The following article originally appeared in Juniata High School's newspaper The Arrowhead. 

The United States of America has the potential to achieve anything that it desires, but when Americans are blinded by prejudices and strong opinions, it takes too long for anything to ever transpire. The strong willingness and resilience that is held within the American people is the cause of our undeniable strength and power, but when people are blinded by an idea’s place of birth rather than the idea itself, then the idea becomes ineffectual. There are so many things in America that could be rectified if people didn't care where something came from, just what it has to offer. In this way problems like Climate Change and Abortion could be settled through mutual agreement, to be discussed further through extensive research, rather than pointless arguments that don’t help the situation in any way. For instance when you think of America’s political system you probably think of political parties. When you think of political parties, you probably think of the words Democrat and Republican. That is because the Democratic and Republican parties make up a majority of Congress. There are other parties such as the Independents and the Libertarians. These parties don't make up a very large number of the citizens in the United States and in Congress resulting in very little impact made by these parties. Ever since the 1854 midterm election, the Democrats and the Republicans have been Montagues and Capulets, fighting against each other like foe. Both of these parties have been desperate to make up a majority of Congress, usually willing to do anything to get there. Because of the large Democrat versus Republican variance in opinion it is hard for decisions to be reached on important issues. 

There has been many instances is modern day society, elections, debates, and etcetera where citizens of the United States have only supported and voted for candidates because of their political party, not there personal political platform. Because of this, people who are extreme Democrats and Republicans are often voted into Congress, even if they lack the skills needed for their position. Due to this conundrum, these two parties have been overly focused on downgrading their opposing party instead of trying to come up with ways to better improve modern day society. There have been many instances where a Democrat will not support a vital bill because it was constructed by a Republican and vise versa. This ongoing rivalry is hurting our country, even if most people do not realize it.  This causes so many easy and fixable problems to be debated unnecessarily for years, causing more issues that need to be fixed. This is why I propose a Middle Ground. 

A Middle Ground would be a formally run platform where issues could be voted on anonymously. Voters would not be aware of where and who an idea of a possible solution has come from, just what the idea contained. In this way a bill can be voted on based on its content, not its creator. After the subject has been voted on and Congress has come up with the final vote, it will be revealed who primarily came up with the bill when the bill’s content is revealed to the public. A Middle Ground is just a mere possibility of a solution to rectify this problem. 

By Abena Brantuo