Where black is the color and none is the number
The recent Massachusetts senatorial election is why I'm not moving home. Not because of the result, although I am disappointed. But because of the dialogue.... and the vitriol. On both sides.
Those that won are congratulating themselves and gloating, those that lost are crying that it's the end of the world, and the whole country is split down the middle. No, that's not right. The country's not split down the middle, it is broken down the middle. And nobody's willing to blink, nobody's willing to budge, nobody's willing to move.
Watching it from the outside really gives you perspective and the only way I can describe it is sad. Incredibly and heartbreakingly sad. Because it is not anymore the country that I grew up in, the country that I love, the country that I celebrate every time I hear our national anthem or see the stars and stripes. It's a battlefield defined only by its partisanship and one-upmanship and all the time fighting, nothing but fighting.
Don't get me wrong, I know politics is part of the game. But this has gone beyond politics. So far beyond it, that nobody - on either side - can see the endgame anymore, which is supposed to be the good of the nation.
To draw a comparison, I work in a politician's office. I am close to that game. I have a front row seat for it. Hell, sometimes I even get sucked into the game. It's always a competition, and points are kept all day long, at every turn. But here, they recognise that there is a time for politics as usual and a time for it to be put aside. There are games to be won and then there are issues that simply cannot be treated as a game.
Right now New Zealand is working on a referendum to decide its voting system and figure out how, and by what proportion, members are elected to Parliament and then, once elected, how much power they'll have as a party. And on this issue, all of the parties who sling mud and grandstand and play games and keep points have taken a breath, taken a step back, and decided to apply some logic. The party with the majority, who could steer this process because it has the power to, instead decided to bring the other parties along. And the largest minority party, who could use this as a political football to try and make sure they're not a minority next time, decided to take that offer.
Why? Because it's important. Because the country will be better off if they do it that way and because the fate of a nation is not a damn game.
I wish, sometimes, that the US could get over itself and take a lesson from this little backwards island on the other side of the world.
Those that won are congratulating themselves and gloating, those that lost are crying that it's the end of the world, and the whole country is split down the middle. No, that's not right. The country's not split down the middle, it is broken down the middle. And nobody's willing to blink, nobody's willing to budge, nobody's willing to move.
Watching it from the outside really gives you perspective and the only way I can describe it is sad. Incredibly and heartbreakingly sad. Because it is not anymore the country that I grew up in, the country that I love, the country that I celebrate every time I hear our national anthem or see the stars and stripes. It's a battlefield defined only by its partisanship and one-upmanship and all the time fighting, nothing but fighting.
Don't get me wrong, I know politics is part of the game. But this has gone beyond politics. So far beyond it, that nobody - on either side - can see the endgame anymore, which is supposed to be the good of the nation.
To draw a comparison, I work in a politician's office. I am close to that game. I have a front row seat for it. Hell, sometimes I even get sucked into the game. It's always a competition, and points are kept all day long, at every turn. But here, they recognise that there is a time for politics as usual and a time for it to be put aside. There are games to be won and then there are issues that simply cannot be treated as a game.
Right now New Zealand is working on a referendum to decide its voting system and figure out how, and by what proportion, members are elected to Parliament and then, once elected, how much power they'll have as a party. And on this issue, all of the parties who sling mud and grandstand and play games and keep points have taken a breath, taken a step back, and decided to apply some logic. The party with the majority, who could steer this process because it has the power to, instead decided to bring the other parties along. And the largest minority party, who could use this as a political football to try and make sure they're not a minority next time, decided to take that offer.
Why? Because it's important. Because the country will be better off if they do it that way and because the fate of a nation is not a damn game.
I wish, sometimes, that the US could get over itself and take a lesson from this little backwards island on the other side of the world.
posted by E. at
1:06 AM
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