Most people agree that our federal government is borderline dysfunctional. We have many major problems confronting us ranging from international issues such as two on going wars, terrorism, world poverty and nuclear proliferation and domestic issues including unsustainable Social Security and Medicare Programs, an ever increasing energy crisis, exploding health care costs, education shortcomings, deteriorating infrastructure, massive illegal immigration and many more. Most of these problems have been haunting us for a long time but we never seem to be able to do anything to resolve them. We just keep kicking these cans down the road.

The constitution establishes three major branches of our federal government, the executive, the legislative and the judiciary.

In my view, the single biggest problem with our federal government is a dysfunctional congress caused by extreme partisanship that is influenced by overly powerful special interest groups and a sensational news seeking media. There has always been, and will always continue to be, political diversity. There are people with "liberal" views and others with "conservative" views. Such a diverse political spectrum is an asset that can lead to good governance as legislators examine diverse views and come to political compromise that will satisfy most of the people most of the time. But all too often, the divisiveness in our congress results in extremism that renders it ineffective. Instead of seeking compromise, the legislators inordinately demean the opposition. Too often it's "my way or no way." When decisions are made, they tend to favor the wishes of the special interest groups rather than what's best for the citizenry.

To be sure, there are problems with the executive branch and with the judicial branch but these problems are minor compared to those encountered in the legislative branch. We know that the congress is not going to "fix" itself so that leaves any "fixing" squarely in the hands of the people. There are two major powers that "we the people" hold to resolve these problems. One is to "vote the bums out" and the second is to apply united political pressure by the population demanding that decisions be made in the interests of the people rather that those of the special interests.

In today's political climate, our legislators do get substantial input from the voters but this input is usually either along extreme political divides or is the result of poorly informed citizens making illogical choices such as demanding more government services with less taxes. Office holders often pander to their constituents not in the interests of what is best for America but what is most likely to help them get re-elected at the next election.

There are many political activist groups espousing extreme political positions on every issue. A primary goal of MOTRA is counter these extreme positions with a grassroots moderate viewpoint. We invite participants from all positions on the political spectrum to join in our deliberations. Hopefully we can arrive at a middle-of-the-road compromise on the various issues that can not be achieved by our elected officials.

Last modified on 1 Dec 2009.

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