Civil servants as of late have been clinging to the theory of party first and country second. How much should party loyalty play in terms of policy? National politics is an arena that I proudly don’t claim to have any experience in… I say that because it appears that politicians on both sides of any debate are holding the party line instead of representing their constituent’s best interest.

Watch the news lately, and you’ll see it repeatedly from Democrats and Republicans in varying degrees… what does this mean for you and I? It means that our elected officials need quite the reminder that we did not elect them to serve their party, but to serve US! One great piece of tv that I watched was during now Senator Al Franken’s acceptance speech… he said to the national media that his seat in the senate doesn’t give the Democratic party a rubber stamp and their guaranteed 60th vote, that he’s, “not going to Washington to be the 60th Democratic senator, I’m going to Washington to be the second senator from the state of Minnesota.” This is how things should run… you and I should have more elected officials see politics like this.

Have the representatives now serving subscribed to the Washington doctrine of party politics and loyalty first… the question is how do we dislodge our representatives from the grips of Washington party games? I’ve said it before and I must say it again… email your congressmen and women as well as your senators until they know you by name! Let them know that you are a constituent and that you’re not happy with how they’re representing you as a voter. It works, because if regular people don’t stand up and say something valid about an issue, the only people that make any noise will be the fluffs that don’t have anything better to do but send letters, and the special interest groups that pay their way into their offices.

The national arena is an animal all its own, and perhaps it’s more complicated than I think, but it’s better than nothing, isn’t it? I’m a Democrat by belief, but even I have spoken out against some of the things that the President has done, as well as other members from this party… that’s what democracy is all about! I think that politics on the local and national level can be turned on its ear if people would simply tell their representatives how to represent them! I don’t know, maybe I’m crazy…

Shouldn’t the government work for us? Do we have to wait until the previous generation dies off for the young and middle-aged people in this country to wake up and realize that if we don’t fix it, that someone else with a lot of money most certainly will…?

God bless America