Here's To Your Sanity, America

I would like to move onto Healthcare more than politics in the very near future, so I thought I should write a little about why politics has taken so much time here. The political process is where everything that needs to be done for healthcare and tax reform, as well as political reform, will occur. We need to understand what has gone on, and goes on, if we will, as a nation, do what needs to be done to effect change in the near future. Let's look at an example. Let us say that you are a young, single, heterosexual male, and you are also a bit of an idiot. When you meet women you are attracted to, you say things like "Hey Baby, come here often?" And "what's your sign?" Or, maybe even stuff like, "darling, let's get something straight between us" or "If you were the Lincoln Tunnel, and I was an 18 Wheeler, how often would you let me go to Jersey?" (By the way, when you say things like this she thinks you are probably more like a Mini Cooper than an 18 Wheeler.) Now, you find that women don't respond to this? You are not getting any where at all. No dates, no conversations and no action. Would you attempt, ATTEMPT, to figure out what was wrong and make a change? Of course, you would. You want some companionship! Just like if your boss said you were doing something wrong, you would try to do it right, if you wanted to keep your job. But, as I have often tried to point out, Politics does not work like anything else. Politicians are the only people who get penalized for learning from their mistakes. When a politician changes their mind, they are usually branded as "flip-floppers" by their opponenets, and in fact the press does not help either. It is the only profession where it is considered a virtue to never further educate oneself. President G.W. Bush actually, helped by conservative commentators (most recently David Brooks in the NY Times), considers it a good thing that he has not wavered in his stance on Iraq and terrorism, in the face of overwhelming evidence and poor results contrary to many of his opinions. That is not stick-to-it-tiveness to be admired. That is more like stubborn, fool-headedness that should be booed off the national platform. But, as he sits there lost and confused as our young people die on the battlefield, the President could soothe an aching conscience, if he had one, by remembering "Hey, I'm not a flip-flopper on the issues!" There you go. Some of the most basic things you learn from your parents, and at school: Don't run from your mistakes, learn from them (apologize if it is warranted) and move on, is anathema to politicians. This is why it is so hard to make major progress quickly, even on the most important, or fundamental issues. We need to start voting in a new breed of politician, that worries about doing the right thing, not being good at being a politician. Then we will be able to reform a few things. Now, in my next posting I would love to move on. Our national news rarely gives me a chance to ignore politics in favor of these other issues, but we are going to try....