The Summer of Our Disconnect

President Barack Obama is correct: Enough is enough. We must end the stridency that drives our actions, and find new ways of working together to create the America that will allow all of us to thrive. If we do not then we are doomed to continuously repeat the failures that strangle our society.

Even before the debate over reducing the national debt and raising the debt ceiling began, the President repeatedly extended a hand to the Republican Party in an effort to bring about bipartisanship. He has even sought to present himself as the mature centrist in the room.

But Republicans and their leaders have continuously balked at any efforts of bipartisanship, basically proclaiming that being the party of “No!” when they were in the minority wasn’t good enough. They had to be the party of “Hell no!” Now that Republicans are in the majority in the House of Representatives and hung over from last year’s mid-term election, they have become even more petulant in their efforts to make Obama a one-term President.

The result is too many people have become like one note musicians, playing the same sorry tune day after day, week after week, month after month.

That is why it is time for the mature adult in the room to deal with the whiny children. The Republicans have shown more than anything that reason and doing what is right for the nation is beyond their grasp.

Now, the nation faces a possible debt crisis, one so real that China, which carries a large portion of the U.S. debt, urged national leaders to come up with a solution. While one could easily argue that the current debate is just the usual political brinksmanship, it would be wrong to do so. The battle in Washington is a larger version of the bizarre nature of politics in America today. With the nation still reeling from the Great Recession, people are angry, and from that anger come extremism. That has led to a failure to deal with some of the nation’s most pressing issues, including stimulating the economy in an effort to create more jobs.

Just look at the maliciousness that permeates America and invades our political discourse. People who disagree with the President have been unable to debate the issues without using scatological references. To say that such references are just part of the messiness that is democracy is to negate the true nature of what is before us, particularly when such references come from the people who are employed to inform us, as was the case in Mark Halperin’s inappropriate reference to Obama.

But it is not just the lack of erudition from pundits that should concern us. In Minnesota, for example, the state government has been shut down for several weeks because the Democratic governor and the Republican-led legislature cannot come to a budget agreement. Instead of dealing with the fiscal issues facing that state – a projected $5 billion deficit bequeathed by former Gov. Tim Pawlenty – elected officials there are bogged down in such hot-button issues as public-school vouchers, stem-cell research, and abortion.

Moralism has trumped efforts to deal with the state’s nearly 7 percent unemployment rate or its budget deficit. According to Walter Shapiro, a correspondent for The New Republic, “the state’s politics are probably even more polarized than those on Capitol Hill.” State Sen. John Marty, a veteran liberal Democrat, told Shapiro: “Eight years ago we had just one Michele Bachmann in the Minnesota senate. Now, we have maybe twenty or forty.”

Things are not that much better in Wisconsin, where recall efforts are underway to remove nine state senators – six Republicans and three Democrats -- stemming from the legislative battle earlier this year when Democrats fled the state to avoid a budget vote. The acrimony in that state is so intense that Republicans fielded “fake Democrats” to force primaries in several districts. The real Democrats won earlier this week and are set to meet their Republican opponents.

A similar effort to undue the last election is underway in Michigan, where Democrats upset at Republican Gov. Rick Snyder and members of his party are circulating recall petitions. The Michigan Education Association, a teachers’ union, has joined the battle because of legislation that weakens the state’s teacher tenure law.

It does not stop there. In Alabama, Scott Beason, a 41-year-old Republican state senator, has so polarized people there that even members of his own party have railed against him. During a corruption investigation during which he wore a concealed recording device, Beason, a conservative, was overheard disparaging his fellow Republicans and calling black people “aborigines.”

In addition, Beason has put his political agenda ahead of what is important for various parts of the state. His contesting of a budget plan to help Jefferson County, the home of Birmingham, resulted in layoffs of a quarter of the county’s workforce; courthouse closings; delayed maintenance on county roads and bridges; and a cut in the workweek for the sheriff’s office.

Beason says he’s standing up for what he believes in, even if it means parts of his state must fall. The same seems to be happening in Washington, where Republicans have decided that their individual beliefs trump societal needs. It is the most dramatic disconnect within the political system in some time.