By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Oct 15, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET My surefire plan to end the government shut down.
Each member of Congress has at least one person who knows how to get them out of their stinky mood and coax them out after having locked themselves in their bedroom.
That’s right. It is “Mom.”
Someone needs to call the mother of each member of Congress and explain, “Remember when Rep. (blank) was growing up and would get mad and lock himself (or herself) in his room and threaten not to come out for days? Well…the reason I am calling is….that is happening again and as a matter of national security we really need your help. What sort of “tricks” worked for you to get Rep (blank) to unlock the door any come down to dinner?”
Maybe it is chocolate chip cookies, or playing dress up, or getting to stay up extra late, make fun of gay people, promising to time and listen to their “pretend” filibuster, or raising their allowance 10 cents a week if they would outline how wasteful their siblings were being with their allowance, or agreeing to play Dodgeball or Tag (you’re “It”)
It doesn’t really matter what works ….but finding that secret something that works for each member and then asking their chief of staff to try it on them again this week.
I think this is a pretty ingenious plan….that may just work. Once out of their rooms, we then need to remove the door locks so this can’t happen again.
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 I have been beating up on Congress the past few weeks, and that helps me vent a bit but isn’t very helpful.
On a more serious and somber note, I think we all are to blame for the shutdown. In a democracy, our elected officials are pretty much a reflection of the voters electing them. Again, I tried admitting my poor behavior in all this.
I mean….a democratic republic is a government based on the consent of the governed, right? In other words, if you want to know how we can expect our elected officials in Congress to behave, a good place to look is political debates on Facebook.
We are the people who hired them and they are mirroring us and we them. I am frustrated with Congress for the shutdown because I do think that is especially irresponsible. But it is important, in my humble opinion, that we as citizens/voters not wait and hope some elected leader is going to save us from ourselves.
We don’t live under a government system that operates that way. We have to save ourselves and improve how we cope with our own demands, wants and disappointments and differences from others—political and otherwise. As that happens, I believe, we will see an alternation in how Congress debates. Or more precisely, we will see a voting public that demands discussions that are more informed and mature and aiming to resolve questions within the realm of the possible. Maybe not.
I can’t say with a great degree of confidence this is how it works.
But that’s my take on it….and wanted try to explain best I could. I think the blame game from Dems to Repubs and Repubs to Dems and voters to Congress and Congress to voters and on and on and on…. is getting tiring to all and has about run it’s course. As Dr Phil might say, “How’s that working for us?” And as unpleasant as blaming myself can be, at least I feel like I have a little control.
That’s worth something… Just a parting thought for whatever it is worth. (Note: I was paid nothing for it so the market value for my opinion is, well, zero.)
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America is a great country with a great history of overcoming setbacks, defying our critics and beating the odds against us. We are at our best when things are at their worst.
Why?
Because at the nadir of that dark encompassing moment some inspired person steps up and leads–and leads almost instinctively and with renewed vision and passion.
We are at that point again. Somewhere last night, when members of Congress were caucasing with their party leadership –much like the scene in this video clip–I choose to believe one (or both) party’s experienced one of those soul-riveting moments.
It is “a call to leadership” when some courageous and articulate soul leads us out of our political wilderness and back into everything that makes America great. And that speech, whenever and wherever it happens, will surely look like this (see video clip).
Now, when you watch this clip through the lens of your own partisan biases– whether you see Bluto’s inspirational speech and imagine it is John Boehner or it is Harry Reid– it doesn’t matter. The important thing about this “moment” is that we know we are on the brink of it today….and someone in Congress will inspire others to join them for a higher calling…..like “The best damn night of our lives.” And succeed.
It’s what makes America great. (Warning: inappropriate language…but this is how Congressional leadership works and it can be gritty and ugly sometimes. But inspired too.)
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Oct 15, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET Right now the best hope for any solution to the Congressional stalemates over both the government shutdown and the debt ceiling seems to be a bipartisan effort spearheaded by Susan Collins and involving several other senators, mostly women. Which doesn’t surprise me at all. Many, if not all, of these female senators are mothers, and once a woman has dealt with the range of challenges from toddler tantrums to sullen teenagers with body odor, she can handle anything.
