By Bennett Fuson
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Imagine the Carmel football offense and defense decided that they didn’t like how each other played. Their arguments about strategy led to them losing every game they played. Other teams in Indiana, sparked by Carmel’s actions, also begin feuding, and a great number also began losing streaks. While not necessarily hammering out on the finer details and intricacies, this is what happened out there in the real world.

This wasn’t how things were meant to be. In the early years of American government, Alexander Hamilton and Thomas Jefferson opposed each other’s viewpoints on anything from states’ rights to a national bank to such a high degree that they gathered followers to support their opposition. George Washington, the president at the time, was bitterly disappointed in the actions of these two men. His belief, echoed famously throughout history, was that “a house divided cannot stand.” While Hamilton and Jefferson didn’t know it at the time, their actions would lead to the modern form of political parties in today’s political landscape and, by proximity, the levels of useless bantering and arguments that litter Washington D.C. today.

I haven’t ever really discredited Washington for his views, but I think the “divided” concept is one that we as a people should really take to heart. We stand divided right now while the house crashes down around us. Regardless of the outcome of Nov. 4, our priority should be to rebuild a nation that has fallen by the wayside in the past few years, not mark up a victory for a donkey or elephant.

The last time we as a people have really worked together to strive for a better nation was almost 70 years ago. Back then, America was in a state almost shockingly similar to our own. (For those who haven’t yet figured out that understanding the past can help fix the present, take note). After spending a solid decade in relative economic wealth, a decline in foreign trade, coupled with the collapse of several large financial institutions and banks, caused a recession in economic activity. Sound familiar yet?

After four years of downward spiraling, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected into a nation torn apart by financial ruin. In his first 100 days Roosevelt put into action more initiatives to restart the nation than any other president in history, regardless of party. What really gets me, though, is that he did it with very little regard to partisan stances; Roosevelt simply did what needed to be done without worrying about the “integrity” of his political affiliations.

This is the course of action we need to take. Unfortunately, these days politicians seem more concerned with the personal repercussions of a statement, rather than working towards bettering the country. If this trend continues, we are almost certainly headed down a road we have already traveled, built roadblocks around, and avoided by all costs.

It’s time to stop worrying about how we as individuals will look supporting one motion or another; otherwise, we’ll all end up sitting in shacks again, wondering in between breadlines what could have been if we only had the audacity to act civilized for once.

And that doesn’t look very good to me at all.