How to get 21^st Century America UNSTUCK

Current Situation

For over 70 years Americans has battled between two interpretations of our Constitution, dividing our nation. This battle has wasted trillions of dollars as we whip back and forth between these different perspectives of how our federal government should be run. 

Ironically, America is famous for our innovation.  Because we have the strongest capitalistic free market in the world which rewards creativity, we out-innovate everyone – except when it comes to public policy, where we’re STUCK.

In the meantime, Americans of all political persuasions are very dissatisfied with our government, and we all know it is broken:

• According to Pew Research in April 2025, President Trump’s disapproval rating is 60%
• Biden’s disapproval rating at the end of his term was 64%
• Congress currently has a 66% disapproval rating and 
• the Supreme Court disapproval rating is at 47%.

Trump is a symptom of the problem – many voted for him out of frustration that our government is not working for the people. We should not rely on any one person.  We need all the brains in the outfit to solve our problems. We’ve created this mess, so we need to fix it.

Americans seem to agree on three things: we want our government to protect us, we want our elected representatives to work together to solve our problems and we are dissatisfied with our governments’ results.  Congress right now is extremely politically divided – and yet we continue to elect politicians who will not compromise.  Our founding fathers set up Congress to be collaborative to function and be effective, but “We the people” keep electing Congressmen who make Congress more and more dysfunctional.  

Introducing the UNSTUCK Blog

For America to survive it must get UNSTUCK from this incessant battle between Conservative and Liberal perspectives. We must reach compromises or collaborate on new solutions.  Our two opposing perspectives are summarized below, but there are plenty of ideas between these perspectives that we should consider and adopt.  As you read these perspectives, imagine thousands of solutions that are a mix of the most practical and reasonable ideas from each side.

Conservatives interpret the Constitution literally as it was written in 1787 – an “originalist” perspective. They advocate for limited federal government, lower federal taxes, and states’ rights to ensure individual freedoms, religious protections for Christians, fewer regulations to unleash businesses, funding for charter and religious schools plus unlimited civilian gun access. Nationally Conservatives support funding a strong military, hard-on-crime judges and large prison systems, plus strict immigration controls.  Conservatives support increasing oil production and limiting environmental regulations. They distrust our election process and are passing laws to regulate who has access to the ballot box. Conservatives believe life begins at conception and have fought to ban abortions.

Liberals view the Constitution by its implied guarantees and its Amendment process which allows for modifications to the original document – to “perfect” our Union. Liberals advocate for a strong federal government capable of nationwide anti-discrimination protections for minorities, women and gay communities. Liberals support a secular government to ensure all religions have freedom. They support gun safety laws, a network of free public schools and a more open immigration system to support asylum requests.  Liberals believe diplomacy can solve problems and war should be our last resort, so they would fully fund the State Department and reduce military spending.  Liberals would tax the rich to fund social safety net programs like Social Security and Medicare for all.  Liberals support environmental programs to address climate threats, election reforms to protect the right to vote, criminal justice system reforms to make courts less biased and laws to protect women’s safe access to abortion.

America has been this divided before – over slavery, which we fought a Civil War to end.  President Lincoln declared in his famous speech June 16, 1858, to the Illinois Republican State Convention, “A house divided against itself cannot stand. I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free. I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided. It will become all one thing, or all the other.” https://www.nps.gov/liho/learn/historyculture/housedivided.htm

While Lincoln is credited with this phrase, the original phrase is biblical – Jesus said,” Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall not stand.” (Matthew 12:25) Why am I quoting the Bible?  Because many Americans believe we should be following the Bible, so I’ll include what the Bible says in policy articles in this Blog as a point of reference.

We need to imagine a 21^st Century America where we can fix problems in our society using our innovative thinking, rather than being forever STUCK on these two diametrically opposing points of view. That’s what this blog will address – how we open our minds to solve America’s most pressing problems now.  We have no more time or money to waste.

I’ll post articles on a specific public policy for debate.  Each topic will include these elements:

            – Potential solutions to the problem 

– Current Situation information with statistics/data 

            – Historical perspective on where this situation was years ago – what’s changed?

            – What the Constitution says about this public policy (if anything)

            – What the Bible says about this public policy (if anything)

            – Then, comments will be invited.

We’ll debate the topic with comments until we can arrive at consensus of what needs to be done by our Congress/government officials to fix this problem.  

Comments must stay on topic, not defame or disparage others, provide solutions to the problem. Please consider solutions implemented in cities/states/other countries that have worked and provide supporting data/statistics.  Comments that disparage or don’t provide serious potential solutions to our problems will be deleted. 

Welcome to the UNSTUCK Blog.  Join in.  As someone said, “If you aren’t part of the solution, you are part of the problem.” Let’s get busy.