Thursday, March 26, 2015

The Prevalence of Partisanship.

It truly is a wonder that anything gets done in our government.

Extreme partisanship has been an increasingly prominent issue that I've been noticing lately. People are stubborn, that's human nature, and it is understandable that people want to maintain a point of view and fight to prove the value of that point of view. But it seems that for many, maintaining and defending that point of view has become more important that actually solving problems. The desire to be right, to fight for what you believe in, has become so powerful in our society that it seems like compromise is becoming more difficult that ever to achieve.

Our government is the prime example of this extreme partisanship in our society. Earlier this week a bill proposed by a democrat regarding repairing our degrading infrastructure was blocked. This bill called for $468 billion dollars to be spent on repairing infrastructure that desperately needs work. In order to offset this spending, the democrats planned on eliminating a number of tax breaks that allowed large companies to get out of paying certain taxes. Due to the elimination of tax breaks for big businesses, the Republicans quickly shut down this bill, and the bill was denied with votes following party lines.

The fact of the matter is that our deficit is out of control and tax reform is one of the most important steps to work towards solving this issue. Sometimes each party isn't going to get exactly what it wants, but living in a country that was built from compromise that should be expected. The problem is that compromise is becoming increasingly rare. By turning down this bill, and trying to find an alternative to limiting tax breaks for big business, the process of funding infrastructure repairs will be delayed that much longer, and I don't know about anyone else but I am sick and tired of weaving around potholes.

All jokes aside, the continued partisanship expressed by congress and people in general (myself included) is truly detrimental to progress. The key to success in anything involving a group is consideration. You may not like an opinion or even think it is worth your time to think about, but give it a try. Disliking an opinion simply because it doesn't follow your own will rarely end in a better situation, so let your opinions change, don't become a victim of partisanship or stubbornness in general.

There are times when you will be wrong, there are many times that I was so sure about something and I ended up being wrong. But the key is to accept that you're wrong and work towards making yourself right again. Don't respond to controversy with more controversy, respond with a solution, or do like Obama did and respond with a joke. But in the end of the day, stubbornness and partisanship will always exist and will likely remain extremely prevalent in both our government and society. The internet is a perfect breeding ground for a new generation of biased and ignorant people who will follow and believe whatever is trending on Twitter or popular on Tumblr. We just have to try our hardest to remain neutral, remain bipartisan, and not let one opinion or one point of view define us for life.

Then again, who knows? I could be wrong. After all this is simply an opinion; to each their own.



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