This wasn't a game, yet both men wore uniforms. One in blue, the other in red.This wasn't a game, yet there is this need to declare one man a winner and one man a loser.
This wasn't a game, yet there are some this morning who feel the need to gloat or to be depressed.
Our competitive nature as human beings has destroyed the political process in our country and made it about winning and losing and no longer about the ideals and fundamentals of running a country. I can say all of this because when the battle of the "Obamas" and the "Romneys" took place on the playing field of America, I decided to cheer for the referees. I wasn't on either team. I wasn't part of the problem that now permeates social media with pompousness and arrogance by the winners or shock and disbelief that has swept the losing sideline. I was a fan hoping that the referee's would be as welcome here as they were in the NFL after the replacements botched the first part of the season.
It didn't happen and now we have two years to see what the country is made of. I say two years because in 2014, campaigns will start forming and we'll go through this process once again. Two years and over $2 billion were spent to change absolutely nothing. The power in either chamber of congress went unchanged and the highest office in the land remained the same. How much of the time and effort spent over the past two years could have been dedicated to truly focusing on the problems that plague our country? How much of that money could have gone to fixing some of the issues with our infrastructure?
I have an American idea. It has to be a better idea/blueprint for the future than what we have in place right now. I know I'm still young but that was the 4th Presidential Election I voted in. In my lifetime, all but 1 President has won their reelection bid.
The electoral college is a dated system that has to go. More people would vote/care if they TRULY knew their vote counted. News stations calling the results AS THE POLLS CLOSE makes you feel worthless. Unless you live in Florida or Ohio, your vote isn't scrutinized as heavily at all. Get rid of the EC and make it all about the popular vote.
Next thing to do is to give the President 8 years to actually accomplish something. A President is in Office for 2 years trying not to screw up so that he can go out the next 2 years and try and buy (Key word: BUY) himself another 4 years. Again, the amount of money that was wasted on this election could actually have gone to some good instead of polarizing campaigns.
The final step in this puzzle is to instill term limits to the real crooks in this caper and that is the folks who occupy the Senate and the House (While we're at it, the Supreme Court Justices could be eligible for some sort of citizen review also). In any job in the world, if you fail on a consistent basis, you lose your job. In America, you can fail at the highest level and keep your job because of the letter next to your name on the ballot. It's wrong in so many ways, yet the uneducated mass blindly allows it to remain the status quo.
An addendum to this plan is for the politicians to put up or shut up. They campaign on this idea that Americans need to put party politics aside. While that may be a glorified pipe dream, someone needs to step to the plate and do something really bold. I challenge President Obama and future leaders to legitimately put the other party in cabinet positions or positions of advisement within their administration. I know my views on Jon Huntsman have not been lost on many but there is a Reagan Republican who served his country at the request of the President. Albeit as an ambassador but he managed to forget the letter next to his name and remember that he was an American first.
The bitterness and divisiveness of our election system will fix nothing. We need to strip the system of what it has become and rebuild from the ground up. We need to forget about winning and losing and think about the future generations that will never benefit from a group of people so focused on winning a game that they lose sight of the fact that the fix has been in on the game for years and we all lose if we continue to play.
