I keep watching the news lately and hating Congress. Actually, this feeling has been slowly overtaking me since 2004 when John Kerry ran against George W Bush. I called that year the “I’ll do the opposite of President Bush” campaign. I was disgusted when people criticized Kerry from a military standpoint when he has an obvious war record. I was disgusted by people saying that Bush was grandstanding by doing promotional events which I perceived to be intended to raise the morale of our troops and our nation.

Since that time, I’ve decided that I no longer want to be a Republican and I refuse to be a Democrat. We need another option. How about the “Grow the F up” party? This will take out petty arguments and partisan politics.

I don’t know about you but I am sick of the fact that our two major political parties spend more time hating on each other than actually governing. Democrats hate that Republicans are against the universal health care idea. Republicans say that Democrats are against the interests of our military. It is just a dizzying system that is beyond flawed, it is broken.

I grew up a Republican, my parents are, my grandparents are, and the majority of my friends are. I realized early on that I may not agree with every idea but I agreed with most. I didn’t see any policy as being more important than another except one, our national security. Since becoming an adult I’ve realized that the Democrats have some things right too. I’m pro-choice, for gay marriage, want a nationalized education system, and agree that no one should be refused medical care based on their ability to pay. I’m also a firm believer in the death penalty, think we should allow the option for prayer in school, want a larger military, and think the government should stay out of the private sector. I have never agreed with lobbying, I think it gives the rich a larger voice than the poor because after all, money talks.

Seeing the battles rage over who is right and who is wrong just makes me sick. I don’t care who is right, I don’t care who is wrong. I just want the damn system fixed. Social Security is going to run out of money, fix it. Middle and lower class workers are suffering, fix it. We need more renewable energy resources, do it. Our children are years behind other nations in math and sciences, fix that too.

It has gotten to a point that I am ashamed to look at my party leaders and say that we belong to the same political affiliation. I’m not a fan of Obama either. I no longer give a rat’s behind who has the best idea because no one is implementing anything. After the Dem’s took back Congress and took over the oval office, I wondered if this change would lead to improvements. I thought that it was an example of how our checks and balances system works. I know that efforts have been made and things are moving along but for every positive there are numerous negatives. We are working for universal health care but we gave billions to the banks for a bailout and many of whom passed those tax payer dollars on for executive bonuses. We are slowly pulling troops out of Iraq and letting the Iraqi government take over. Meanwhile, the war in Afghanistan is escalating and more troops are needed but the administration is dragging its feet by saying “we’re reviewing all factors” as our young men and women are dying.

I wish I could take every member of Congress by the shoulders and shake them. I wish they would just grow the F up and take responsibility for the things that are going wrong in our country. I don’t care what parties you belong to, I just want you to stop blaming everyone else for the issues at hand. I want our leaders to govern with integrity and honesty. I recognize that they have more information at their hands than I do and that a lot of what they know should never be released to the general public. I don’t want to know about covert military operations or intelligence gathering activities. I do want to know why Congress gets health insurance and a salary for life with annual raises. I do want to know why a person who is receiving unemployment benefits makes too much money for food stamps.

Mostly, I just want everyone to stop with the “I know you are but what am I?” routines. It is time to act like grownups. It is time to come up with answers, not more questions. Figure out climate change, gay rights, abortion laws, war strategies, health care, and the education system. Find a way to make sure every person can go to college. But most importantly, stop making this country suffer so you can prove a damn point.