FLASHBACK FRIDAY: Thank You For Saving Us?

Hello there! Today is October 1, 2021 and for this week's FLASHBACK FRIDAY, we're going back 8 years to another October 1st. 

The subject of the post was about a government shut down that was occuring at that time.  But the larger issues addressed in the post regarding political divides and putting ideology over actually getting anything done are still sadly relevant.  

Which is why the damn government was facing another damn shutdown yet again until Congress passed a last minute spending bill to keep the government open.

At least until December when we do this shit again.

So let's wind up the ol' wayback machine and go to Tuesday, October 1, 2013 to a post I called....

Thank You For Saving Us?

So the U.S. Federal Government is in shutdown mode and as much as it would be a lot better if it was because of an invasion of world conquering alien monsters here to subvert the human population to the harsh and cruel will of alien overlords...no, that isn't it at all. Instead, the peril comes from within, a political body at war with itself over. I think we're supposed to be grateful our elected "leaders" in being strong and unyielding in their never-ending battle to destroy/help President Barack Obama or obstruct/stand up to the God-fearing/fear-mongering Republicans. Take your pick; there are enough political agendas going around.

Yet what does all this posturing gain for the American people? Are our best interest really at the core of this mess?

You know how in the Superman movie from this past summer, Man of Steel, when Jenny Olsen comes staggering out of the rubble of a nearly destroyed Metropolis with untold casualties all around, looks at Superman and says, “You saved us.”?

That’s your Congress at work.

At midnight, no deal was in place to keep funding the US government so the government shut down.

On the right, the hard right ideologues that run the Republican party are so proud of themselves for staring down the wicked Democrats and the sinister Barack Obama with his evil Obamacare that’s going to kill your grandmother and feed your children to bridge dwelling trolls.

On the left, the Democrats stare blinking amidst the smoking ruins, still not comprehending what they are up against. The inability of the Democrats to stoke up the passions of their rank and file has cost them as their opposition endlessly stokes the fires of their own base 

Each side says they do what they do for the benefit of the American people. A few of them may actually believe that. But the American people, stumbling through smoldering ruins of yet another power play between opposing political forces, probably don’t really see the benefit. All people can see are two groups of privileged politicians seeking to gather power for themselves while destroying the power of the other side. I imagine it’s hard for us to stand here amongst the debris of what’s left and say, “Thank you for saving us.”

I wonder sometimes if we are at the beginning of the end of the American Dream, the one that Abraham Lincoln was talking about when he famously said “that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth.” At the time of the Gettysburg Address, the nation was divided, at war with itself. North vs. South. Freedom vs. Slavery. We were split down the middle, brother against brother. The aftermath of the American Civil War was not without difficulties as we struggled to restore national unity while securing the rights of freed slaves. These struggles continued 100 years later as the Civil Rights Movement sought to finally deliver on the promises of this nation that freedom granted but history had denied. 

But as deep and painful as the wounds were that we suffered in that time of division, we were torn in half. Today, we are torn in pieces, our divisions are more complex with conclaves of power distilled down to the most precise of demographics. It’s not really a Liberal/Conservative dynamic anymore. More than ever, it’s “what’s in it for me” that drives the battles on Capitol Hill. There’s no single line to reach across but lots of different lines that criss-cross and politicians are only concerned with whatever base of power they can cultivate to hold on to their elected positions. Your Congressman is not the Congressman of your district; he is the Congressman of the particular persons he can count on to get him re-elected in your district. 

How can the American Dream survive when we’re being fractured and torn in many different directions by forces of ideology that are being used only as a means to an end? Surely, if we do not stand together, we will fall.