History repeating itself...I guess we haven't learned

We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.  Albert Einstein

From the Gallup polling organization:

“September 30, 2013

More in U.S. Say Shutdown Is About Politics Than Principle: Attitudes similar to those in November 1995

by Frank Newport

PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans are more likely to believe the current budget debate between President Barack Obama and the Republicans in Congress is an attempt by both sides to gain political advantage (47%) than an important battle over principles and the future direction of government (37%). These views are similar to Americans' attitudes on the day the government shut down in November 1995 as a result of that year's political impasse when 52% said the budget debate was political, while 37% said it was based on disagreement about principles.”*

In 1995 we recognized that politics trumps principles, and really all other considerations, for the political ruling class.  In 2013 a majority of those polled, albeit a smaller one, recognize the same thing.   We are now 18 years removed from the last shutdown, and nine election cycles. 

What has changed?  Absolutely nothing has changed!  Why?  Because we help to maintain the political status quo through our voting behaviors. 

How many of the same players that are involved in the current shutdown debacle were in office in 1995?  And, it doesn’t really matter if they are Democrats or Republicans.  What matters is they have grown up in a system in which they have not been held accountable.  Based on their past experience, they now feel it is ok, in spite of their rhetoric to the contrary, to employ tactics that bring the government to the point of shutdown merely for political gain.  Congress cannot do its most fundamental job, passing a budget, because the people in leadership have grown up in a system that has an abysmal record of doing so.  There has been no consequences for their bad behaviors, so why should they change them?

We, you and I, must change the political status quo by holding our elected officials accountable through the elective process.  However, it is not enough to continue to vote for candidates with Ds and Rs beside their names.  How well has that worked out for us?  We must seek out and elect independent and third party candidates in order to drive a wedge between Democrats and Republicans that will force them to think and behave differently.  They will not do it on their own. 

If we continue to use the same thinking, and subsequently engage in the same voting behaviors we have in the past, we will never arrive at solutions to our Nation’s problems.      

*http://www.gallup.com/poll/164708/say-shutdown-politics-principle.aspx