Editor’s note: This op-ed is by Ron Pulcer of Rutland Town.
Preface:
When I submitted this op-ed on Aug. 23 to VTDigger, I had no idea how extensive the flooding from Hurricane Irene would be. In fact, I wasn’t thinking about the hurricane when I wrote this. I was writing to express my frustration with our two-party system, and, specifically, Congress as a whole. My comments were not about FEMA employees or other government employees, or even about specific members of Congress. In these days that follow Hurricane Irene, I have been extremely impressed by neighbors helping neighbors, businesses helping businesses, volunteers, CVPS, GMP and out-of-state utility linemen, federal FEMA employees, police, firemen, National Guard, the Red Cross and many other non-profit orgs, the Vermont media (VTDigger, VPR, local newspapers, radio stations, etc.), state and town employees, the governor and our congressional delegation. This display of teamwork and cooperation in these tough times makes me proud to live in Vermont. In summary, I just wish that our Congress in Washington, House and Senate, Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party freshmen would work together in the same cooperative fashion as has been displayed in Vermont and other states affected by Hurricane Irene.
Although our nation has always had varying degrees of partisanship, incivility and divisiveness, it seems we have now reached a point of near-paralysis (and then Congress and the president took a month-long vacation). Our form of government, with three co-equal branches, does not appear to be working very well for all of its citizens. The recent debt-ceiling debate has illustrated this. In addition, we live in a time of close elections, a divided electorate and non-stop campaigning.
While we are fractured into groups with labels like “values voters,” Tea Party, social conservatives, business conservatives, RINOs, Log Cabins, rural versus urban, Blue Dogs, moderate Democrats, Progressives, environmentalists, union workers, etc, we are also shrink-wrapped, shoehorned and shackled into a two-party system.
I was recently reminded of two jokes that I heard Rev. Jim Wallis tell. On February 10, 2008, I went to hear Rev. Wallis speak at Trinity Church in Boston. He was on a book tour as the author of “The Great Awakening: Reviving Faith & Politics in a Post-Religious Right America.” These jokes also appear on the opening page of Chapter 4 (page 79) in the “The Great Awakening.”
The first is a religious joke shared by Dr. Richard Land , president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission. Dr. Land has written a book called, “The Divided States of America?: What Liberals AND Conservatives are missing in the God-and-country shouting match!,” which I recently became aware of (so I have not had a chance to read this book yet). The second joke is a political one, shared by Rev. Wallis, Editor-in-Chief / CEO of Sojourners.
I was interested in hearing Rev. Wallis, since I had read his earlier book, “God’s Politics: Why the Right Gets It Wrong and the Left Doesn’t Get It.” Rev. Wallis and I both grew up in Metro Detroit; he in a near “west-side” suburb, and I in a near “east-side” suburb (actually north of the city). He grew up in a traditional evangelical family, and I in a Catholic family. When I was almost 9 years old, I remember well when the 1967 Detroit Riots started, because we could not go visit my grandparents as planned. Somewhere around that time, Rev. Wallis (10 years my senior) began to question the racial segregation in his church and the metro Detroit community. As a teen, he would drive into Detroit to attend services at black churches.
Here is the religious joke told by Dr. Richard Land:
“Two senators — one a Republican and the other a Democrat — were eating together in the Senate Dining Room. The Republican senator said, “You Democrats know nothing about religion!” “That’s not true,” insisted the Democratic senator. “We know a lot about religion.” So the Republican issued a challenge, “I’ll bet twenty bucks you can’t recite the Lord’s Prayer!” The Democrat said that was easy, and began, “Now I lay me down to sleep, I pray the Lord my soul to keep.” The Republican then reached for his wallet and replied, “Darn, I didn’t think you could do it!”
Question: Do senators of both parties still eat lunch with each other? Just wondering.
Here is the political joke told by Rev. Jim Wallis:
“A man was drowning in the Potomac River, about 100 feet offshore. The Republicans ran down to the river, saw his predicament, threw him 50 feet of rope and yelled out to him, “The rest is up to you.” The Democrats then heard about the drowning man and the Republicans’ failure to rescue him. When they reached the riverbank, they saw that the poor guy was about to go under, still about a hundred feet offshore. So the Democrats threw him 200 feet of rope — and let go of their end.”
On page 80 of “The Great Awakening,” Rev. Wallis explains why he tells these jokes:
“We laughed hard at both of them. The two of us are often placed on opposite sides of the political spectrum, but we liked the jokes — one suggesting that the idea of religion belonging to only one party is silly, and the other that both ideological sides are failing to solve many of our deepest problems.”
I really enjoyed the second joke. The man drowning in the Potomac River is a great metaphor for so many people and businesses trying to “keep their head above water” in our current economy.
I have to say that both major political parties have been very good at one thing: “kicking the can down the road”. Although I would bet that both parties would argue over whether the can they are kicking should have a returnable container fee or not, based on their ideological principles. They might spend millions of dollars in campaign ads explaining why they should have to pay the 5-cent fee, or not.
Based on the late Paul Harvey’s “and now, the rest of the story …”, I would like to offer my own sequel to the second joke, about the poor man drowning in the Potomac River.
What did the Republicans do with the extra rope, since they only used 50 feet of it? They ended up giving another 50 feet of rope to the corporations and banks that funded their re-election campaigns (i.e. bailouts). Then the Republicans gave another 100 feet of rope to no-bid military contractors. Because these contracts had little or no Congressional oversight, this 100 feet of rope was “off-budget” (taxpayer dollars were spent, but not accounted for, like the early years of War in Iraq).
Why did the Democrats throw 200 feet of rope to the drowning man, instead of only 100? Well, because one of the Democrats had a rope manufacturer in his congressional district (an earmark). Why did the Democrats let go of their end of the rope and not pull in the drowning man? Because they had a scheduled press conference, and they were excited to tell the public how they helped a drowning constituent, so they left the shores of the Potomac.
What would the Tea Party Republicans (“New Coke” Republicans) do about the drowning man in the Potomac River? Well, they thought about helping the poor fellow, but they had to leave to attend the 2nd Annual Rally to Honor the Restoration of Honor, hosted by Glenn Beck. Given the federal debt, the Tea Party Republicans proposed to make cuts in expenditures for rope. In addition, they wanted to cut pay and benefits for the police, firemen and EMTs who might have helped the drowning man.
As for the man in the Potomac River, well, sadly he drowned.
Rather than offering condolences to the drowning victim’s family, the Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party Republicans instead started blaming each other for the man’s death by drowning.
In the end, the Democrats and Republicans each wasted 200 feet of rope (our tax dollars). The Democrats well deserve their “tax-and-spend” moniker. However, the Republicans also earn the moniker “cut taxes, spend more, spend money off-budget, look the other way when military contractors rip off the taxpayers, and of course, blame the other side, and always pretend or claim that you are a ‘fiscal conservative’.”
Both Democrats and Republicans get failing marks for congressional oversight of how our tax dollars have been spent over the decades. We the voters are also responsible, based on how we vote in elections, or worse yet, do not bother voting.
If you are struggling to “keep your head above water”, get to know your neighbors and consider buying a life preserver for when you go swimming. What if you can’t afford a life preserver? Well, you can join the boycott on campaign donations, as suggested recently by the CEO of Starbucks, Howard Shultz, and save for a life vest.
