Time to perform or perish

Are we able to rise above our collective stupidity? It’s the question that I’ll come to at the end of this column. Let’s start where we all agree.

America’s not just on the wrong track, we’re on a trajectory that will put us on the wrong side of history. Stop and think. It makes no difference what major issue you pick: jobs, economic growth, debt and deficit, energy, education, or immigration. All of them grow worse as the politicians in Washington do nothing about them but blame one another.

It’s been this way for decades. It doesn’t make any difference which party controls the White House or the Congress. America is in decline.

When a pitcher can’t get the ball over the plate the manager yanks him. When an employee can’t or won’t do his job the employer fires him. It’s the American way. It’s free enterprise and capitalism. It is the way America has reinvented itself for over 200 years. Perform or perish is as American as apple pie.

We all know that the problems that are crushing American can be solved. We also know that the solutions will be painful, but not as painful as pretending that everything is OK, while the American Dream becomes a nightmare.

But it’s undeniably clear that Congress won’t fix the mess. Why? The answer is simple and in that answer we can find what we must do. Congress won’t act because they all fear that making tough decisions will put their jobs at risk.

So they all have figured out a way to accomplish the one thing that Republicans, Conservatives, Democrats, and Liberals all agree upon — getting reelected. And they have stacked the deck so they win and America loses. House seats are gerrymandered so that only one party can win in most of them. The Senate has perverted the use of the Filibuster Rule so that it paralyzes everything. And all of them have prostituted themselves by taking so much PAC money from corporations and labor unions.

And it works. They get reelected. But America gets screwed. They won’t change. But we can change them. All we have to do is to rise above our collective stupidity that Congress counts on.

If we start this November, in four to six years we will have revolutionized Washington. Vote to oust every incumbent. Take away the one thing they really care about — their job. And send the message to those who replace them that they must come to grips with our national problems or they too will only have one term in office.

They will quickly learn that to keep their job they must do their job. All we have to do is wise up.

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