Years ago, I would illustrate that theory by imagining a mom tackling the Middle East – “Israel and Palestinians, if you can’t find a way to share the occupied territories, neither of you can play with them.” But these days it feels like that conflict pales by comparison to Washington DC. So how would my motherhood experience help me deal with the issues that have led to governmental gridlock? Well, for starters, many Republicans have cited public image as a key factor, i.e. “We won’t be disrespected.” Moms have moved way past that concern, once they’ve had a preschooler in a shopping cart say something embarrassing and loud to a packed grocery store. (Most of my friends dealt with things like “Why is that lady so fat?” or “Why doesn’t that man have any hair?” My personal humiliation was when my 4-year-old son announced loudy, “Mommy, you know how you said babies happen when a daddy plants a seed in a mommy? How exactly does the seed get there?”) So it makes sense that there are no women chiming in about how important it is that they save face.
Another issue raised by Republicans is their fear that once Obamacare is the law of the land, we won’t be able to repeal it because Americans will become “addicted to the sugar,” in the immortal words of Ted Cruz. That wouldn’t bother any mom who has given up trying to get her kids to eat anything but pizza, nachos and Dr. Pepper. (Or in my case, that even extends to my husband, to whom I had to explain that a bowl of Froot Loops didn’t count as a serving of fruit.) Or there’s the concern that by raising the debt ceiling, the GOP will lose its chance to ‘teach Americans a lesson’ about fiscal prudence. Most moms of teenagers have given up trying to ‘teach lessons’ – logical consequences often work best when we don’t plan them (like when my 17-year-old forgot to set an alarm on the day before school started, when he planned to do all his summer reading, so he slept til 4 p.m. It was a new personal record for him, but he also learned his lesson – which was to ask me to doublecheck he was awake, so okay, he isn’t totally on his own yet . . . . but I digress.)
Perhaps the biggest problem right now is the inflated language on both sides, comparing each other to Nazis, terrorists, etc. Moms know that yelling and name-calling don’t work (as tempting as they are), and often humor can be the best response. Plus we know that when our kids are young, they learn best when things are set to music, like the ABCs or the names of the states in alphabetical order (anyone who ever had to learn the “Fifty Nifty” song knows what I mean – I can’t complete a crossword puzzle without singing that song!). So here’s some humor, set to music, to explain why it might not be such a good idea to let the radical fringe take control of a party. (As one op-ed columnist noted, of course there are extremists on both sides, but there aren’t any Occupy Wall Streeters or throwing-paint-at-fur-coat-wearers-activists in Congress . . . )
“Join The Tea Party and &%@! The Facts”
By Artur Davis, on Thu Oct 10, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET The conventional take on the government shutdown is that it is a colossal blunder, but one largely of tactical dimensions: John Boehner underestimating the risk of trying to co-opt Ted Cruz’s brinksmanship gambit; Cruz and his think tank strategists miscalculating public angst over the healthcare law as a license for obstructionism. All true, but at the danger of missing the more substantial reality: the shutdown continues because it is remarkably popular on much of the political right. That is still the case after a week of unmitigated bad publicity for Republicans; it will likely remain so up to and after the point someone invents a fig leaf to make it end. And a Republican base that is undaunted in the face of such a debacle will keep limiting the party’s options with its ready-made barbs about sell-outs and pandering.
And what is an even more depressing truth? Those Republicans who are most at odds with the shutdown have some complicity here too. And no, it is not that they have been weak-kneed deal-cutters whose moderation created a demand for “principled” confrontation. (I have seen only two genuine deals in Washington in nine years: Democrats bending on top bracket tax cuts in late 2010 and Republicans doing the same, from the opposite vantage point, in early 2011, and I don’t hear tax relief for millionaires as an applause line in many Tea Party venues).
The real culpability for us right of center types? They (we) have been too timid in dealing not with Democrats but with a certain variation of conservatism. Those of us on the right who envision conservatism as a brand of public policy and not an enemy of the concept, who conceive that a more cohesive society is a legitimate conservative mission, and don’t confuse the left’s newest ill conceived initiatives with the fading hours before a socialist midnight, could and should have fought harder to keep the right from becoming radicalized. Instead, we soft-pedaled our own sense of responsibility. We bargained on absorbing a hard-right insurgency when we should have been looking harder at its assumptions, and its radicalism.
