In our age of zero-sum politics, where one side must lose when the other side wins, the people who always tend to lose in these equations are the voters that put them there. Far too little gets done. Most legislators are too busy constantly running for office and blaming the other side to do what they were hired to do.
Quite simply, the “Blame Game” has to stop. Legislator, do your job, the one you were hired to do. When I see a legislator or wanna-be legislator online or TV and I hear the Blame Game start up, I turn it off. The other side is at fault for something.
I don’t want to hear it. What I want to hear is if that is a problem, what do you intend to do about it? Don’t just tell me why something is wrong or wrong in your mind, what is your solution to fix it? The corollary to this is only speak of real problems and do not waste my time on contrived or over-inflated ones. And, a second corollary to this is don’t tell me what a funder wants you to tell me.
Neither side owns all of the good ideas and both sides have some bad ones. And, both sides use the Blame Game. Yet, what frustrates me more than anything, one side has lost its way and no longer has a voted-on platform of positions and has become untethered to the truth. So, its followers listen to a litany of things that are wrong that I do not see as much of a problem. These are wedge issues that are heightened to demonize the other side and not really solve much else.
The other side is far from perfect, but at least speaks to the issues of import and have actually helped pass a few key pieces of legislation at the federal level. Yet, they have some blind spots as well, one of which is dealing with the debt and deficit. Yet, before the other side gets too smug about this issue, they have done a poor job of dealing with it as well. In fact, outside of some deficit relief in the Inflation Reduction bill, the only major piece of deficit reduction was in a sequestration fall-back that kicked in when Congress could not agree on a budget about nine years ago.
So, voters it is well within our rights and even duties to ask “what do you plan to do about it?” And, when the answer is not given, ask it again. If the answer is to blame someone, maybe we should just say “if you don’t have any ideas, maybe you should step aside and let someone else have a crack at it.”
musingsofanoldfart 
You are spot on. The trouble is that a substantial portion of the voters don’t bother to take the time to understand the issues, but rather listen to the loudest voices, voices that drown out all others. It’s easier, I suppose, to go along with those loudest voices than it is to actually study and try to understand the issues so as to make informed choices at the ballot box. Until we find a way to convince people that their vote is a serious responsibility and that they should devote some time and energy to researching the candidates and issues, voters will keep electing those who place their personal well-being ahead of the nation’s. And as long as politicians can keep the voters in the dark, as long as they are not held to account for their actions, they will keep on doing what they do, keep on being a reverse Robin Hood, robbing from the poor to give to the rich.
Thanks Jill. Whether it is this woke stuff or book banning or taking people’s rights away or restricting voting because of the bogeyman the former president dreamed up, there is not a lot of substance being espoused. The debt and deficit should be dealt with, but Republicans have a horrible track record of dealing with it when in charge. If people really want to deal with it, major cuts to defense spending along with tax increases have to be just two parts of the equation, otherwise will not work. Keith
I so fully agree with you. Instead of claiming that we must reduce the debt and deficit by taking away such things as Social Security and Medicare, we should be looking to cut defense spending, maybe cut some of the unnecessary travel by members of Congress, and definitely raise taxes on corporations who are price-gouging to enhance their own bottom line. It seems too much to ask that they do the job we elected them to do, the job we are working hard to pay them to do.
Jill, if Congress and President don’t deal with this issue soon, the solutions will be more painful. When the annual interest cost becomes comparable to the bigger cost items, then it will hinder spending on things that matter more to people. Keith
An excellent analysis Keith.
Whereas this tactic has always been part of the weaponry of politics. The current dominant grouping within the Republican Party have dipped their hands into the worst of the sludge in their hysterical urge to throw.
As I recall – correct me if I am wrong, but has the notorious Congresswoman Lauren Boebert taken part in any constructive attempts to bring forth legislation in her tenure? Just one example.
Roger, thanks. If she has, I cannot recall it top of mind. She is on a list of folks I was thinking of when I typed my post on becoming irrelevant. Keith
She is a ‘particular’ one on my list.
Her notorious comments on Christ having a gun at the time of The Passion, were to anyone with a true belief deeply offensive, in fact blasphemous.
