Groundhog's Day - Again!

In Groundhog Day, Bill Murray plays a mean and spiritless reporter who re-lives the same day (Groundhog's Day) for what appears to be centuries.  Of course, he is the only person who retains a memory of the day, and is forced to re-live it until he finds true love.  In addition to being a very funny and entertaining film, it teaches us a Dickens' Christmas Carol like message.

However, it is also a great lesson on the fact that trying to do the same thing over and over only leads to the same results - over and over.  Newt Gingrich likes to point out that real change requires, well, real change.  

Our system seems to be mired in a continuous Groundhog Day.  The same arguments, the same partisan disputes, the same issues seem to repeat over and over.  Perhaps this is because our political culture has become so unanchored from our Founding First Principles and generating history that all we can do is recycle the threadbare arguments of the day.  For a fresh approach, we need to go back to the future.  If our political culture and media would begin to exam today's issues through the lens of the rule of law, equality, the Social Compact, limited government, and unalienable rights, maybe we could break the never-ending cycle.

How refreshing it might be if we discussed critical issues like cap and trade, health care reform, and deficit spending in light of unalienable rights, limited government, and the Social Compact.  Not that such analysis will always lead people to the same opinions, but it could not but help elevate the debate and provide much needed illumination (as opposed to heat) in today's debates.