It is abundantly clear that finding actual solutions to our problems is not the goal of most of our politicians, and it hasn’t been for a really long time.  Instead, it’s all about the game.

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The insidious game of politics is being played by two ineffectual teams with nothing more in their arsenal than high-dollar lobbying, unconstitutional executive orders, self-serving earmarks, and despicable little tricks like gerrymandering and voter suppression.

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The game of politics is the reason that Russia was able to exploit our deep internal division and interfere in our sacred elections; why our total public debt is $29.7 trillion, our federal budget deficit reached $3.13 trillion, and the reason we even know the term fiscal cliff; and why the U.S. debt rating was downgraded for the first time in history — now over a decade ago — because of “the gulf between the political parties.”

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It is why, well over a year after Joe Biden took the oath of office, only 41 percent of his nominees for Senate-confirmed jobs had been approved, leaving us with very important positions with no one in them < worse, to even get many of those 41 percent approved, Democrats had to kiss-up to Republicans in ridiculous ways. Republican Senator Tom Cotton, for example, refused to move forward with the confirmation process of five U.S. attorney nominees until Democratic Senator Dick Durbin publicly apologized to him for “interrupting” him eight months before. …what?  Good grief, these people act like they are five years old! >.

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The game of politics is why over 37 million Americans are trapped in poverty, why our inequality gaps in almost every category are massive, and why our Medicare and Social Security funds are virtually insolvent. It is why we still have broken health care, education, and criminal justice systems, and why our immigration policy is a complete cluster#*^#.

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It is why our checks and balances are completely out of whack, why governmental waste is colossal, and why lobbyists almost exclusively write our public policy. It’s the reason our early response to Covid-19 was a disaster — as was our exit from Afghanistan — and why our allies are still somewhat confused and concerned.

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The game of politics is why atrocities like “enhanced interrogation techniques” (i.e., torture) and Guantánamo called into question our national core values and threatened our global image; why Iran and China are resentful and resurgent; and why Vladimir Putin and Kim Jong-un are essentially shooting us the bird.

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It cannot be denied: The game of politics has brought this country to the brink, to the point where we literally have no choice but to make serious, significant changes.

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We're pretty sure most of us believe this to be true, but we always get stumped by the million-dollar question:

 

How in the world do we do it?