Please, allow me to make a disclaimer: this column is political. Or, rather, let me recant the last statement and revise it: this column is politically charged. Because, you see, it is not so much political as much as it is politically fueled, or, more specifically, charged by my frustration with this country’s political processes.

With the advent of that first Tuesday in Nov. that comes every two years, I’ve found that, this time, I just couldn’t keep my mouth shut. I couldn’t resist chiming in on the current state of affairs of this country, and I couldn’t resist a little smile at the photo that the New York Times front page had of President Obama, his face contorted in such a manner that it seemed as if he’d wished he’d never been involved in politics at all. And, to be honest, maybe he would have been better off. We all know how Obama wanted to bring “change” to Washington and depart from the way things had been done, an for half a second we believed and “hoped” we would actually see it.

But, as always, our country is currently in political gridlock. Nothing seems to get done because, in reality, nothing does. We have two political parties completely opposed to one another, with elected representatives who, with the exception of a few, are unwilling to extend a hand across the aisle and work together to accomplish a common goal. And, as long as this persists, it’s fairly safe to say that this trend will, unfortunately, continue.

The election results that came on Nov. 2 gave me some semblance of hope that I’m not completely delusional. With these election results, we’ve seen a country that is utterly disgusted, like myself, with the way things are going. At least I’m not the only one that thinks it’s just a bad idea to continue spending money we don’t have on things we don’t need. And, for better or for worse, we’ve seen the majority of voters react to this current state of mangled affairs (aside from maybe Massachusetts, which is so far left and blindly liberal that it would vote Democrat if the candidate was a Christmas ham). Maybe there’s a shred of hope that a Republican majority can get something, anything, done. And, then again, there’s re-elected officials like Barney Frank.

Frank, the staunchly liberal congressman representing Massachusetts once more, gave a speech following his electoral victory that may have single-handedly been the most vindictive thing I’ve ever heard in my life. In the wake of his fallen Democratic comrades, Frank vowed to his supporters to combat Republicans and attempt to tie their hands at any chance he got. This, of course, means battling any policies and legislative measures that Republicans attempt to put forward. Sound familiar? Of course it does—because this is American politics at its finest; this is exactly the type of thing that has been going on for years, and why nothing has been accomplished in the two years that Obama’s been president. Would it be fair to say that Barney Frank is the embodiment of everything that’s wrong with the American political system? I think it might be.

More and more as of late, I’ve felt like America was stuck in the minimalist world of Samuel Beckett, a world where everyone throws their hands up and exclaims, “Nothing to be done.” The inherent dysfunction with not our political system, but with the representatives we elect to serve us, has continually left our country handcuffed. It’s people like Barney Frank that do a disservice to America, and get people like me so riled up. It’s time to open your eyes. Agree or disagree with Tea Party politics, you must applaud them for their effort to create a sweeping change. For better or for worse, at least it’s something different.

To contact the Ionian’s Ryan Karpusiewicz e-mail him at [email protected]