by Donna Marie Gray

Created on: February 14, 2010

I believe Congress has the ability to solve America’s problems, but not as long as they pursue political games. If the house and senate cannot work together, if republicans and democrats cannot perform their jobs as elected officials representing the American people, they will not succeed in solving the nation’s problems.

There are many times that it appears one party or the other will vote against a bill, no matter how positive and beneficial it is, simply because it was proposed by ‘the other’ party. Indeed, the two major parties behave like children on the playground.

It is unfortunate that many of our representatives cannot campaign with integrity. They seem to think the general public is made up of people who believe what the candidate says because he is of their party. As a matter of fact, there are many voters who simply will not listen to a candidate that is not of their party. Thus, they base their vote, not on an intelligent comparison of candidates, but strictly on party.

While basically the two major parties are focused on different ideas and principles, nowhere is it engraved in stone that either political party is the better or the smarter party. They both fail just as often to accomplish what they were elected to do.

The choice to vote as an independent gives one the opportunity and willingness to hear all sides of the issues. Voting an independent ticket is an attempt to put the best of the candidates together who are willing to work on the problems facing America. These would be the candidates who don’t make foolish promises during the campaign which cannot be upheld. These are the candidates that truly see the whole picture and are willing to work together, taking the best ideas of each party and compromising on issues that both parties can agree on for the good of all.

In my opinion, there ought to be a shorter time frame to campaign. Mud slinging, which has become the norm, should be unlawful. Candidates ought to concentrate on what they stand for and how they will perform, and stop talking about their opponent. After all, some of us are just apt to check out the opponent and find we really like the guy/gal.

Yes, Congress does have the ability to solve the problems in America.  They seriously need to practice bi-partisanship  But the question is, will they ever seriously work at that goal, or will they always keep the nation and political arena in turmoil?

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