The fact that a large portion of the Evangelical grouping around the MAGA Right remained silent on the matter shows the hypocrisy of that faction.
Roger, while there are many religious folks worldwide who like to quote religious text out of context, what you are sadly describing is a whole another level of bluster. Again, groups must police themselves condemning inane commentary and poor actions otherwise the bad apple taints the whole barrel. Keith
Reblogged this on Filosofa's Word and commented:
Our friend Keith is tired of the people we elect to do the “peoples’ business” wasting their time and our tax dollars playing the blame game, pointing fingers across the aisle to blame the ‘other side’ for their own failures. It’s time for We the Voters to wake up and understand that nothing of value gets done as long as our elected officials are acting like playground bullies. Thanks, Keith, for a timely assessment!
Many thanks for the reblog. It is much appreciated.
It was a good piece … well worthy of being seen by as many as possible.
That means a lot coming from you. Thanks.
Having so many voters dismiss news outlets as fake news, refusing to explore other information, and having this behavior encouraged by politicians trying to deflect blame or stay in office is some of the problem to me. I guess I’m part of the blame game but they have got to change channels and exercise some critical thinking about what’s going on before we can move out of this polarized era paralyzing our ability to address problems.
Michael, true. But, I don’t think too many watch the news at all, choosing to get it through social media sources and what they pick up. The exception to the above is they watch entertainment and sports news, which is why I call us the United States of Entertainment. Keith
The longterm plan of the GOP has been to convince Americans that understanding politics (society, economics, government, etc.) Is beyond their capabilities, so that the people who listen to them will not know how to ask pertinent and meaningful questions. They have done their best to dummy down education while trying to convince young people college and university are dangerous to their mental well-being.
They are taking away self-confidence while pretending to be trustworthy. This plan seems to be working well among certain groups of Americans. They fear education! Even though education is the way out of poverty, they have been convinced it is their lot in life to be poor, or whatever. They allow other people to do their thinking for them. What none of them do not see is that a lack of education will create disaster. Society depends on university-trained professionals, especially doctors and nurses and teachers and sometimes even lawyers. What kind of society will there be if there are no professionals?
Society needs college and university grads to succeed. Killing education is the worst thing that could be done.
There was more, but I will leave it here for now…
Rawgod, you are so right about the lack of wisdom of dumming down education. The US has already fallen to the 20s ranking in math and science compared to other countries. American exceptionalism is truly a misnomer in too many respects. It is akin to your less loyal friends telling you only geeks make A’s to bring you down to their level. Keith
Never worked on me lol.
Me neither.
One of the main reasons for the “blame game” problem is right there in your first paragraph–the legislators are “too busy constantly running for office.” Our neverending election season is out of control. Instead of campaigning for a bit, and then settling down to work on problems, politicians are forever posturing and marketing themselves for the next election. Sadly, I don’t see this happening here, but there are countries where the length of campaign season is limited by law, and I would love it if we could do that too. I mean, for God’s sake, we’re already getting started on the 2024 presidential campaign in the news cycle…ugh.
Eurobrat, well said. Before social media and internet took off, legislators used to run their campaigns off rhetoric and then, once elected, governed off facts or reason. Now, with 24×7 exposure, they govern off rhetoric too often saying things that just are not true, with impunity. We must hold them accountable for their lying. I agree totally with shortening the election process and putting in term limits. I would love to see issue focused debates where the candidates must submit their positions for people to look over as they debate. Keith
Well said, Keith! They are mostly playing games, instead of making politics for their voters. Only the good achiements will count. Best wishes, and have a wonderful beginning of 2023! xx Michael
Thanks Michael. Not only has the quality of legislation declined, but so has the quantity. A retiring Congressman said he spent 1/3 to 40% of his time on fundraising for the party. That means only 60% to 66.67% of the time doing his job. Keith
That sounds very terrible, but at least he spends two thirds of the time with the work for which he was chosen. In Germany I think that at best they spend a third of the time for citizens.;-/ Best wishes, Michael
Of course, given the quality, maybe less work is better.