Have you ever taken a cross-country road trip with a friend, loved one or coworker? Inevitably, as you drive for hours on end, the white stripes and asphalt reflections begin adding up. Your eyesight deteriorates from clear vision to a general, non-focused gaze. Your attention span in seconds is a direct inverse of the miles pilling up on your odometer. It’s time to take a break and let someone else to do a bit of the driving. So, you hop in the passenger side, recline the seat and relax. At some point, the slight vibrations of the open road rhythmically soothe and carry you off to sleep.

All of a sudden, shocked from slumber by the sounds and shuddering of roadside gravel and debris shooting up under the fenders, the rumble strips edging the driving surface on the right shoulder make it seem as if you’ve blown both passenger side tires at the same time. The driver swerves to the left to avoid the guardrail and fishtails for a few seconds, screeching rubber with each swerve left and then right. You grab the dash board, slam your foot into the floor boards as if your imaginary brake pedal is going to do you a bit of good only to have your seatbelt sense the commotion and lock you rigidly into your seat. Thankfully, you look over at the driver just has he/she is regaining control of your car.

Without missing a beat, you say….”All-righty then, guess it’s time for me to take over.”

Do you remember the old Greyhound commercial? “Go Greyhound and leaving the driving to us” the marketing jingle went. You think, kind of cool. Kick back, relax, let somebody else handle the steering wheel and the stress of the open road. Makes sense. Surrender the pressure, the headaches, the monotony of moving from here to there. Recline in a cushy seat and let someone else take over for you.

As me move into 2012, we are all getting a stark and sudden wakeup call.

You see, a couple of hundred of years ago, as a country we decided to let the politicians do the driving for us. We had happiness to pursue, unalienable rights to exercise, places to be, things to do. Out Constitution set up enumerated powers for our government and the Lex-Luther-want-to-be-politicians so that we could safely surrender the wheel for a bit. Problem is, you and I nodded off a bit longer than we first thought we would and now the bus driver* politicians behind the wheel have damn near driven us off a cliff. (My apologies to real bus drivers.)

You and I are busy living, exploring, cavorting and dreaming. We are thriving at every turn. Only problem, while we’ve been building our futures the political class has been crafting a nightmare. While we’ve spent our time gamboling with our families and friends, the politicians have been gambling with our futures. Dems and GOP’s, turns out, are both lousy drivers and we either retake the wheel or we are going to crash and burn.

Now, the entrenched politicians will continue to urge us “not to worry, we can regain control of the vehicle” as their white-knuckeled grip on the wheel tightens even more. Regardless of the expert, educated opinions of the media faceplates, political parrots and blaring ideologues, not unlike the Kevin Bacon character in Animal House screaming “All is well! All is well” as all Hell was breaking lose, it’s time for Independents to drive again. Should you get your daily dose of Lotus from Fox News or MSNBC, it’s time to reawaken or to paraphrase Milton “Awake, arise or be forever fallen” because we need to get back in the driver’s seat before our politicians jackknife off the bridge up ahead.

We had a nice rest. Perhaps if we retake the wheel for a decade or so we can rid ourselves of substandard political drivers and one day, in the future, hit the passenger seat once again. That day however, is not today.

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