Time for officials to work together

Published 3:32 pm Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Change. That’s about the only word that all the presidential candidates have in common. They all declare that they are for change or that they are an “agent for change” or a “change candidate.” But, what do they mean? Some of us would like to believe that they mean that change means changing the way they will do business. Such as: No partisan politics — work together to solve America’s problems, of which there are many.

Just imagine what could be accomplished if all these elected officials worked together instead of spending valuable time and our money on making the other political party look bad just because they can. No more “earmarks” in the budget or “pork” just to make an impression back home; do what is best for our country and its people, not the party or a particular lobbyist. What they say they are going to do before they are elected never seems to materialize after they are elected and by that time most of the voters have forgotten what the promises were.

My naivete may be showing, but I believe that there have to be enough intelligent, hardworking and honest elected officials in Washington D.C. to solve some of our problems. The America envisioned by our founding fathers is not the America we have today. Along the way we have lost the original vision of America to greed, moral laxity, partisan politics and lobbyist influence.

Mike Tastad