Sometimes the best party is no party

I could sit here and apologize for discussing the same things over and over again, but I won't. I care about the things I write about. If I didn't, I wouldn't have much to say, and since I have a lot to say, I care.

That said, here's some evidence that either my non-partisan effort is working, or that more and more people are like me: sick of current politics. I didn't realize that the numbers were so high. Unaffiliated voters now outnumber party voters in some very important states: Iowa, Massachusetts, and New Jersey. Too bad that in Iowa, you have to be a registered Republican or Democrat to caucus in those presidential primaries. Then you're pretty much left with the major party candidates. I guess you could vote for other people, but without a large enough independent population, it would be tough to actually elect anyone.

What would be great is if the two major parties get scared. Once they do, they'll realize that they can't always just fight each other; they have to have real agendas that actually benefit the American people. So many times, the politicians act only in the interest of being elected. And to get elected in this country, you almost have to be affiliated with either the Democratic or Republican party. That two-sided thinking creates situations where the politicians only give the American people two choices: ours or theirs. In truth, there are many other solutions to the problems, but independents aren't a big enough group to actually gain any respect for their side(s). Hopefully now that the numbers are growing for independents, they will be able to make a valuable impact on government.

If we would have just listened to our forefathers, we might not be in this mess, and others. George Washington, the very first president of this country, said,

"The alternate domination of one faction over another, sharpened by the spirit of revenge, natural to party dissension, which in different ages and countries has perpetrated the most horrid enormities, is itself a frightful despotism."

He already knew, or had a feeling, that party politics were bad, that it would lead to a scary situation. Maybe that's where we're going?

Sides of the Healthcare Debate

There were a few things in today's paper that caught my eye today. I try to read the political articles, but more often than not, I skip them. Because they're boring. I'll be honest; they can be really boring. That is, unless they're not. Like the opinion piece on healthcare with comments from both Iowa senators: democrat Tom Harkin and republican Chuck Grassley.


For the most part, the Harkin side of the page was about all the ways that a health care bill would be good for everybody. Mostly that meant that people who don't have healthcare would get it and everything would be all perfect! However, there was absolutely no mention of the costs of the bill, what it would cost people who already have healthcare. Mr. Harkin, I would like to know these figures so that I can weigh the pros and cons of the bill. Please don't try to make me seem stupid by only giving me the positives. (That don't really affect me anyway)

On the other side of the page, our Iowa senator Chuck Grassley made hardly any mention of the benefits of a health care bill, and instead took the financial approach. He made it clear that the bill would cost billions of dollars, adding huge amounts to our already huge deficit!

So there are two issues that I see with this article

First: do we really need a healthcare bill if it's going to cost so much, and mostly benefit only the people without healthcare?

Second: the party divisions around this bill (and every other) is astounding. Just look at the two Iowa senators- they rarely vote with each other on a big bill. Every time I look in the paper at the Congress votes, it's always all the democrats on one side and all the republicans on the other. That is such a shame that two senators, who are supposed to be representing the state of Iowa either can't agree on what the people of this state need, or they simply vote with their party.

I wish our leaders would make decisions that mattered to their constituents, not their parties.