Who enjoyed the government almost shutting down? I know I did. Who doesn't find the near-collapse of American democracy to be entertaining? Who else enjoys that millions of dollars and hundreds of days are wasted as the government's inability to make decisions causes them to push past deadlines to pass a budget that affects the entire country?
I mean, of course the government should be allowed to ignore deadlines while the rest of us are constantly surrounded by strict laws and regulations placed upon us by the government, our employers and American society in general. Who doesn't love a good double standard?
As I see it, our system of government is theoretically great. The main problem with it is the existence of political parties. They do nothing but cause friction and juvenile behavior that inhibits the government's ability to accomplish tasks and make decisions. We are currently immersed in playground politics where actual accomplishments are dwarfed by hair pulling, name calling and tattling.
I'm proud to be an American. I appreciate that, as a female, I can go out in public without being ostracized for being "inappropriately" dressed and that I can go to college, or to school at all for that matter. I appreciate that I can sit here and write my opinion about the government without being afraid that government agents are going to swarm in and make me "disappear." What I'm not proud of is the fact that our system of government is something that has the potential to be truly great, but is sorely lacking in practice.
I firmly believe that in order for our system to function in accordance with the theoretical design of Enlightenment philosophies and our forbearers, we need to follow the example set by the Head Cheese of all forefathers himself: George Washington. Sure, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson were great guys, but they can be blamed for that which I detest: the emergence of the political party system.
I'm glad that people have more than one opinion on how the government should be run; progress can never be achieved if we are stuck in one loop of thinking, after all. Democracy functions best when multiple minds with multiple opinions come together to compromise and develop balanced, well-formed solutions.
But political parties are clearly not solving our problems. Two forces pulling in opposite directions cannot possibly work together and create one good solution; this is just one country, and one country can adopt the philosophy of only one political party at a time.
We only need one solution for one problem, but two stubborn, bull-headed and highly contrary parties can only create multiple competing solutions. It has become clear that the two parties are not willing to effectively come up with compromise at this time.
So, government and people of America, I beseech you. Stop closing your minds with one way of thinking, and move away from the party system that is stunting our growth as a nation.