This Op Ed piece was going to be about the current bru-ha-ha over reconciliation of the Healthcare reform bills. However, in the current issue of Newsweek, one page stood out that puts our current situation in perspective; it reveals the true state of our nation regardless of the last hundred years of bickering, politicking, yellow journalism and partisan backbiting. The one page consisted of headlines from the New York Times from over the last 100 years. The headlines could have appeared in any newspaper today. It's a reflection of the tug-of-war that has gone on since the parties were formed in the United States.
One headline screams "Democrats are Divided on Healthcare Bill" from an August 1964 article that declares that "approval of this bill this year was ‘very near an impossibility'". Another headline reads as if it was ripped from the headlines of any major newspaper in the country today, "How Big of a National Debt Can we stand?" from a 1952 headline as well as the headline "Tea Party meeting Fights New Taxes" from 1935.
Maybe if the headlines just stay in the presses for a long enough time, publishers can reuse them over and over. What a cost savings!
In regard to the state of politics another headlines reflects the pendulum that IS our political system going from conservative to liberal ideals generation after generation. This article appeared in 1918 and exclaims that there is "‘Partisanship' and Patriotism" from the floors of the Senate. The article illustrates that fact that partisan politics is now a tradition in the US legislature. As well as another article from an April 1971 issue that shows that a "Healthcare Bill Held Up Over Fear of Loss of Jobs".
What significance do these headlines reveal? That no matter what the argument, what the debate, no matter who is in power, the problems of today were most likely the same problems of yesterday. What is the take home message? Maybe it's time to stop worrying so much about what everyone else thinks and time to focus on what really matters.
At what point will America re-focus on its people like it did during the time of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. As the cliché goes, the definition of stupidity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result; US politics is the purest form of stupidity.
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