Government Shutdown: We're All to Blame

The government shutdown is good for one thing. It shows us again how the Bible is relevant to real life.

In Genesis 3 immediately after Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit from the Tree of Knowledge God appears on the scene. You can read the story here or just reading the Livingston Version of the Bible here: 
God: "Adam, do you want to tell me what you've done here?"
Adam: "Um...I don't really know what happened. I was just standing here and this woman gave me this fruit to eat. What was I supposed to do? I was trying to be polite. It's her fault1"
God: "And Eve, what about you?"
Eve: "Well, yeah, I gave Adam the apple but only because this snake made me eat it first."
Snake: "Hissssss"

You see how quickly we resort to blaming each other instead of taking responsibility for our own actions? So maybe we shouldn't expect Congress and President Obama to act any better. Regardless of our expectations, they are playing the blame game and playing it well. I watched helplessly last night while person after person came on TV pointing the finger at someone else. I never heard anyone say "I'm part of the problem." How can an intelligent human being say with a straight face that this problem is all because of one side of the aisle or the other? They are all obstinate!  I put the blame 1/3 on President Obama for not being more assertive in talking with Republicans in Congress, 1/3 on Congressional Republicans for not proposing a serious compromise (they repeatedly say their first compromise was defunding Obamacare. How exactly is that a compromise?), and 1/3 on the Senate for not passing a true budget it I don't  know how many years. Oh, and if we had responsible spending and taxing policies we might never have been in this mess to begin with.

But now, notice what I'm doing. Notice how quickly I began to place the blame. President Obama was elected not even one year ago. So was all of the House of Representatives and 1/3 of the Senate. I'm spreading the blame evenly across the field, but I'm leaving out the group that put these buffoons in office. Don't get me wrong, they are all acting like buffoons. But it was buffoons like you and me who gave them the power to shut down the government by putting them into office.

Reality check: Politicians want to get elected. They get elected by getting votes. They get votes by giving people what the people say they want. These politicians have heard that ideology is more important than governing. Polarizing policy is more important than getting along. Rhetoric is more important than reasoning. They have been told this by 1) the extremes in the population that contact politicians and 2) the silence of the non-extremist majority of Americans who are tired of this nonsense. If you are in the silent majority STOP BEING SILENT. DO SOMETHING!

Here's a place to start.
1. Find out who your representative is here
2. Contact your representative by following the links or go here.
3. Say something like this: "I'm interested in voting for politicians who are interested in making a positive difference in the world. You have a chance to be that kind of politician, but you're not doing it right now. Please get back to work fulfilling your responsibility to govern this country. I, and people like me across the country, are sending this message to Washington so that Democrats and Republicans alike know that we the people are far more interested in governing than one-upmanship. I understand that in elections politicians sometimes feel the need to cater to the extremes. You need to know that if you do so you may get their vote but you will not get mine."

I've just emailed my Senators and Representative. I hope you do the same.