When it got fashionable to peddle theories that voters—that is, our fellow citizens—were divided between productive contributors to capitalism and coddled takers of government giveaways, too much of the thought leadership of the party sagely nodded. And then when our presidential nominee got caught saying the same thing, we rolled our eyes at his political tin ear without acknowledging that what he said was actually an article of faith in some of our ranks.
We allowed a lot of simplicities to frame our positions on complex issues. For example, we undermined our valid skepticism about the Democratic environmental agenda with muddled charges that science is a conspiracy. We cheapened our warnings about the lingering depth of the Great Recession with pot-shots that the media and the Labor Department were cooking the unemployment numbers.
We showed a little resistance to the hard-right’s musings about abortion and “legitimate rape” and did our share of distancing from mandatory ultrasounds and personhood laws. But the noisiness of these culture wars seemed to worry us more than their inherently un-conservative, big government character—and in our too tepid responses, we missed a chance to arrest the gender gap that is single-handedly turning states like Virginia.
 We just shifted in our seat when the diatribes about the machinations of our liberal opponents crossed lines. When the jabs evolved from ritualistic partisanship into an insinuation that we were facing enemies who didn’t share our reverence for the country, our silence implicitly condoned the vitriol.
We didn’t stress enough over the evidence of a gulf between Americans in our respective visions of culture, of the economy, of the very legitimacy of government. If we were bothered that people who view their adversaries as illegitimate will coarsen civic dialogue, we rarely said so, unless it was the left throwing stones at our crowd.
We properly celebrated the grassroots populism on the right for the pragmatic reason that it finally gave Republicans the organizing mechanism to turn our base out; and for the intrinsic reason that activism is the essence of our democracy. But we weren’t quick enough to insist to the movement-minded among us that a political party is at its core not a movement: a party exists to mobilize to win campaigns and in a fractured electorate, winning requires being coalitional rather than ideologically pristine. We developed a weakness for rewarding provocateurs with the spotlight, as if unseriousness were not a ticket to perpetual minority party status.
We were entirely justified in noticing that conservatism had been demonized into the one permissible category for ridicule and verbal abuse. But we seemed so frustrated at our lost ground that we were tone deaf about how our partisan anger played to a middle class preoccupied with its own struggles—therefore, we missed the impression that we were more outraged about our own powerlessness than the powerlessness of the blue collars who not so long ago were part of our political base.
Read the rest of…
Artur Davis: How the Right Turned Radical
By RP Nation, on Wed Oct 9, 2013 at 10:00 AM ET I think it is agreed by all that our nation is politically fractured. The solution is obvious: cleave in half, becoming two separate but friendly nations with a shared history and a cooperative future.
I make this modest proposal at a time when the government is likely to remain closed for some undetermined period of time and there is an open question about whether we will honor our financial obligations. No one wants these results, but both sides prefer government closure — and potentially default — to forfeiting principle. Rather than a Hobson’s choice why not face the fact that each side should be able to have a representative government that reflects its belief structure? I can claim no special insight in suggesting this reasonable course of action, as the idea originated with Gov. Rick Perry.
For those naysayers who say it cannot be done, I echo Ted Cruz who has asked that we shoot for the moon. How could we determine which parts of America become Country A and which Country B? The answer is clear — we have already picked our future camps. Eighty members of the House of Representatives have asserted that it would be better to have the government close than fund Obamacare. In contrast, other members of the House and large sections of the Senate believe that continuing to fund the government is important, especially since there is no chance that Obamacare will be defunded.
The question of national destiny should be put to a vote, with each House district deciding which country to join. After ten years, the question could be put to the population again. Then the two countries would be set for half a century until there would be one final vote, setting forever the boundaries of two Americas.
Any current U.S. citizen would be free to move to either country — there would be a totally open border. If there would be any areas in which either country might want to work together, they could do so by mutual agreement.
Imagine the relief for both Americas. We could move ahead to deal with such national issues as infrastructure needs, immigration reform, gun control, education, climate mitigation, and such things as harvesting science to advance the national health. Or not. We could predict that one country would include New England, the Washington, D.C.-Boston corridor, the Pacific coastline, and the more populated sections of the west.
 Most of the south and portions of the Midwest would make up the second country, supplemented by numerous rural districts in the west and in Pennsylvania. The good people of this second America truly believe “Obamacare” is killing jobs, are opposed to any gun control, would rather have low taxes on billionaires than ensure that babies have sufficient food, believe that global climate change is a fraud and that Voting Rights legislation limits freedom. Given these beliefs, why should they be married to people with such different viewpoints?
