Gareth McNamara
The government shutdown shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. Washington has lately become an endless game of petty brinkmanship. Deadlines and commitments come second to grandstanding. Both parties have shown flagrant disregarded for the public interest. The right of working people in public service to be paid for their labor takes a backseat to the ongoing partisan pissing contest. And yet, around me I see the public continue to parrot the messages of partisanship.
Today alone, I overheard a student refer to “this undermining of the President’s health care bill” as “treason.” Though I find the GOP’s antics at this point to be beyond a joke, it’s disturbing to me that anyone would characterize disagreeing with the President as treason. Do you even understand the implications of that statement? You’ve just taken free speech and the right to dissent out behind the horse-shed and shot them both between the eyes. Wake up. The GOP is out of line, yes, but your President and your party are not infallible.
Partisan language should be out the door at this point. Congress has consistently failed to take the interest of the American public seriously, and it has come to this. Congress, not the Republicans, not the Democrats. Both parties play their part in the political pantomime, and yet all their adherents can do is mirror their representatives and point fingers at each other.
Do us all a favor. If you’re a card-carrying Republican or Democrat, write to your party representatives. Not your local representatives for the opposing side — your party. Let them know that they’ve let you down, that they’ve ignored your will and your interests. Let them know you’re done with the back and forth charade they’ve engaged in, the one they play up every time there’s responsibility to be dodged.
If you complain to your friends about how bad reality TV is but continue to tune in, studios will keep churning it out. When you, the party base, refuse to let the party know that they’ve failed you, when you play the blame game right along with them, they take your lack of dissent as approval. Now is not the time to shake your fist across the aisle and shift the blame to the left or right. It’s time to look the people who claim they stand for what you stand for in the eye and tell them that amateur hour’s over.