Richard Brand: What’s The Purpose?

In high school they teach you that Senators and Congressmen are elected by the people to go to Washington to solve the problems of the nation. They are representatives of the people. They are empowered by the ballot to act on our behalf to solve the major issues before the country.  That is supposed to be the way it works.

But as anybody who has been watching has noticed that is not the way it has been working. Ever since 2010 there has been almost no “working” to solve the problems of the nation. There has been no “working” to solve the immigration problem. There has been no working on the Bowles-Simpson Commission (a bipartisan report with four major components) report to reduce the deficit. There has been no “working”  on the issue of climate change. There is no debate on whether or not the climate is changing. The debate is whether or not it is “man-made” or “natural,” but still there is much that might be done to adapt to it. There are so many important issues that need to be addressed, but our Senators and Congressmen have not been working on them.

In fact, the Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell stated in 2010 after the mid-term election that the only thing he and his Republican friends would be “working” on would be to prevent the re-election of Barack Obama. House Speaker John Boehner has indicated that his Republican House had the same goal. They were not there to solve problems. They were not interested in finding solutions to the issues facing the country, they were only going to be working to insure the defeat of President Obama.

So the question becomes why would you want to elect Republican leadership when they have nothing more than a program of policies that have been tried by Reagan and both Bushes which resulted in massive job losses overseas, resulted in two unnecessary and expensive wars that are still adding billions to our national debt because they are unfunded, and created the great wealth redistribution of money from the middle class to the upper class. They have have no new programs and no new ideas. They are only “working” to defeat the current president and have only old failed programs to offer. What is the purpose in electing them?

We have a President who is working to find a way to build a better future. We have a president who knows that change happens and we must shape it rather than resist it. We have a President who recognizes and supports women as equal to men in pay, who believes that women have a right to decide their own health issues, who appointed two women to the Supreme Court. We have a President who understands that we now live in a very global village and has a more modest and appreciated foreign policy which works with other countries rather than trying to dictate to them. Change is coming and education is absolutely critical and Pell Grants and Student Loans must be available. The President is for more of those.  

We have a party with a recognition that change comes and to be great we must move FORWARD, and we have a party that has only the program to prevent the current president from being re-elected. What kind of help is that to the country?  What is the purpose of going back to programs that did not help anybody but a few at the top?