Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Letter to the editor:

U.S. suffers from pols’ intransigence

Invincibility turns ordinary souls into raving tyrants. Welcome to the Tea Party! Political redistricting is one of the worst things to happen in America since the Civil War. The legislative ability within states to gerrymander congressional districts in such a way that one political party gains a super-majority voter advantage is deplorable. Representative government be damned, full speed ahead!

Tea Partyers come to Washington with an unrealistic agenda: I want it my way, and I want it now. The most recent example was their failed government shutdown over Obamacare. The problem with this shortsighted approach is it’s unproductive and doesn’t work for the majority of Americans. In order to have a strong country, you need above all else significant wealth with reasonable distribution. This means there’s sufficient money for defense, education and infrastructure, and to meet other needs that are beneficial to society. We cannot wish for these things; we must work to expand and preserve them.

In today’s world of teaism, there is no such thing as rational, long-range objectives. During the George W. Bush administration, taxes were cut mostly for the well-off and social programs like Medicare part D were enacted without the means to pay. All the while we fought two wars on credit and without a draft. The financial meltdown put millions of Americans out of work.

The current administration has not done much better in part because of the intransigence of the Tea Partyers. We don’t address long-term issues; we just pick over the carcass of past legislation. Continuing to allow bizarre redistricting for the sake of one party or another will eventually relegate us to the dustbin of history. Our tombstone will read: “Here lies America. She died of intransigence, a painful, self-inflicted wound to her democracy — RIP.”

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