Politics Failing

I find it interesting that President Obama can challenge Republicans to offer a jobs plan that can be assessed by outside analysts and win similarly good marks as his own jobs plan, and the Republicans still complain. For the first time in Obama's presidency I feel like he is fighting for what he believes in. I don’t discredit him for seeking common ground during most of his term though, because compromise could be reached and he still accomplished things. However, since the beginning of the summer the public, and the White House, has seen that compromise is slow in coming and nothing is getting achieved that way. So Obama has taken on more of a firm stance and has decided to demand that something be done about the jobs situation immediately.  This is not contradictory to his prior stance, it shows that he can adapt to each situation and apply the necessary pressure required in each situation based on it’s own merits.


On the other hand, Republicans have not come up with a single alternative to the jobs bill that Obama put forth and all they are doing is sitting around complaining that he is wrong and his plan won't work. Stopping Obama’s plan and not doing anything else is only going to make our situation worse. If we have to do something and the only thing on the table is Obamas plan, then the Republicans either need to come up with a competing plan that gets equally as good marks or they need to make the necessary compromises and let Obama’s plan go through. On the plus side for them, if Obama’s plan fails then the Republicans can basically walk into the white house on election day.  It's a win-win for them. Either the economy gets better and we praise our Congress for helping or the plan fails and Republicans get the Presidency.


Overall, I can see why less Americans are participating in politics. It is out of control with too much division and not enough compromise. I would be surprised if the political system can even keep going at this rate. The lack of any appearance of bipartisanship is eating away at American’s trust in the system and too much distrust in the system always leads to a change of some nature.