West Wing

I don’t watch political debates on television.  But last night I watched the “live” Presidential debate on the show “West Wing”.  If our debates were as open as this was, I would tune in and see what the politicians had to say in them.  Yes, this was scripted, but it was more open and informative than anything our real political debates put out there.  It also showed just how close the two major parties are to each other.  On every issue they seemed to want the same thing, but wanted to go about getting there in a different way.

If I lived in the world of the “West Wing”, it would be very hard to choose between the two men.  Both Alan Alda and Jimmy Smits’ characters seem to be men of honor and dedication.  But, as with real life, neither one told what their plan was for the country.  There is a very good reason for this.  The President may lead the nation, but it is congress that really does the work.  No matter who the President is or what party they are a member off, there is nothing they can do to change anything without Congress behind them.

The show brought up several points which concern this nation today, like health care, drug prices, employment, immigration, education, taxes and energy.  If we made our political leaders live by the same rules as the general population, they would fix the problems.  Why should the chosen few be above the need for affordable medical care and retirement?  We need a complete overhaul of these systems and Congress is doing nothing about it.  They placate us with sound bites, but that is the end of it.  They continue to play the part of the little Dutch boy plugging the hole with his finger and don’t even think about repairing the dike to keep the floods from coming.

We need a change!  We need people in office who will step up and force the government to make those changes.  It is time to remove everyone who is in congress now and put people in who will do the job!  I don’t think a larger government is the answer, but a smarter government is.  We need a lean, mean, fighting machine to combat the ills of this nation and bring it back to health.  A large bureaucratic quagmire helped to put us in the shape we are in!  Too much government intervention bogs down growth.  Government can’t create jobs or a better energy source, but they can help to set an environment where the open market can.  

We have a political system with three branches to check one another.  No one branch can make all the changes needed.  They have to work together as one, but within the framework of our constitution.  The trouble is the constitution was written over two hundred years ago.  The world has changed more in that time span than over the previous thousand years.  What will the next two hundred years hold for us?

Any nation filled with leaders and no followers is doomed to fail.  Any nation overburdened by a top heavy elite will fail the masses and fall.

Ed Williams
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