A New Congress! How about a new Attitude with it?

A new month, a new year, and a new Congress, what will this year bring in terms of political debate, posturing, and congressional deal making?

Having neither crystal ball nor prophetic gift, I dare not make any predictions.  But I can make an observation, or shall I say give a word of advice.  Simply this: watch your attitude.

Have you ever noticed how someone could say the right thing in the wrong way: What is said may be right and needs to be heard, but because of the way it is said, with a strident spirit, an arrogant attitude and a condemning or accusatory tone, it is ill-received and outright rejected.

We’ve all experienced this.  We’ve also been guilty of this perhaps within our own family dynamics and relationships.  I know I have.  The lesson is that people tend to respond first and foremost to a person’s attitude and spirit, the way they “come across,” before they’re willing to consider the person’s thinking or ideas, whether good or bad.  Politicians should remember this simple relational reality.

Swaggering arrogance, finger-pointing, scolding, accusing, and condemning does not help the congressional process.  I wonder if this new Congress will take this into account when they go to the floor to present their bills, make their statements, and debate their cause.

Everyone has a right to tenaciously hold to their perspective on things.  They even have a right to express their convictions with great passion.  But they do not have the right to demonize, condemn, and/or vilify those who have differing opinions, ideas, or thoughts on a matter.  What I’d like to see in this new Congress is a different spirit, a better relational attitude, a respect for their mutual position as elected officials.

Dear Representatives: Quit denouncing, denigrating, and vilifying your opponents just because they stand on the other side of the isle.  Show a little more respect for each other.  We Americans may safely assume that both Republicans and Democrats genuinely care for the wellbeing of America.  Representatives on the other side of the isle are not the enemy.  Democrats, Republicans, they are simply two sides to the same coin, which is America.

So, my dear Politician, whether you are on the right or on the left, adjust your attitude, be not “holier than thou.”  Come down from your superior posturing.  Quit the arrogant stridency.  You have goals, ideals, and values.  So do those on the other side.  They may differ from yours but that doesn’t mean that they are evil; it simply means that they see things differently and disagree with you.

The fact is that two heads are better than one.  Go ahead and debate, but actually listen as well, your opponent just may have something to say that is worth hearing and worth incorporating into your thinking or perspective on things.  Quit shouting at each other and start talking to each other.  Accept the fact that you are just one voice among many and that your voice is not necessarily the only voice that should be heard and heeded.