Source:  Can this government be fixed? Three steps that might help – USATODAY.com.

It seems everywhere we turn today there is dissatisfaction with our representative in federal government.  The words below were taken from the source article but could have come from just about any thing written about our politics of the day.

Can this government be fixed?

Americans are increasingly frustrated by the disconnect between what they say they want in their government, and what they see happening in Washington. A majority want compromise; they see polarization. They want economic and other problems addressed; they see gridlock and a series of perils-of-Pauline cliffhangers. By a record 4-1 ratio in a new Gallup Poll, they express dissatisfaction with the way the country is being governed.

But what I do find very interesting about this article is that it seems to go to the root as to how we got ourselves into the situation we are currently in.  The three solutions mentioned are kind of heavy (some of you probably will say boring) but I think they are worth a few words by this old guy (meaning me).

1. Drawing the Lines – Every one of those yahoos in congress will do anything they can to get re-elected. As my hero Will Rogers says once they get into office they are no longer good for any honest work. 🙂  One of the most devious things they do to stay in office is “drawing the lines”. This is the process where the political fat cats in power at the time get together to decide who is in each voting district. If they don’t have enough voters of their persuasion to keep their man (or woman) in office then they move the boundaries of that district so that they will.  For you who are up on history this is known as gerrymandering. Now don’t get me wrong this practice is not a recent event; it has been going on for almost two hundred years. But, with all the high power computers around they have taken it to a new level recently. As a result of all of this some of the voting districts have taken on totally absurd configurations.  We need to get rid of all this foolishness.

2. Changing the Rules – By changing the rules the author of this article is talking about the filibuster. This is where a minority of senators can stop something from becoming law by just refusing to stop “discussing” it on the Senate floor.  You see the senate doesn’t have any rules for how long something can be talked about. Any fool can get up and spend hours reading from the phone book or whatever to stop the senate’s work. It takes greater than 60% of the senators to vote to stop a filibuster.  This process was rarely used up until the last four years or so. Now everything seems to be stopped by one filibuster or another.

3. Meeting the Other Side – Plain and simple this means that these guys just can’t seem to get along or even tolerate anyone from the opposing party. There seems to be a lot of reasons for this. But, in order to get anything done these guys have got to talk to each other.

There are plenty of reasons we are in the shape we are in this country but if we just changed the three above it wouldn’t hurt and might just help some.

But what do I know….