Fix Politix (Get Involved!)

We expect much too much from our political system.

After all, we originally set up governmental agency, to maintain street lights and collect garbage. Not solve geo-political concerns.

People that believe that any one politician or political body is controlling oil prices for instance, or that they are not responding properly to climate change, are not seeing the big picture.

The big picture shows that no one person is in control. Unless we work together to attack our problems, from a unified front… we will fail.

Politicians should be smart enough to suggest what actions can be taken by us, to work towards better fact-based understanding, and more positive progress. Instead they are leading us to shout blindly at each other, ignore each others’ concerns, and hate.

They foolishly accept the weight of our expectation. And then fail at making positive progress.

The government is not the fix-all solution to every problem. Based on what we know about the operations of government, and the short-comings of our leaders, why do we continue to expect miracles from them?

For instance - when more than half of society says global warming should be more seriously considered, politicians should reflect the reality - that there are people who do not believe this. They should remind us, that without the support of the wide majority, nothing can change.

Instead they make promises they cannot keep. Our leaders should be able to guide us to better communicate with each other. We (The People) need to shoulder more responsibility when it comes to our needs, and how to work together more effectively. We need better guidance to accomplish that.

While a government entity should not be expected to solve problems, they DO have the resources and the connections, to help us be more effective in solving our problems ourselves.

They should be able to inspire us, and bring parties together. To be effective, politicians need to marshal the people and the resources, to help provide what we need, to mediate the issues and come up with solutions.

We need to get back to science. And civility. WHEN did America become a no-science zone? WHY do we blame individuals for worldwide failure?

We need to communicate more effectively with each other. Our government should be able to guide us in the directions we need to go, not solve world problems.

Instead of promising the moon, falling short, and disappointing us with their pronounced lack of ability to have an effect, tell us the truth.

There are people that oppose any given viewpoint, and in order to reach an agreement and move forward, the two opposing viewpoints should deal with the issues directly. Not delegate the problems to high-paid, feckless public servants. There are myriad organizations out there, with the sway to actually effectuate significant change… if we only knew who to contact and how to proceed.

Since the government cannot control world problems effectively, it should be better equipped to offer guidance to its people… directions we can take and groups with whom we can work out the issues among ourselves.

Instead government tries to give us what we think we want. Anything to keep those funding dollars rolling in. We are frequently left with remedies that fall short of the mark, have no positive effect, and waste time and money in the process.

Take the current high prices at the pump. We pressured our President to release oil reserves. That action had ZERO effect on the price of petrol or the world markets. Yet we still pressure him, and blame him for oil prices.

There’s nothing he can do. We need to face that and move on. What we do not need to do, is persecute another human being for circumstances he is powerless to control. (The reason that politics is in such a sad state, is that good people won’t become politicians. Why take a job where you will be treated poorly by your own constituency?)

We may think we understand the issues, but not one of us is ever in ‘the room where it happens’. Yet we get angry when there is no progress made. But we get angry at the people in power, that realistically are powerless.

Oil prices and climate change are Planetary Concerns. As the ‘most powerful nation in the world’, we need a united front in order to interact with the rest of the nations of the world. Take it from me, we look like buffoons right now on the world stage.

Key organizations, non-profits, think tanks, political action committees, and yes even government agencies, should be at the fore-front of pulling us together to hash things out. We should each of us be more involved in the process of solving society’s problems. We need to coalesce more effectively.

Instead we do the ‘human nature’ thing, and pass on the issue for someone else to solve.

Expecting American politicians to govern and control the rest of the world is not working out for us. Neither is ‘passing the buck’ to politicians, whose only concern is raising capital in order to perpetuate job security.

Unfortunately I believe that problems that we have with our government are problems that have their genesis in our own lack of involvement.