blind in one eye. Every city agency he interacted with during this traumatic time failed him, and he now blames Mayor Michael Bloomberg and has no trust in city government. This personal reaction to societal problems is exploited in politics. Whenever something “bad” happens it is blamed on the party that is currently in power, regardless of who was in power when the situation really started, and regardless of if government really had any control over that situation.
Currently the Republican Party seems intent on blaming the lagging economy on the Democratic Party and President Obama. He’s in charge and it’s happening now, so it must be his fault, right? The left does the same thing. They heaped anything negative in the country on the shoulders of President Bush, pointed their fingers and said, “See! We told you this would happen!”
The problem with the blame game is that it’s reactive instead of proactive. Each party scans the news for ammunition they can spin into an attack with the hope of… Well, honestly I don’t know what they hope. It doesn’t seem like an especially useful tactic. I’m sure it’s “fun” for them to attack their opponents, and it’s been going on long enough that it’s become the ways things work, but as for the expected outcome? They don’t know what they want.
Rather than looking at who is to blame, and digging up facts and figures in order to tie the enemy to the sinking ship (a useless endeavor when your boat is full of holes) perhaps we could work on a solution? Oh, but that might mean facing hard truths and realizing we need to raise taxes or something. Someone might not get re-elected and that would be terrible! Oh, wait. No it wouldn’t.
It’s not all the fault of the politicians. The internet sparks controversy and the media stokes the fire until the flames of partisan hatred burn up all the time and energy most of us have for politics. The real work and progress that is being done comes from smaller issue-based groups working with a lot of different people over long periods of time. They make incremental proactive steps forward in spite of today’s backwards blame game of faux-outrage and the validation of media attention.
Government in America is a massive ever-shifting force on our culture and society. Within that messy power-hungry attention-obsessed mass are still plenty of people working to solve problems and govern effectively. If we could take just a half-step back from the useless blame game we might be able to find and support these organizations and get some things done.