Many Americans are growing more and more troubled over the recent government shutdown.

And with good reason.

While the government shutdown doesn’t actually stop the essential parts of the government from functioning, like the police force and emergency hospitals for instance, it is certainly detrimental for us.

First of all, a government shutdown is not a debt crisis. The difference between a shutdown and a debt crisis is that in a debt crisis, the government has no possible way to spend money because it lacks money. In a government shutdown however, the government does not have the legal authority use money due to some sort of internal slowdown.

Right now, the Democrats and Republicans within Congress can’t seem to decide on whether to go with or go against renewing the Affordable Care Act, commonly known as “Obamacare.” According to the Huffington Post, it costs over $300 million a day. Each side wants one thing, but will not make concessions for the other side.

That’s the problem.

In the world of politics today, people and their opinions on how to government should run are defined by their political parties. For example, you could be either Democrat or Republican. While there are certainly several political parties, there isn’t really an in between. And while yes, this is a good thing for a democratic society because of the diversity of opinions, it leaves no room for compromise. The media constantly bombards people with emphasis between Democrat versus Republican, one side’s opinions versus another sides opinions, red versus blue. While Jefferson’s saying “Dissent is the highest form of patriotism” is certainly still valid, the ever-growing gap between political parties has become a problem, and the government shutdown is a clear indication of this.

I’m not saying that we should all of a sudden abandon the notion of opposing political parties. The government was purposely created to be slow moving, but I’m sure it wasn’t supposed to be this inefficient. While I do applaud the opposing sides for strongly representing their respective opinions, absolutely nothing will get done if each side refuses to budge. Many former shutdowns have lasted on average for about three days, but the most recent shutdown happened over 17 years ago, and since then, the parties have become more and more divided over issues… becoming more and more stubborn over their stances on what should happen.

My point is this.

Our attitudes need to change. One side cannot get everything while the other side gets nothing. We need to be flexible when dealing with situations like this. One side’s opinion might not be more “right” than the other. Instead, both sides need to work together with different ideas in order to reach a more conclusive compromise. History agrees to this. In fact, Senate and the House of Representatives was derived from the “Great Compromise”, a compromise between the small and large states over the problem of apportioning state representation in 1787. That single compromise is arguably one of the most important things to have ever happened to America. The Senate and House have functioned as they were designed to over 200 years ago. Why can’t we apply the attitudes of these politicians to our current ones? Who says we can’t achieve something as monumental like the Great Compromise?

Politicians need to realize that political parties aren’t made for fighting. Instead, they need to realize that they have to work together in order achieve something greater.

(For more on the impact of the shutdown, click here)