Remember 2009?
After nearly two years of intense campaigning during the most dramatic, memorable election in recent history and a long lame duck period of former President George Bush's second term, President Barack Obama was finally sworn into office. Almost immediately, he issued an executive order to close the detention center at Guantánamo Bay and signed the stimulus plan into law.
Then what happened?
The narrative shifted and many became disillusioned as Tea Party protests and a summer of extremely heated, embarrassing town hall meetings about health care reform defined much of Obama's first year in office. And of course, Guantánamo Bay is still open.
It wasn't until March 2010 that the Affordable Care Act became law and in July, the Dodd-Frank Act, Congress's regulatory response to the lawlessness surrounding the financial crisis of 2008, was finally enacted. And even in the lame duck session of the 111th Congress, Don't Ask, Don't Tell was repealed and a nuclear arms treaty with Russia was ratified in the Senate.
Looking back now, 2010 was a pretty productive year in Washington.
Remember the 2012 presidential election, the months of political theater more commonly known as the Republican debates and the advent of unlimited corporate donations to presidential campaigns with the Supreme Court's Citizens United ruling? As if repressing corporate donations equates to limiting speech.
Not much happened – the balance of power in the White House, Senate and House remained unchanged despite conservative super PACs like Restore Our Future, Inc. and American Crossroads spending over $80 million apiece and the pro-Obama Priorities USA Action spending nearly $65 million.
Despite all the money, time and headaches surrounding the previous election, many are already completely willing to write off President Obama's second term and the 113th Congress.
Between FOX News spending much of last year trying to derail the Obama presidency with its coverage on the Benghazi attacks and later on, the revelation that the IRS targeted conservative groups, Edward Snowden uncovering the abhorrent massive spying infrastructure at the NSA and the Obama administration fumbling the implementation of healthcare.gov, 2013 looked a whole lot like 2009 – a stalled agenda following the promise of a new term.
And that is the reason that with the new year, Congress, the White House and the American public must treat 2014 as an opportunity not for prematurely waiting on the 2016 presidential election or focusing on shallow, if not honestly named PACs, like "Ready for Hillary," but to assume a little more faith in the political process.
There are some small, yet positive signs coming from Congress. For example, the House easily passed a $1.1 trillion budget deal on a broad consensus, and just yesterday it received the final OK from the Senate.
Likewise, Speaker John Boehner has shown a willingness to take up a reform of the immigration system. Republicans like Marco Rubio and even Paul Ryan, whose budget proposals in the House closely resemble the draconian Mr. Potter from the film "It's a Wonderful Life," have shown support for changing the minimum wage.
Any of these legislative goals coming to fruition would mark a significant improvement in Congress, but that isn't really the point.
What is more important is realizing the need for the government, the media and the people of this country to stop treating politics like a reality television show in which posturing for elections years in advance and seeking media coverage by any means necessary supersede the responsibility to govern.
With everything that went into the elections only a little over a year ago, don't we owe it to ourselves to see this thing through, to focus on what can be done right now?
The consequence for acting otherwise only increases the chances for more disillusionment with the political process, and that unleashes quite the vicious cycle.
If people are more frustrated with politics, they are less inclined to pay attention to what is happening in Washington.
If people pay less attention, they allow extremely polarizing candidates and the donors who have them in their back pockets to gain more influence.
For all we know now, 2014 is the year that the ongoing list of frustrations with politics begins to subside.
Better this year than in 2016.
Online Editor Ross Fogg is a College senior from Fayetteville, Ga.
