The Coffee Party

I've been reading about the Tea Party movement and how it's been growing. They've got their group, now I want mine, the Coffee Party.

Those of us who are avid coffee drinkers know that there's nothing more enjoyable than whiling away a hour or so, carving up the day's events over multiple cups of coffee. In fact, the more we consume, the more the caffeine triggers more animated discourse.

My modest proposal is that we do this as part of our daily political lives. Each elected representative, at any level of government, should have a large room adjoining his or her office, filled with chairs and tables, and with large urns of coffee perking all day long. People could come in any time, sit down and discuss all the current political issues with these representatives.

More importantly, on Capitol Hill, the senate and house chambers should have the coffee on all day, and any interested citizen should be allowed to drop in, listen to the debates, grab a cup of coffee and discuss these important political decisions with senators and representatives.

The benefits of my plan are many. For one, long discussions over coffee tend toward the amicable. After all, we're just chatting. I think this would drastically reduce the hostility generated by proposed legislation.

Also, by the time every interested citizen has had the chance to sit down over coffee with every elected official at every level to discuss every proposed piece of government business, no business, either positive, 10 percent or negative, 90 percent, will get finally decided until 2145, by which time we'll all be long dead, and it won't matter any longer.