Citizens against politics as usual

blueridgenow.com
By Mike Tower
Just My Opinion
Published: Sunday, October 2, 2011 at 4:30 a.m.

Many of my columns have been aimed at pointing out the decades of failure by our federally elected officials from both parties to live up to their constitutional responsibilities. Mostly we vote for those who we believe will best represent our own values and interests. These elected leaders are also supposed to then govern for the best interests of the vast majority of we the people.

They are failing to do either. Instead, they are almost all protecting the interests of the powerful lobbies that pay to get them elected. It is the deadly combination of the greed of the powerful special interests represented by their lobbies and their support by our elected leaders that have led us to where we are today — a country that is truly on the brink of catastrophic failure.

We did not end up with our horrible recession, primarily caused by the housing bubble collapse, more than $14 trillion in federal debt, 20 million to 25 million unemployed, 12 million illegal immigrants, and wars that we cannot win by accident. Every negative result can be mostly blamed on the actions or lack thereof by our federal officials, both elected and appointed.

Several months ago, I received an email message from a fellow who identified himself as a former chairman of the Henderson County Democratic Party. He invited me to meet him for lunch sometime to get acquainted. I responded by asking him why. He chuckled, told me not to worry because he knew I was a Republican, and promised not to try to convert me.

He went on to explain that he appreciated the fact that my columns never called those in his party names, even when I disagreed with some of their beliefs.

I told him that my non-name calling was not an accident because I saw way too much of that going on every day among our politicians and by our media, with no positive results.

We met for lunch a few days later and had a very pleasant and respectful exchange regarding our opinions of our country's problems and possible fixes. We both agreed at the end of lunch that it was a shame more people from opposite sides of the political fence could not have a similar experience.

He invited me to attend a subsequent meeting for a group called the Hendersonville Men's Democratic Club. I accepted with more than a little trepidation — it's a bit intimidating to meet alone with an entire group whose opinions I was sure had to be so different from mine.

The speaker that day was a gentleman who was a former Moroccan/French citizen. He started his speech by stating that his birthday was in 1995, and he went on to explain that this was the year he became an American citizen. He explained in touching detail why he felt such pride for his new country.

The one negative thing he mentioned was that it seemed to him that democracies were supposed to have dialogue between the voters and their elected officials. Lately he sensed that most of the meaningful dialogue in America was occurring between our elected officials and the wealthy lobbies that fund their elections.

Following this meeting, I was invited back as a speaker at their next meeting. On May 11, the date of the meeting, I decided to ask the group a few questions instead of giving a speech. I might add that I also invited a few of my Republican friends just so they could witness what I expected and hoped would happen (OK, and maybe just a wee bit of personal protection).

My first question to the group was, "Are you worried about our country's future?" Second, "What are you specifically worried about?" Third, "Do you think the Republicans caused all of these problems?" Fourth, "Do you believe that our elected officials are increasingly being controlled by the lobbies for the powerful special interests?" Almost everyone spoke up and candidly but respectfully shared their opinions.

Near the end of the meeting, one of my Republican friends stood and told the group that he was actually shocked at how similar their concerns were to his and to most Republicans he knew. It was immediately after this meeting that I made the decision to change my voter registration to unaffiliated.

I sincerely believe that we can be more effective by not being tied to a party affiliation in order to make sure we stop wasting our fear and anger by always blaming the other party and their members, and to send a strong signal to Washington that politics as usual will no longer be tolerated.

Lee Goldman, a former columnist for this paper who now writes for the Asheville Citizen-Times, and I are starting a group called Citizens Against Politics As Usual, and we are planning our first public gathering to share the specific evidence and our thoughts about why our government isn't working on Oct. 26 in Thomas Auditorium at Blue Ridge Community College (which has absolutely no affiliation with our group). We will have two-hour sessions at 9 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on that date.

If you, too, are unhappy with our current politics as usual, please try to attend. Please RSVP to my email with the number of attendees expected and the session time that is preferred. Please encourage others to attend.

These are my opinions. What do you think?

Mike Tower lives in Hendersonville, NC. He can be reached at mike41tower @bellsouth.net.

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