A National Puzzle

It is no secret the American public holds both branches of the the United States Congress in very low regard. This, I might add, is well deserved. Beside the fact representatives and senators are well paid, have access to a healthcare plan many of them do not seem to want to share with the rest of the American public, enjoy a number of perks, and seem to spend more trying to safeguard their jobs than actually representing their constituents, those elected officials are not liked by the rest of us for a very fundamental reason: they do not work together. This is maddening and counter to how the general American population conducts its lives every day.

Every day the rest of us go to work and collaborate with some people we do not like, do not wish to spend time with, or agree with. Yet we do it because this is what grown-ups do, out of loyality to our employer, and in order to stay employed. But what feels like every day we hear and see in the news more examples of how the members of Congress refuse to talk with each other, reach agreement on various issues, or are unable to achieve compromise. We see this and think: "I do this every day. Why can't they?" It is a pretty basic question, yet one I have yet to hear any member of Congress, when asked, answer. As a result, the membes of our nation's House of Representatives and Senate have become punch lines to a bad joke.

I wish I liked everybody with whom I work. I wish I saw eye-to-eye with everyone with whom I work. But I don't on either account. I am sure this is true for most of us. Yet all of us are expected to put aside our personal feelings and do what needs to be done to be productive and contribute to the greater good that is our organization's mission. And that is exactly what the great majority of us do. But not the members of Congress. I am struggling to understand why. After all, issues they tackle are a lot more important than what I or most of us do. The fact the elected men and women in Washington, D.C. seem so unwilling to meet such a funamental responsibility does not set well with me and, from the national polls suggest, the entire American public. Why can't they communicate as well as the rest of us? After all, they used to be one of us.