releases: https://fortenberry.house.gov/media-center/fort-reports/fort-report-american-comfort-food
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| url | title | date | year | month | party | chamber | state | member_name | bioguide_id | domain | scraper | source | date_source | text | has_text | collected_at | updated_at |
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| https://fortenberry.house.gov/media-center/fort-reports/fort-report-american-comfort-food | Fort Report: American Comfort Food | 2016-10-17 | 2016 | 2016-10 | Republican | House | NE | Jeff Fortenberry | F000449 | fortenberry.house.gov | legacy | After watching the second presidential debate, I flipped the channel. There it was, Green Bay playing the New York Giants. I breathed a sigh of relief. That’s the America I know. Good solid competition, an orderly event, just a bit of comfort food, something normal in the midst of all this drama.Our presidential election has exposed a great chasm in America. We all wonder what the future holds no matter which candidate takes the oath of office in January. So what do we do? If you think about it, our country is comprised of three interconnected spaces: the government, the economy, and society. All three are critical to providing better outcomes for us as a people. Let’s unpack a few propositions that might be able to help.Regarding government, one thing is certain. Too much is being asked. A properly ordered government should set the conditions in which all of society can flourish: fairness, the rule of law, and the enforcement of accepted norms based upon reason and tradition. Unfortunately, our government seems misdirected, not attuned to its basic purpose or the complexities of our day. The policy making process suffers from a near total lack of creativity and imagination.Our economy, also facing serious problems, is not working for many. Downward mobility, stagnating wages, and a rising cost of living, including increasing healthcare costs, are stressing millions of hard-working families. A Washington-Wall Street axis is contributing to the decline of small business, the source of most American jobs and the private sector ecosystem that best sustains a dynamic marketplace. The market now favors centers of power.Most alarming of all, many places in America are suffering from woundedness and fragmentation. More and more people are feeling directionless and alone. The presidential process is a reminder of the growing rifts between disparate groups of people across our country. The relational space in which persons can flourish together is found most fully in family life, community life, and faith life. A healthy society depends on the strength of these institutions and the decision of individuals to participate fully as good citizens. If we could recapture this ideal, pressure for more Washington-based solutions would recede. As the inscription on the Nebraska State Capitol reads, “The Salvation of the State is Watchfulness of the Citizen.”It is certainly important to speak of budgets, tax policy, healthcare, regulation, immigration, and other essential aspects of good governance. This is where we grind it out. At the same time, this moment offers an opportunity for deeper thinking, a reset to first principles, higher ideals that give us a narrative and shared cause as a people.As the end of the current election season nears, I experience the temptation to recoil from all the anger, turmoil, and sensationalism to just put the game back on. But in the midst of all this, I was profoundly struck and moved by an email from a friend and constituent. He wrote me on Yom Kippur, the ancient Day of Atonement in the Jewish faith tradition:“Today I pray for God’s forgiveness. Because it is a part of the tradition of my faith and because it is right to do so, we also ask for the forgiveness of people in our midst. I also ask for your forgiveness for any indignity that I have visited upon you by word or deed in this past year.” And that is comforting food for thought. | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |