Nov. 25th: Not Even Politics

For the fourth time in a month, President Barack Obama will have to go back to the drawing board to come up with a nominee for the Federal Appeals Court. The Senate rejected Robert L. Wilkins’ nomination, marking the third time that they have turned down an Obama administration selection to fill one of the vacancies on the court. Republicans in the Senate were forthcoming about their reasoning for the rejection: Wilkins is a liberal which will skew the ideology of the court to the left.

One of the perks of being President is the ability to decide the ideological trajectory of various government agencies, the court being the most significant. Yet again, we see the G.O.P taking all of Obama’s power away, rendering him virtually impotent.

This is just another example from a presidency that, in the scope of history, will likely come to be known for its political conflict across party lines. The Republicans in both the Senate and the House have made the decision to make Obama’s presidency as difficult as possible, no matter what they have to block to accomplish it.

In the aftermath of the government shutdown debacle, you would think that Congress would be on its best behavior. That doesn't appear to be the case. There seems to be this notion that Barack Obama’s presidency is just a tough time and that we, as America, are going to “ride it out.”

That isn’t the way government works, or at least isn’t the way it SHOULD work. We cannot waste the next three years. With so many government officials focusing so heavily on their upcoming elections, we need to leave the off-years to actually allow those elected officials to do their jobs, to allow the governors to actually govern.

While Congress does have the technical power to deny a president the ability to install a candidate to a particular vacancy, it does not mean that it needs to be used early and often. The checks and balances set up by the Constitution are meant to prevent a specific group or individual from abusing their power, installing under-qualified or nepotistic candidates. It is not an example of nepotism to install an individual of similar ideological background, yet the Republicans feel as though they can use that as the only grounds for refusal to approve.

It is totally understandable for different political parties to get into conflict about issues. The actual substance of what is being debated, and the conceptual pieces that make up government deliberation. It is not, on the other hand, the right of the politicians, Republican or Democrat, to shut down the government simply because a politicians cannot find it within him or herself to find a way to get along with the other party.

While the government shutdown has technically ended, behavior like this from the Republicans proves that governing is not occurring. For the political system to think it is acceptable to bide their time until there can be some kind of shift based on elections is not only wasting their time in office, but also wasting my time, as a citizen.

This country is in desperate need of governing right now. It is no longer acceptable, then, for those trusted with that task to continue to use their positions for petty argument, rather than bold and significant social and political analysis and, in some cases, reform.