I want to spit out something I've been thinking about for years now, and see if this is enlightening to you all. Today's essay is on tension, and its vital role in a properly functioning democracy.
And where both sides have been coming up short.
I want you, for a second, to imagine a large group of people playing tug-of-war. You have an evenly matched group of people pulling on both ends of a rope. The flag in the middle does not move very much, even though both sides are pulling the hell out of it. It moves to the left or to the right, but never too much, at least until one side tires out.
That is why you have more than one political party. The system is supposedly set up so that they have tension between them, and that things do not get done without that tension coming into play. A good politician will not only realize this fact, but will intentionally create this tension in order to ensure that sound public policy is created. When there is tension between the parties (and there can be more than two), what gets done is generally truly what is best - because the tension required causes the least possible movement towards the interests of the prevailing party while accomplishing what is set out to do.
The reason our democracy is in the state it's in, is that we have elected a whole series of politicians who don't realize the healthy role that tension provides, or that have intentionally done their best to sabotage this tension. Remember what happens when one side tires?
The flag moves in the direction of the prevailing party, the losing party ends up in the mud, and the prevailing party ends up flat on their asses because they had prepared for tension when there suddenly wasn't any anymore.
It is the civic duty of every politician to get in there and fight to the teeth with any tools at their disposal, for two reasons. The first is, if you don't, the other party likely will. And the other is, you have to maintain the tension at any costs, otherwise the government will overbalance and collapse. That's what we're in the process of seeing now. If the Dems don't maintain the tension, the government will move quickly to the right.
The good news is, the right will then fall flat on their faces.
That's the way I see it, anyway. Thoughts?