And why should the other citizens of America, who believe that a vocal minority of the population have hijacked the nation’s politics and prevented progress, be similarly weighted down?
Give everyone what they want — their own country to govern with cohesive values.
I suggest this not because I have the least personal interest in endeavoring to create two Americas. I have no other motive than the public good of my country, advancing our trade, providing for our children’s future and advancing the hope that some united national purpose may once again bloom, even if it has to bloom twice.
Sharon Heaton, a Friend of The RP, is a Managing Partner at Wellford Energy. This piece was cross-posted at The Huffington Post.
By Lauren Mayer, on Tue Oct 8, 2013 at 3:00 PM ET I often tell people I have 3 boys, ages 17, 20, and 47 – like many men, my husband is an overgrown teenage boy when it comes to some things, particularly his sense of humor when he’s around my actual offspring. They share a love of sophomoric and off-color jokes, ranging from flatulence to ‘that’s what she said,’ and none of them miss an opportunity to point out when an object or a name has any sort of phallic connection. And it’s not just the obvious – e.g. Anthony Weiner jokes. For example, in one recent morning paper I saw a reference to the short-lived Cory Booker scandal – apparently the Newark Mayor and Senate candidate had engaged in some harmless but flirtatious texting with a woman who worked in a vegan strip club. I thought that was funny and read it out loud to my husband and 17-year-old, and after they exchanged a series of lines about what kinds of meat were off-limits, my son chimed in, “So are people who go there vagitarians?” (When my boys were younger, Husband 2.0, who is not their dad, decided he had a novel way to cure them of inappropriate language. One night when I went off to a gig, he informed us all that they would have ‘swearing night’ over dinner, so they could get it all out of their systems. As you may suspect, not only did it not stop the swearing, it actually enhanced their vocabularies. But I digress . . . . )
I don’t have many ways of distancing myself from the frat house atmosphere in which I reside, so when I find one I take advantage of it. I painted my office a distinctly feminine lavender, I listen to classical music in the kitchen, and up til now I refrained from humor about the Speaker of the House, with his teenage-boys-find-hysterical last name. However, his role in the government shut down provides too much inspiration for me to ignore any longer. (That, and I’m probably worn down by the endless Family Guy quotes exchanged at my dinner table . . . )
By John Y. Brown III, on Mon Oct 7, 2013 at 9:15 AM ET There is an historic impasse between two groups of our nation’s leaders.
One group believes that the root cause of what is most wrong in their lives is the threat of implementation of the Affordable Care Act (or Obamacare as some prefer to call it).
The other group believes that the root cause of what is most distressing in their lives is… the Tea Party movement and its influence on the Republican Party.
This is, for both groups, far more than merely a work-related or ordinary civic cause. It is, for most in this debate, the defining question at the defining moment for each of them and everyone around them.
And each group is ridiculing the other for being ignorant and self-righteous and trying to ruin America. But the problem is that those doing the name calling don’t really know –or at least know well–what those they declaim are really like in their daily lives. They often only understand only a caricature or stereotype of their political rivals.
So, here is my modest proposal.
Since you have the week off and are presumably with family, please sit down with them and give each a single sheet of paper and a pen. Then ask each family member to write down the 5 things about you that in their opinion are causing the most trouble for you personally and for your family.
These are the people who know you best and have your best interest at heart–and theirs.
I doubt the “implementation of the ACA” or the “Tea Party movement” will make the cut on many of those lists. And I suspect you’ll be surprised by what does make the list.
 And now here is the immodest part of my proposal. If that is truly what occurs, will you show the same visceral disdain and devotion to ridding those things from your life that really are causing daily pain to you and your family and those around you–and do so with the same resolve and enthusiasm you show today when railing against either Obamacare or Tea Partiers?
If you answer yes, then I suspect you’ll all be back at work sooner than planned.
And if the rest of us who are deeply engaged and emotionally invested in this national healthcare stand-off would try a similar experiment at our home —and devotedly seek to resolve those items written on our lists, I suspect next week will be a lot less testy and a lot more pleasant for each one of us. And that is good for our health—and the political health of our nation.
By John Y. Brown III, on Sun Oct 6, 2013 at 12:00 PM ET Marriage therapists agree it may be time for republicans and democrats in Congress to consider divorcing one another.
