Editorial -- President, Politicians Golfing as Sequester Looms

While a sequester that would create devastating cuts looms, there is no urgency in Washington whatsoever to address the problem. President Obama was on vacation golfing with oil industry lobbyists while Congress is currently on vacation as well. This means one of two things -- either the problem is not as serious as we are being led to believe, or our politicians have decided that they just don't care anymore.

The problem starts in the mirror. Poll after poll shows that around 75% of Americans think that Congress does not reflect their values. Yet here is the kicker -- they think that their Congressman is not part of the problem. Hence, for instance, Sam Graves gets reelected handily, getting 72% and 65% in the last two elections. And for all the visceral Obama hate out there, we reelected him as well. The point is that we should not reelect Congressman Graves or President Obama automatically; we should reelect them because they accurately reflect our interests.

The next problem is with the media. The corporate media acts like gatekeepers and decides who is important and who is not. Since Ross Perot threw a scare into the two-party establishment in the 1990's, certain gatekeepers have set up rules that stack the deck in favor of the two party system. We, on the other hand, feel that everyone has a right to be heard and plan our coverage accordingly. 

There is plenty of other blame to go around. The church is supposed to be salt and light to the world. Yet too many church organizations and leaders have become propaganda outlets for one party or the other instead of being willing to show independence. After all, God is supposed to be much more important than some political party or system. And organizations create objective sounding names and purport to be think tanks, yet all of their "conclusions" conveniently reflect the propaganda of the party that they are serving.

Ultimately, we have brought this mess on ourselves. Unless something happens between now and March 1st, we will start to pay the consequences.