Why, because the system is broken and the parties are at fault. Case in point is the failure of Congress to devise an intelligent action plan to resolve the energy crisis. Despite the infinite resources at their disposal and no reluctance to use them when motivated, Congress went on vacation without producing any legislation to address the issue. If this were private industry, these people would be fired.

Examining the Senate first, only the Group of Ten (five Democrats and five Republicans) proposed a compromise solution to the energy crisis. That means only 10% of the Senate constructively engaged in solving the problem; leaving 90% of the Senate, including Majority Leader Harry Reid, unproductive and unresponsive to the nation’s most pressing problem. If their constituents were smart and would stop voting along party lines, these people would be unemployed. That means ninety Senators (and their staffs) would be out of a job when their respective terms expired.

Now if you thought that 10 out of 100 of a workforce constructively employed is bad, they are a model of efficiency compared to the House of Representatives. Thanks to the majority party system, Speaker Nancy Pelosi was allowed to enact special rules requiring two-thirds support (290 reps out of 435) for offshore drilling before letting it come to the floor for a vote. Even a solution containing offshore drilling as part of a comprehensive plan was blocked from being voted on. Speaker Pelosi recently explained her intransigence as "I'm trying to save the planet." How ridiculous. Since she can’t stop any other nation from drilling either on their land or in international waters, does she think that drilling by a less technologically developed nation would be safer for the environment? Or maybe she just wants to hurt the US and by extension, the world economy. I know it couldn’t be concern for the use of fossil fuels because she wanted a larger jet when she became speaker. And it couldn’t be naiveté because she tried to exempt Star-Kist (headquartered in her district) from the minimum wage hike. So that leaves us with party politics.

What the Democrats are betting on is that despite being the majority party in Congress, their obstructionism and lack of responsiveness to the people will automatically be blamed on Republicans because Bush is in the White House. This is demeaning to all thinking voters. Could you imagine telling your boss that you couldn’t deliver something that was totally under your control because some other company that used your product was stopping you? This is what the Democrats who control the legislative branch of government are claiming when they don’t produce law for the executive branch of government which is controlled by a Republican. Such a farce would fail in any other industry; so why is it acceptable in politics? The answer, of course, is that party line voting fails to hold individual politicians responsible for their actions. Instead of being accountable to the public for their jobs, they’re only accountable to their party.

The only way to stop this insanity is for a majority of the people to become discriminating voters and reject party labels. It is insulting when party strategists refer to the “Democratic Brand” and “Republican Brand” as if they were marketing a can of tuna fish or a jar of peanut butter. Any independent voter can readily see that both parties are more than a few fries short of a happy meal. Now’s the time to stop voting party line and start voting for individuals who will represent us and fulfill their sworn duty to uphold the constitution. To Speaker Pelosi I say, “You’re fired, I’m trying to save the nation!”