A letter to the editor in today’s Milwaukee Journal Sentinel suggested that the voters weren’t at fault for the gridlock in Madison or Washington. Really? Although some valid points are raised in the letter (see link above and full text below)…the fact that we are dissatisfied with our elected officials by a wide margin…14% approval rating for Congress?…we pretty much sent all of the incumbents back to both Washington and Madison…so we will reap what we as voters have sown. The overall dysfunction is squarely on our shoulders for how we voted and even more heavily on the shoulders of those of us who didn’t vote.
Editorial Page Editor David D. Haynes raises some interesting views on why our national and state political landscapes are so polarized (“Thoughts on a house divided,” Opinion, Jan. 2).
However, concluding that we, the electorate, should stop blaming politicians because they are “only holding a mirror up to us” seems unfair at best.
The electorate does not allow corporate interests to control our vote; care more about our own job security than the social and economic welfare of those we swear to represent; insist on party loyalty at the expense of sound public policy; limit the power of one-person/one-vote by gerrymandering ridiculous political districts while attempting to repress voters with draconian registration requirements; restrict economic options by refusing to tie the minimum wage to inflation; clog our prisons with severe mandatory sentencing laws that perpetuate a bloated, wasteful, criminal justice system and disproportionately incarcerate people of color and our most marginalized neighbors; prioritize repression over education; etc., etc., etc.
Might the electorate be more informed and less preoccupied with mindless diversions? Sure. But for any journalist to say we should not blame politicians more than ourselves for the divisiveness that dominates our legislative, judicial and executive branches is tantamount to insisting on a fair game of cards while continuing to allow the dealer to deal from the bottom of a stacked deck.
Philip Nero
Shorewood
No gridlock in Madison
I tend to believe in the old adage “We get the government that we deserve.”
And I tend to believe in the new adage: “We get the government that THEY deserve.”