The "my way or the highway" system of government is not working for the American people. While Mitch McConnell pursued his "top political priorit y" of denying "President Obama a second term," the country suffered under political gridlock. The Republican's unprecedented use of the filibuster ensured that they could accuse the President of having a lack of accomplishments. In the meantime, immigration went on unreformed, our bloated tax code remained unchanged and the gap between rich and poor grew at an accelerated pace.
Unfortunately, Hillary Clinton displayed this same over the top partisanship during the Democrat debate when she was asked about her enemies and responded "in addition to the NRA, the health insurance companies, the drug companies, the Iranians -- probably the Republicans." In her defense, she has been considered fair game for attack since her days as first lady with a "vast right wing conspiracy" that included three official investigations into the death of Vince Foster. Rep. Mo Brooks (R-Ala.) has already stated that "if she is elected by the public next November...she's subject to impeachment because she has committed high crimes and misdemeanors." However, she is running for a job where she will have to represent all Americans. There has to be a middle ground between Obama's capitulation to the Right for healthcare reform and the stimulus package and declaring that 25% of Americans are your enemy.
In the end, the blame for this partisan bloodletting probably lies with the electorate itself. After all, candidates supported by high-dollar donors rarely make any campaign stand without the approval of experts who carefully follow the polls. On the morning of my School Board election last March, I received a phone call from a voter who wanted to know how to find out the party affiliation of each of the candidates. When I explained that it was a non-partisan election, she asked me how she would be determine who had the correct stand on the issues if she did not know their party. I tried to direct her to Ballotpedia, but she was not interested. Apparently for her a (D) or an (R) after a candidate's name did give them superpowers.
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I am a former candidate for the District 3 seat on the LAUSD School Board, founder of Change The LAUSD and member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council. Opinions are my own.
