PARTY POLITICS

Two men went on a camping trip in the woods to fish in a local stream and share a rustic log cabin.  After enjoying a meal of freshly caught fish cooked over an open fire, both men fell asleep outside with full bellies.  But they were soon awakened to find that the wind had blown embers from their fire onto the log cabin and it was in flames.  Immediately the first man picked up a styrofoam cooler he brought with him and started toward the stream to collect water to attempt to put the fire out.  But the second man grabbed the cooler, saying he thought it best to fill the cooler with sand or dirt and use that to halt the fire instead.  Both men stood there for a while discussing why they felt their idea to halt the fire was better.  But then the second man attempted to yank the cooler away from the first man, causing the styrofoam to rip and crumble, rendering it unusable.  The house burned to the ground.

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In a way this story is very similar to what’s going on in Washington between Republicans and the President.  Our national economy is “on fire. ” The President’s idea is to grab a “cooler” to try and put the fire out.  But the Republicans are consistently trying to yank the cooler away from him, because they don’t like his method and they want to fight to use their own method.  But as they attempt to grab the “cooler” away from the President, they run the risk of running out of time and watching the entire “log cabin” burn to the ground.

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The Republicans are playing a very dangerous game of chicken.  Barack Obama has been wildly popular for months and even enjoys a 60+ point approval rating to this day.  That’s a doomsday scenario for Republicans who see their party crumbling into obscurity, and they are running scared for their political lives.  If the President succeeds in turning this economy around, he will be a huge success story, a national hero, with a guaranteed second term.  But that could also be the final nail in the Republican coffin.  So their last best chance to succeed is to fight him at every turn and hope against hope that he fails.  Only then can they succeed, even though it would sink the country into further turmoil.  But is it worth it?  So for a President who’s only been in office for less than 70 days, who is facing the most complicated and crucial economic catastrophe in a generation, is it really fair or patriotic for Republicans to keep trying to yank the “styrofoam cooler” away from the President right in the midst of him trying to douse the flames?  With the dire financial situation we find ourselves in as a nation, is this really the time for one-upmanship and playing “I’m right, You’re wrong” politics as usual?  Or is it more AMERICAN for the GOP to stop wishing the President to fail, to quit trying to beat him at every turn, but instead JOIN him in trying to save us from this cataclysmic crisis?

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Former President George W. Bush is known for uttering some incredibly  outlandish and comical statements over the years.  But one of his better statements to date was made the other day, when he said “I’m an American FIRST, and a Republican SECOND.  I put my country ahead of my party.”  These were incredibly wise words from an unexpected source, because as Barack Obama has been saying since he burst onto the scene in 2004, “We are not a red America, or a blue America…. we are the UNITED STATES of America.”  The GOP needs to learn this lesson and fast.  You can’t put party politics ahead of the national interest.  Right now the stakes are too high and the risk is too great for such antics.  Because if this President fails, that will mean our nation has failed too.  In that scenario the Republicans would be able to rejoice with the bragging rights they were right and he was wrong, but at what price?  Because then there wouldn’t be a country left for them to be right about or to lead or govern.
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So Republicans — are your “Party Politics” really worth it?