"Washington" is YOU!

According to a recent New York Times/CBS poll, 82% of the American public now disapprove of their Congress. Obviously Americans are frustrated with our politicians in Washington, and their inability to get things done.

Our politicians however are OUR representatives, and we voted them in. Politicians aren't some alien beings--they are just ordinary Americans voted in by ordinary Americans. "Washington" isn't the problem, the American people are the problem. "Washington" doesn't cause short-term thinking, political paralysis or the lack of results. Our leaders' inability to solve our problems is rooted in our own citizen's lack of understanding of their own issues and problems, and their resulting poor choices for representatives. The pattern is well-established: Americans feel frustrated. Americans vote for some abstract notion of change by electing a new person to Congress. In a few short years, nothing substantively changes and people remain unhappy and frustrated. Most of those same elected representatives are subsequently voted out because they are "part of Washington", and the cycle repeats.

Do the American people have any idea of the scope and depth of our nation's problems? Do they really understand what "change" they are actually voting for? Why are Americans surprised by the lack of long-term planning, and the uncompromising, simplistic and highly polarized positions their politicians take? They are merely doing what you asked them to do, i.e. represent YOU!

In a nutshell, our country has promised way too much, spends way too much, and taxes way too little. We promise too much in the form of unsustainable entitlements such as Social Security and Medicare, which are IOUs that can eventually lead to our country's financial ruin. Even after the recent debt ceiling compromise, our government still spends too much on various programs. And regardless of what anti-tax conservatives say (sorry Norquist and Demint), we will need much higher revenues over the long term to put our fiscal house in order. Until the majority of Americans realize all this and accept the near-term pain we will all feel from fixing it, nothing will really change.

We don't need to "fix Washington". We need to fix ourselves. Americans need to understand that their problems are complex, long-term and painful, and that politicians with exciting sound bites promising quick solutions aren't the answer. We need more centrist views so there can be some middle ground for compromise and long-term solutions. We need to stop voting for polarizing representatives at the extreme left or right. So if you don't think Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck or Grover Norquist are too far right, or that Nancy Pelosi or Jon Stewart are too far left, then you really have nobody to blame but yourself for our nation's ongoing problems.

Things I Didn't Know about the Baltics

- Due to the "white nights", it never gets truly dark and both the sunrises and sunsets are long and beautiful
- Taxis in Stockholm and Copenhagen accept credit cards, and to save time, you can have the driver scan your credit card during the ride. Then add any tip.
- While people all recommend going to Tivoli in Copenhagen at night because of the beautiful lights, remember that the sun doesn't set until after 10 pm during the summer so twilight is the best you will get--it will never get completely dark. And for us, going early when it opens allowed us to experience shorter ride lines.
- Consider riding bikes in Helsinki--especially on Sundays when vehicle traffic on most of the side streets was minimal!