Blessings of Liberty - Part 1

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution..."

Those were the words adopted by our Founding Fathers as the preamble of the US Constitution, setting forth the goals of what they hoped would be accomplished by the new democracy.

With the new Congress taking their oaths this month and the president's State of the Union message, in the spirit of my theme of Life's a Mystery, I'd like to reflect on the mystery of governance in America.

I grew up loving politics and fascinated by how our government works. That was nurtured around the kitchen table when I was a kid, as our family would discuss current events. As a result, my undergraduate major was political science. Forty-five years later, it's pretty clear to me that government isn't working any more.

I grew up in the fifties, a time of optimism. America, with its allies, had just defeated totalitarian regimes. Our country was growing, more people moved west, the Interstate highway system was built, communities invested in schools to educate the children of the post-war baby boom, and our nation reached for the moon--literally and figuratively. As the Cold War took hold, the entire world chose sides in USA versus USSR. Ah, the good ole days! I know the threats we face now are serious, but in first grade I had to learn to duck under my desk at school at the prospect of nuclear attack. All rather quaint as I look back.

I'm not sure what event (or series of events) crippled our government. Was it the Vietnam War? Watergate and a president forced to resign? Divisions over Civil Rights and issues of equality? Roe v. Wade? A presidential impeachment? The "welfare state?" Removal of prayer in schools?

What should have been a moment of national unity following the attacks on our country on 9/11/2001, seemed to last no more than a fortnight.

Whatever the catalyst, and perhaps there were multiple ones, depending on one's viewpoint, I haven't talked to anyone on the broad spectrum of political thinking (conservative to liberal) who is happy with the state of affairs in our politics. Frankly, political leaders on both sides of the aisle seem to be taking their cue from the strategy we adopted against the Soviets during the Cold War--"mutually assured destruction." Using that analogy, it feels as if the citizenry have become collateral damage.

The more important question is what steps can citizens take to help move our government beyond gridlock. I'll have a few ideas in "Part 2," and I'd like you to be thinking of ones as well. But let me leave you with two facts to ponder.

1) When our nation began, members of Congress represented districts comprising approximately 30,000 people. Today those districts are at about 700,000.

2) Members of Congress earn $179,000 a year, and spend an average of $1,689,000 at each election to a two-year term.

You're a citizen. Please join the conversation, with a comment below, or perhaps with your family around the dining table.