The New Year always brings a feeling of hope that many of the problems of the previous year will be solved. Believe me, this covers a lot of problems from political to football. We hope that the two-party system will return to actually working to solve many of the issues that are before us and have been unsolved due to one party or the other blocking their place on the agenda. With the new president last year we have seen the Democrats completely block all legislation that was possible and refuse to take part in any of the discussions brought to the Congress by the Republicans. The tactic has been a power struggle and attempt to damage the new president as he tries to implement the issues he was elected to work on.
The health care problem in this country was not solved with the Affordable Care Act, and opposite the media’s attempts to sell it, is the real problem of unaffordable health insurance still being a problem. In fact health care can be afforded by the very rich, and the rest of us are left to pay high premiums in insurance to get any care at all. The lower income levels can only afford insurance that has very high minimums and then they cannot afford to go to the doctor. Instead of joining the Republicans in Congress and try to replace the Act or attack the real problem of high cost the Democrats sat on the sideline and along with the media threw stones at the problem.
We saw this happening for each issue brought up. I wondered who voted for Congress members and Senators who refused to do their sworn duty and why? It costs a lot of money to run the Congress of the United States and much of last year was wasted on hate and deceit. The fourth estate did not fare any better as they sided with one party instead of putting both parties’ feet to the fire and reporting the truth to the voters. Lobbyists had a good time spending a lot of money trying to get their favorite candidates elected again. But even this did not dissuade the Democrats from their refusal to take part in the process of making new laws and changing old ones. A news reporter on a panel discussion said that it was the media’s job to educate the public on the consequences of the administration’s actions. She was saying that it was her duty to educate us on the hypothetical outcomes caused by Trump’s actions. This statement gave us a view of the arrogance, elitism and snobbery of the liberal media and the political left. Her ideology had become her religion, and she was more interested in defending it than reporting the real news. I am hopeful that this will change during this New Year and we can return to a normal fight between parties over their ideologies and voters’ wishes. With the issues of immigration and new budgets and the possible increase in national debt, we need both parties to act as if they care about our country and come to the table with ideas and solutions that they can debate and compromise on.
The football issue is a holdover from last year. The results of the 2017 NFL season are determined in the New Year with the playoffs and the Super Bowl in February. It is ironic that this time we have to start the playoffs with two teams with the most Super Bowl wins and with two teams with the most Super Bowl losses. It should get interesting, and think about a Super Bowl between Minnesota and Buffalo. At least one of them would finally win one. The greatest thing about sports, and especially football, is the team concept and every player on the team has to contribute to win. Even with the Browns this year every game they played was played to win with eleven men on the field trying to do their best. That is what all of us need to do in this New Year. If we all do our best each day to do our jobs, love our families and help others, think about the things we could accomplish.
Now I want you to think about what this country would look like, feel like and be like if our elected officials would do the same and do their best for each person that voted for them including putting aside their hatred, deceit, power grabs, lobbyists’ wishes and personal problems. Wouldn’t it be wonderful?
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