“Normally, spouses (and political parties) can work through difficult discussions by agreeing that a “Time Out” can be called by either party when there is disagreement and emotions are running high —but that is contingent on each side respecting the other when a “Time Out” is called.
Some therapists agree that a “prolonged time out” could be beneficial but if parties are going to start insisting on complete shutdowns lasting for several weeks, that other options, including divorce, need to be explored.
“We had felt, as a group, a structured separation made the most sense if things didn’t improve during implementation of the Affordable Health Care Act,” said a spokesperson for the group, “but it is clear now that the two parties have irreconcilable differences that are beyond the scope of the most sophisticated tools our profession has to offer.” Adding that “Even make-up intimacy” (or bi-partisan feel good legislation) seems no longer to hold any allure for either party.
Not all marriage therapists agree. Some professional marriage counselors believe that insisting on using “Mirroring techniques” where members on the floor are required to repeat what they believe they heard another member say –and get confirmation from that member their understanding is correct — before criticizing or name-calling a colleague would be helpful and clear up some of the confusion and hurt feelings experienced now on both sides. But some First Amendment experts say that would be a violation of free speech.
Still others family therapists have suggested the required use of “I” statements when hurling accusations against those not in their political party. For example, instead of shouting something like, ‘You lie!’ to President Obama, Representative Joe Wilson would be required to instead shout something like, “When you talk about your new immigration policy, I feel afraid on the inside.”
Again, however, Constitutional scholars question if such requirements wouldn’t violate the First Amendment.
As for the children, there is the possibility of joint custody. Under this arrangement, Congressional republicans will govern Americans on Mondays and Wednesdays and Fridays and get us every third weekend and half the summer. Democrats in Congress get to govern the country on odd days and two of three weekends and split summers, probably in the Hamptons.
A few marriage counselors suggested that the cause of the breakdown is traceable to the Tea Party being a jealous and controlling mistress for the Republican Party. One therapist, who asked to remain anonymous, compared U.S Senator Ted Cruz to Glenn Close’s character in Fatal Attraction and his recent filibuster reminiscent of the “rabbit stew scene.” A majority of therapists, however, trace primary blame on an earlier ‘straying” with an inter-party dalliance among Congressional Democrats that turned into a torrid romance with now president Barack Obama. Although democrats in congress now claim it is purely a professional and platonic working relationship, many republican colleagues now admit they felt that “Despite years of being together and taking the good with the bad that they were about to be replaced by a new Trophy Politician, President Barack Obama” and never were able to forgive the very public seduction they had to witness. Quoting another marriage therapist who also asked to remain anonymous, “It was like rubbing salt into that fresh wound by making such a priority about “President Obama’s big idea, the healthcare bill. It’s like asking your spouse to chauffeur your new girlfriend around town and expecting them to say, ‘Sure, I’d love to.’ It’s just not realistic.” Adding, “Anyone in our profession could have predicted a retaliatory tryst with the Tea Party was just a matter of time.”
Is this dramatic dissolution of Congress really necessary? As one top marriage counselor said, “It has to be. The example Congress is setting for the children, I mean the people, isn’t healthy and will likely be repeated if any of them ever make it to Congress. This sort of maladjusted and entitled behavior can take years of therapy to overcome. And that would mean adding additional therapeutic coverage to Obamacare and I just don’t see that happening right now. A divorce is really best for all concerned.”
By John Y. Brown III, on Fri Oct 4, 2013 at 6:00 PM ET Did Jon Stewart predict the current government shutdown?
It has been wisely observed that comedians can sometimes be our most useful philosophers.
9 years ago this month an epic moment of honest candid discussion occurred on what was then the most influential political debate show in the nation. It is worth watching right now, in my opinion, if you want to better understand the underlying cause of our nation’s current political dysfunction.
Consider the video clip ad comedian Jon Stewart predicting in 2004 the government shutdown in 2013. At least that is my take.
I don’t believe it matters much who is most at fault. I believe it matters a lot, however, if we as a nation have permantly transformed political debate into a form of sport-like entertainment where the point is merely to “win” –and that we have forgotten how to discuss together, deliberate candidly, and expect our elected officials to honestly craft policy that is within the realm of the possible?
I don’t know the answer. But when I watch this clip I believe Jon Stewart is saying something that is both obvious and profound. And I contend is far more important than any speeches given today on the floor of Congress.
