How’d we get here? Ask ancient Greeks

Many of us are growing weary of the divisive partisan politics in Washington. We keep hoping our elected leaders will compromise on something, and we are frustrated about how we got here in the first place.

One clue might be found in one of the ancient Greek myths. The story of Prometheus and his brother, Epimetheus. Prometheus is the one that went against Zeus and stole fire from Mount Olympus to bring down to humans so that they could warm themselves. Most people know this part of the story but maybe not the other part. The reason he had to carry the fire down is because Epimetheus had exhausted all the earth’s resources creating the animals. No fur or feathers were left to clothe man. Prometheus means “forethought” and Epimetheus means “afterthought.”

If we apply the brothers’ story to our two political parties, it is easy to see which is which. The Republicans would be the backward thinkers. Why? Because they don’t want to face change. They just want to dig their heels in and keep the status quo. They follow blindly a dangerous leader who calls heroes horrible names and tries to discredit anyone who stands up to his backwards agenda, one that gives the nation’s top polluters tax breaks and incentives, that deregulates the banking industry and Wall Street but ignores the middle class and poor.

The Democrats are the forward thinkers, introducing plans to combat climate change and to fix our train-wreck of a health care system. The Republicans are not doing this. They only want to berate those who are. Giving tax breaks to America’s most wealthy used up all the government’s financial resources that could have been applied to programs that actually help people move forward. When it comes to climate change and foreign policy, we have lost three years looking backward because of this arrogant president.

Yet, the Republicans in Congress keep supporting him. We put them there to represent us. I don’t think that all Republicans here in Arkansas feel that defending the president is the right thing to do anymore. And if not, they need to ask their representatives in Congress to stop doing it. They won’t listen to Democrats because they know they aren’t going to get our vote anyhow for this very reason of supporting an unstable and dangerous president.

We are at a crucial time in history that needs forward-thinking people, not people that cling to power, but those that advance our nation because they care about it. It is now time to vote, not on party affiliation, but for those leaders who will help our country and the world move forward, not backwards.

STEVEN TRULOCK Fayetteville