Another example of 21st century democracy in action

The shutdown of the Minnesota state government is another example of the inability of the current crop of politicians – both state and federal – to compromise. I’m sure that we’ll see more of this intransigence when the process to replace Justice O’Connor begins. I’ve heard that the GOP has allocated $18,000,000 for advertisements in this battle, while the Democrats are preparing as though they were going to war.

I’d like to say that this contretemps is largely because we have moved to professional politicians. In part it is. But Tip O’Neill and Arthur Vandenberg and Howard Baker and Sam Ervin were professional politicians and they realized the necessity of solving problems even if you don’t fully agree with the exact form of the solution. Maybe I’m just being a crotchety old man.

We need to change our politicians. However, this will never happen until we change the way voting districts are defined. Right now, they are defined solely to benefit the incumbents.