There was an election on November 6th, yet the majority of voters granted the same group of groping grand-standers another grab at power. Instead of “great men”, voters chose more grinding through gridlock. Congressmen grill each other with growls for months, then grab each other at the last minute and grimace and groan over raising taxes instead of cutting spending.
The whole debt, spending, cut and paste drama is just a grimy, grating joke. Grr!
If voters want Congress to go from “gridlock” to “great”, they need to blame themselves for why things have grown the way they have grown. Our representatives are doing exactly what they were sent to do. They reflect the mindset of voters who elected them to cut spending, but not their spending. Moreover, just like putting off study for an exam or practice for a speech, Congressmen are acting from an impulse endemic to humanity: do as little as possible, and get as much in return. It is human nature to wait until the last minute to do something that no one wants to do.
Ghandi could not broker Congressional comity. Hoover might make arrests (or wear a dress?). Free-market economist Milton Friedman offered this advice: “Get the wrong people to do the right things.” Voters have to tell our leaders what to do. Fiscal cliffs, debt ceilings, limits to the uncivil, partisan gridlock: A Cliff’s Notes perusal of Walden may suggest that we refuse to pay our taxes. Perhaps civil disobedience will force reform.