Absent Big Thinkers, We Are Stuck with a Pack of Political Gophers

Where are the big thinkers? The people with vision, vision more than a week out. Vision that took us to the moon, built the Hoover Dam, the Empire State Building, the Panama Canal, helped rebuild Japan and Europe after World War Two and thousands of other creative, grand, inventive and often inspiring “visions.”

Now, instead of thinking big, taking a long-term view of our world and trying to develop ways of moving us down a positive road that benefits all of us, makes our country embrace its greatness and all its people, our politicians continue to dive into their little gopher holes and squeak at each other and at us with no thought about anything but that hole and its narrow tunnel connection to other little gopher-filled holes along the way.

Rise up, gophers, there’s a big world out there.

But in an era when even the slightest so-called misstep can anger the base of each party, politicians avoid being bold because being bold doesn’t get them into the general election. At least that’s the way it seems . . . and nobody has enough money to run without that base support.

Imagine, if you will (you may have to close your eyes and really concentrate), a politician standing up and saying, “I’m a moderate. And I believe in America, the diversity of its people and the bright future we have ahead of us. Now we all need to work to turn this ship around and set course that will make us even greater than we are.”

Yeah, then you woke up, right?

Instead we listen to our politicians push an agenda of throwing 12 million illegal immigrants out of the country (how exactly will we do that), continued attacks on women’s health issues (largely by men who can’t imagine their daughters going to Planned Parenthood for a pap test), complete gridlock on the budget, tax reform, healthcare costs or feeding children. These are all big issues, but alas, our small-thinking politicians can’t embrace any real solutions.

Don’t you want to hear real solutions to real problems . . . how are we going to get a few million people back into the workforce? How are we going to stop government from overspending? How are we going to cut the deficit? How are we going to change the healthcare system so it works for effectively for everyone? How are we going to wind down governmental handouts to farms and other businesses? How do we alter Medicare and Social Security so they work now and are viable in the future? How do we grow American businesses and jobs?

That enough for now? If a congressman was reading this he probably passed out half way through. Hey, they get rid of a lot of governments overseas if they don’t work. And with an approval rating under 10 percent, I’m guessing a lot of people here would just as soon throw these bums out and try another bunch. (That’s part of a good case for limited terms for these folks.)

I’ve said it before . . . if these people worked in the private sector, they’d all be fired. They have proved, time and time again, that they are (those both the Senate and the House) unable to do their jobs. Even pushing their responsibilities on to a so-call Super Committee didn’t work. The committee failed to reach and agreement on how the cut the deficit over the next 10 years. By the way, these folks make pretty good money to suck at not doing their jobs.

I still say I could gather a few friends and family and cut a few trillion dollars in about an hour. Then we could restore Social Security and Medicaid (without hurting current beneficiaries), eliminate some of the roadblocks to more efficient healthcare and, after lunch, figure out a cost-effective way for the government to help feed the food-insecure kids in this country.

We face big issues, but I spy nobody willing or able to deal with them or offer substantive solutions to them. Where are the ideas? Attack Planned Parenthood? Deport millions of illegal immigrants? Strip the EPA of any effective power? Change the Constitution to embrace your idea of family?

We are devoid of leaders. On both sides of the political aisle.

Our greatness will continue to come largely from the private sector in the long run, since it will be private industry that ultimately hires workers, builds products and creates solutions. Bringing American workers back to work helps us all, and helps us rebuild in the ever-changing world our small-thinking politicians are unable to embrace.