A friend at work often chides me in saying that despite the fact that I’m a Republican, how I speak about politics makes me a Democrat. I’m just as Republican now as when I first registered to vote when I was 18, and I still hold to the traditional Republican values of small government, individual freedom, and conservative – as in judicious, not political – financial responsibility. My friend teases me because I have a much more moderate position with respect to my politics, which focuses on the issues and not the ideology, so I suppose it must seem to him that since I don’t speak politics like 95% of the Republicans out there, I must be Democrat. He’d probably say the same thing about Maine Senator Olympia Snowe, who is one of the few moderate Republicans in Congress today, and who unfortunately is not running for re-election.

I read an article about her frustration with American politics today this morning, and despite the article’s title of “Frustrated Senator Olympia Snowe Give Obama an ‘F,'” the actual meat of the article focused on her general frustration with Congress. Here’s a quick excerpt:

“I think a lot of the frustration frankly in our party, in the Tea Party challenges or even Occupy Wall Street is really a reflection of our failure to solve the major problems in our country,” said Snowe. “It’s become all about the politics, and not the policy. It’s not about governing, it’s about the next election.”

So has this Congress failed the country on those critical questions?

“Absolutely,” Snowe asserted.  “You have to sit down and talk to people with whom you disagree,” said Snowe. ” And that is not what is transpiring at a time when we desperately need that type of leadership.”

What she said above mirrors EXACTLY what I’ve been talking about with others when discussing politics. Especially with my ultra-conservative friends, I’m often apt to say before going into a political discussion, “I’ll only engage in this discussion if we talk about the issue, not about the ideology. If you want to bitch about Obama did this or Obama didn’t do that, then let’s talk about how the Sharks are doing instead. Whether you like the guy or not, we have real problems in this country, and discussing political ideology is NOT going to solve them.” We usually end up talking about the Sharks…