The 2024 election is over.
The voters voted, the two ignorant parties either celebrated their win or tried to figure out why they lost.
Over and done, right?
Not just yet, as I would like to put my last nail in the election coffin.
It got off to a terrible start, with about 60% to 70% of Americans who preferred neither Donald Trump nor Joe Biden/Kamala Harris rerun for office, and well over 70% of us thought the country was headed in the wrong direction.
I sit here wondering why the election wasn’t all about unity, working together for the good of the country.
As a proud independent, I can only imagine the good work Washington could do if only they put aside their hate and their personal agendas and united around solving the major issues of our time.
I was discouraged, believing that will not happen.
That is, until last week.
On Dec. 12, not being able to personally attend, I virtually attended a Power to the Middle Conference held in Washington, D.C.
I came away with elevated hopes that, through the partisan warfare smoke, I could begin to see a little light at the end of the halls of Congress.
But first, let me point out why.
In a Gallup poll, when respondents were asked if they politically identify as a Democrat, Republican, or an independent, 27% identified as a Democrat, down 1 percentage point from last year. Twenty-seven percent identified as Republican, and a whopping 43% identified as independents, a fact Washington is unable to figure out, and should serve as a wake-up call to our nation’s capital city.
The two parties are deaf and blind to America’s call for unity, but not nearly as bad as I thought before that conference.
Hundreds of people from all 50 states attended and listened to dozens of representatives from both the House and Senate. The conference was sponsored by a nonprofit political organization called NoLabels, who 10 years ago was the driving force behind the formation of Congress’s Problem Solvers Caucus, which now boasts more 60 members who have agreed to work across party lines for commonsense solutions.
Each representative took the stage to point out where it is possible to work together to solve big problems, like the debt and deficits, Social Security, Medicare, and immigration.
It was the first time in many years I heard a message that positive coming from our federal government representatives.
Only time will tell if their actions match up to their words.
The last speaker of the day was Frank Luntz, an American political consultant and pollster, who confirmed the voters in the middle of the political spectrum were growing in numbers.
Luntz did say something else that resonated with me. He said, “Politics is all about math. It should be about addition and multiplication, instead of subtraction and division.”
And, when you get right down to it, he is spot-on.
We, the voters, do our part. It’s the folks we elect every cycle who are not doing theirs.
Why is that?
It’s because, when they get to Washington, they divide up into two camps, not one. They toe the party line or are threatened with being “primaried” in the next election. They sit on separate sides of the aisle as if they were two Civil War armies separated by a picket-fence line.
We, in the middle, just don’t see it that way.
Call it crazy, but we actually believe we can attain much more working together than staying apart. We can find common ground for the sake of the country. We can look at candidates and issues without being blinded by blue or red lenses. We also believe Congress should be setting an example for the people, an example unlike their divisive political antics and more like the people who get up each morning, go to work with people of all persuasions and beliefs, and then go home at night after a productive day of accomplishment.
I wish I knew how we could get that attitude through to the politicians we hire. I wish I knew why they all weren’t members of the Problem Solvers Caucus.
So, as the election comes to a close, I know what I have to do now, and I encourage every reader to do the same.
Now is the time the real work starts.
We can’t just sit back and wait for the next election. We have to give constant feedback to those we elected. Watch what they say. Watch how they vote. And let them know your opinions.
And remind them we still have the power of our future votes in our pocket.
In 2025, I am going to pester the heck out of them. They will get to know me, and they need to get to know you, too. It’s easy to get their contact information. You deserve a response from each of them, and, if not, pester them even more. And don’t let up.
I believe in you more than I believe in them, so let’s go to work — together — and demand they do what they promised us they would do.
Not just for you or me, but for the United States of America.
Can we force the people in Washington to change, or not?
Let me know at [email protected].
Greg Awtry is the former publisher of the Scottsbluff (Neb.) Star-Herald and Nebraska’s York News-Times. He is now retired and living in Hubbard Lake. Greg can be contacted at [email protected].
This post was originally published on here
