Base-Jumping as a Political Sport!

I have never really understood the sport of base-jumping.    Jumping out of a off of a perfectly good cliff in order to get a boost of adrenalin just seems a bit … illogical.  To trust one’s life to a veil of fabric that is supposed to open on command is a bit of a stretch for me.  Some things are just too important to entrust to systems that are “supposed” to work.

A couple of weeks ago our congressional leaders engaged in their own version of base-jumping.  They stood on the edge of the so-called “fiscal cliff” and jumped by failing to agree on legislation that would have kept us on the mountain.  In my opinion, they did so in order to energize their base and pump some adrenalin into those who support them with money and votes.  Adrenalin prepares the human body to fight or flee from a danger.  By jumping off the cliff they prepared the “body politic” to fight the good fight of their own ideological battles.  That is the way it is supposed to work.

However, the energy generated by such risky “political sport” can also lead to flight.  People can decide that our leadership is more interested in “playing games” than governing.  They can may flee from the democratic processes and seek other ways to impose their ideology on our society.  Or they could take flight from their elected officials and disregard the place of government in our lives.  In either case, the risk to “good governance and social order would be very high.”  Base-jumping off the “fiscal cliff” or the “debt-ceiling cliff” hardly seems worth the risk. 

Surely we can find a better way to reach a consensus and put our fiscal house in order.  Surely, people of reason and good will can find a way to serve the “common good”.  Do we really need this political sport before the grandstands of polarizing “news channels”? 

Tell your Representatives and Senators to step back from the cliff.  Sit down together and agree on the common good you seek.   Then turn off the cameras and talk to each other until you find a way to serve that common good.  Then come back to the cameras and start selling your agreement to the rest of us.  If you have served us well, you will keep your jobs.  If not, then start looking a new job.  We will be looking for someone who is more interested in governing than playing “political games.”

Bob Dees