Political Sausage

Most people (vegetarians excepted) seem to like sausage. But there's the old adage that you don't want to know how sausage is made. It's messy business after all.The same can be said about lawmaking. Legislating is likewise a messy affair.The problem is that in the past the mess was all behind closed doors. The laws were made and the lot of us were basically none the wiser. Unless you were reading the political rags, all you knew was that you were supposed to vote for the guy (because, let's face it, back in the 60s and 70s they were all guys few very few exceptions) with the D or the R next to their names.Backroom deals happened. The old-boys-club kept the country generally working by scratching each others' backs.Then along came the 24-hour news cycle.Everyone started seeing the sausage, er, laws being made. None of the politicians wanted to be seen with the dirty hands that were used to make the sausage.Then came social media.Not only did every see everything, but now everything was pushed to you. If a Democrat made a deal with a Republican then all hell would break loose among their constituents; both of them.Deal-making was no longer rewarded but instead reviled.The sausage that everyone needs (including vegetarians!) -- the laws and governance of the land -- stopped being made.We have gone from back-room deals to a legislature that has simply stopped functioning.As a country, we need to stop punishing people from reaching across the aisle. All we are doing is further polarizing the nation and those who run it. We need cooperation.Fundamentally, both Democrats and Republicans want this country to be great. Both have fallen to greed, but that's not a new thing in the least. But all of us (well, everyone I respect at least) want this country to flourish. We need to work together and not simply against each other.As annoying and disgusting as it may be, we need to start making legislative sausage again.