By John Y. Brown III, on Thu Oct 3, 2013 at 1:30 PM ET Why I am not sweating the government shutdown today.
Why not?
Because I have a general tendency to overestimate the impact of external political and economic events on my personal life.
And have learned this the hard way. Which is to say the, well, embarrassing way.
About 9 years ago during the winter months we had a snow storm that caused my work to close down for the day. My son, Johnny, was… about 9 or 10 years old and pleased Dad was getting to stay home for work and wanted me to join him outside to play and sled in the snow. He first asked me around 10 that morning and I responded, “Johnny, I will…but right now the stock market is down over 200 points. I want to see what is happening and monitor a little longer. Give me another hour and check back with me.”
An hour passed and back Johnny came ready for the snow. “Johnny,” I said, “the stock market is now down 300 points and I don’t know what is going on. Can you please give me a little more time and check back around noon?”
Noon came around and in came Johnny. Again. “Dad, how is the stock market going?” I responded, “Johnny, this is awful. The market is now down over 500 points. Unbelievable.”
Johnny paused for a moment and then said, “Why does it matter so much? Mom just told me we don’t own any stocks.” “Yeah,” I said….”Well, you know…That is ….that may be true. We really don’t own any stocks right now, come to think of it. I, uh. I…it’s just a big ….thing. A national , uh, bad thing. I guess. So, that’s why it matters so much to us, I guess.”
We then went outside and played in the snow. And I didn’t worry about the stock market plummeting the rest of the day.
By John Y. Brown III, on Tue Oct 1, 2013 at 5:00 PM ET
A post, a question and a response. And an apology.
Earlier today I posted my thoughts on the government shutdown.
“Great leadership is the ability to successfully blame others for your failures…..Said no one never.”
A longtime friend then asked if I was suggesting others shouldn’t be held accountable or tbat it was bad form to blame.
And here’s my response:
I don’t mean to say either of those things. I am saying that when the people we elect to represent us utterly fail as a body to function to the point that the entire system is shut down, I really don’t give a flip who they think is to blame until they first want to talk about their own failure to do the job they were elected to do. And that job, in my view, isn’t prissing around the halls and floors of Congress to see who can point their finger most forcefully while shrilly blaming another because someone didn’t get their way.
I am embarrassed at my country’s leadership right now. Not because they disagree but because their cause has become so petty, so limited, so thinly-veiled, so self-serving and so antithetical to a governing body that once was the envy of the world.
We should be embarrassed that our leaders have taken a pivotal policy issue of our day and while marshalling our greatest policy minds and medical and technical resources have turned the entire debate into an exercise demonstrating NOT how a great country solves its problems but rather demonstrating how petty a great nation is capable of being–in spite of its greatness.
And we as voters and citizens are complicit in this breakdown. Our elected leaders are, after all, only a reflection of ourselves. That is the good news and bad news of a democratic system.
The government shutdown is, in my opinion, hardly our finest hour in modern times as a nation. Of course, it is not our nation’s darkest hour in modern history either. But it is certainly one of our nation’s most frivolous and unenviable moments. And I hope we can muster the decency and self-respect to make it a very brief one.
—And in the spirit of my response, here is my apology.
I would like to speak for myself now and say that as a citizen and voter I have failed to take the time I should have to read and understand adequately the complex issues at the center of our nation’s healthcare debate. I have failed to listen intently and seriously to those whose politics are different from mine. I have at times sneered and dismissed those who disagree with my party’s position and selfishly sought refuge inside an echo chamber of partisan commentators, news sources, and websites.
I have not done my duty to become a adequately informed citizen and add constructively to the debate. I have chosen easy catch phrases and one-liners in place of a more nuanced and thoughtful understanding of our national healthcare challenges. I understand enough to know there are no easy amswers or obvious solutions and my self-centered and lazy approach has contributed to the trivialization and caticaturing of many important aspects of healthcare policy.
Although I have been careful not to make a habit of using social media to insult those who disagree with my party, I have at times wanted to and in private moments have done just that. I have a role in this national debate and have not asked enough of myself and can’t act too surprised that the debate has culminated today in an unspectacular moment where seemingly everyone loses and no one is to blame.
I am to blame for my failure in my small citizen role. And I hope to make up for these failings going forward. But for tonight, I can at least accept blame in some public way and apologize for my part. And do.
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