Photo courtesy of NBC
Politics are never easy to tackle for most people, but the responsibility of politicians is to tackle the issues of politics and coexist with people who they may not necessarily agree with on certain issues. When the people who are entrusted with that responsibility can not do their job, the public is bound to get disheartened and look for other options.
A new poll released by NBC News revealed that 71 percent of millennials are so unhappy with the performance of the Democratic and Republican parties that they now want to have a third major political party created. The poll also revealed that 60 percent of millennials do not approve of Congress’ performance and 63 percent of millennials disapprove of President Donald Trump’s performance so far.
These revelations do not surprise me because this is what happens when people continuously argue with each other as opposed to engaging in intelligent communications. Republicans and Democrats constantly try to fight each other on every major issue in the country, resulting in progress being stalled and the American people continuously being frustrated at their representatives.
It is like a child listening to their parents have the same heated argument over and over again. It eventually gets to the point where it starts to create severe friction within the family, and the child may ultimately want to live somewhere else.
An example of this petty squabbling happened recently when Senator Chuck Schumer and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi canceled a meeting with Trump after he attacked them on Twitter. The meeting was supposed to find the trio discussing issues, such as government funding, but it all fell apart because the people on both sides believed they could not come to a compromise without even trying.
As a result of their conflicting viewpoints, Trump, Schumer and Pelosi abandoned any sort of discussion and have brought things to a standstill once more. As much as Trump has been unconventional in the way he has conducted himself, his inability to work with Democrats on certain issues screams business as usual in the White House.
At a Memorial Day address in 1923, President Calvin Coolidge talked about the importance of our political parties. Coolidge discussed how “the two great political parties of the nation have existed for the purpose, each in accordance with its own principles, of undertaking to serve the interests of the whole nation.”
Republicans and Democrats are going to differ on ways to solve certain issues because that is the purpose of having two different political parties in America. The people need to have differing viewpoints and perspectives so everyone is allowed to think freely and not conform to one mentality of thinking.
However, that concept has become corrupted by the fact that Americans are so driven by their own political viewpoints that they refuse to listen to the ideas of anyone who even dares to differ from the way they think. If there is one thing people can all agree on when it comes to politics, it is the fact that everyone needs to do a better job of preventing conflicting viewpoints from getting in the way of working together for common goals.
Going back to what Coolidge said, the purpose of the two political parties is to use their differing viewpoints to work together and figure out what is best for the American public. When politicians are more interested in serving their own agendas than in serving the people of the country, the foundation that our country was built upon gets undermined.
This country has become so divided that the political leaders have already lost the trust of the younger generations. One should always ask questions if they disagree with what certain politicians are doing, but everyone should feel that the members of the government ultimately have America’s best interests in mind.
The last few years have further vindicated the belief that the Democratic and Republican Parties only have their interests in mind and do not truly care about the people. The NBC News poll should be taken as a wake-up call for the country’s leaders that they should put more effort into working together on the issues here. If that happens, then the American people may not feel the need to create a third political party to do the job that the Democratic and Republican Parties are supposed to be doing.
