Time to Pick a Side

A couple of decades ago Barry Levinson made a wonderful film about families in America called Avalon. In my humble opinion, it is an overlooked classic, a film with an epic sweep about the Americanization of a family of Russian immigrants. Many of the scenes in the movie revolved around two distinctly American holidays – the 4^th of July and Thanksgiving. What I remember most vividly is that at the beginning of the film Thanksgiving was celebrated by all the family members at a table (actually several tables pushed together) so long that it extended the length of the house all the way into a bathroom. The conversation was loud and spirited. Towards the end of the movie, one of the characters (who was a child around that long table) is celebrating Thanksgiving with his wife and two children, just the four of them, alienated from the rest of the family, sitting in front of the television, not talking to each other.

Is that what our country does to us? Are we doomed to isolate ourselves and be so unable to cooperate and work with each other that we are better off being alone?

Just when I am ready to give up hope, when the Super Committee proves the ridiculousness of their name, when the NBA lockout (which I really could care less about) seems irresolvable, news comes of a new labor deal in major league baseball with all sorts of sweeping changes to the game. Most people have ignored this story for the simple reason that it’s boring. There is no conflict or drama to report. But it will change baseball – it will be the first sport to do blood testing for Human Growth Hormone, the Houston Astros are going to move from the National to American League, two more teams will make the playoffs, the minimum player salary has been raised, the use of instant replay will be expanded, etc, etc. This new deal will last for the next five years.

Wow.

Adults actually sat together and worked out a deal that serves both their interests. They figured out that if they cooperate with each other they both could get what they want. They simply understood that there is no reason for them to trifle with the goose laying the golden eggs.

There is a lesson here, of course, for the Congress. But who really was naïve enough to think the Super Committee would ever work in the first place? I had no hope for them when they started and am not particularly alarmed by their failure. Wake up, people. The Congress is willing to mortgage America’s long-term good for the short-term goal of controlling the White House. Both sides realize that the fallback plan that the Super Committee’s failure puts into place doesn’t kick in until after the next Presidential election. Why compromise now? In a year’s time, both parties are betting, their party will have the majority needed to push their agenda through. John Boehner and Harry Reid both published statements yesterday blaming the other side for the failure of the Super Committee. Do they really think the American people are stupid enough to believe that? Neither side sees a compelling reason to consider the arguments of the other. Each believes total victory is in their grasp. Each believes bi-partisanship, at this moment, is weakness.

There may be something to their logic. I’ve always prided myself on being independent. I often split my vote. I don’t think I can do that anymore. In the current political climate, nothing happens when power is balanced in our country. Our government refuses to work together like the folks controlling baseball. My dream of being independent and appreciating the best of both has died. It’s time to pick a side in this fight.

In the meantime, over 46 million of our fellow citizens live under the poverty line – and lest you think that’s an urban problem, be aware that as many poor people now live in suburban and rural areas as in our cities. Unemployment soars. The world’s economies teeter. And I have this image of our elected representatives heading to their own homes for Thanksgiving, isolated, eating their turkey dinners alone in front of the television in silence, numb to the scope of their failure and the people’s outrage at their inability to do what we elected them to do: effectively govern.