From a Time Magazine interview with former GOP Senator Alan Simpson:
Would you run for office now?
Oh, hell, no. Now it’s just sharp elbows, and instead of having a caucus where you sit down and say, “What are you going to do for your country?” you sit figuring out how to screw the other side.
Too bad he’s not still in office.
I agree, but I also can’t blame him for feeling as he does. It’s we, the people who’ve allowed ourselves to be manipulated into electing “representatives” that don’t really put the country first, that are to blame.
I agree with Simpson and Pied and also with IzaakMak that it’s fundamentally our fault, but I also blame the media and it’s admiration for bipartisanship. The few new congresspersons who have taken a principled stand are being criticized as unbending, unreasonable and childishness for refusing to go along with something they firmly believe is destroying the country. People should re-read “Profiles In Courage” and remember the absolute absence of bipartisanship that prevailed at the signing of the Declaration Of Independence. Going along to get along is why we’re being visited by crisis after crisis that are a result of bending and bastardizing the language and intent of the limitations the constitution imposes on government.