As I watched the charade over the government shutdown unfold, it reminded me of the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. The cat and mouse would chase and torment one another, always trying to get the better of one other, and always making us laugh. But more often than not, they would destroy their own house in the process.

Republicans and the Democrats have been behaving like Tom and Jerry from the cartoons, except the situation they created is not humorous. They tried to outdo each other by putting politics ahead of what is best for the country. They succeeded in bringing the country to the brink of disaster by shutting down the government and refusing to negotiate over raising the nation’s debt limit: an act that would have forced the government to default on its payments.

The whole situation was ludicrous right from the outset. Did I miss visiting some national park or monument? No, not really. Did I personally care about the closure of the Office of Government Ethics? No, what bugged me was the fact that some people might lose their jobs because of the shutdown, the fact that we as a country became a laughingstock to people around the world.

Negative public opinion finally brought the legislators to their senses, but it came at a cost. The shutdown furloughed more than 450,000 federal employees, and according to an analysis by Standard & Poor’s, it cost the U.S. economy $24 billion.

Public opinion polls seemed to blame the Republicans for the mess, but the President and the Democrats were equally to blame. I wanted to see the President and the Democrats sit down with the Republicans to try and resolve the crisis. Instead, the President promised to veto resolutions that would reopen selective government programs. In the end, it was one nasty fight that cost a country, which had already been teetering on the edge of another financial crisis.

In a few years all of us will reach voting age. We cannot be innocent bystanders who write opinion pieces and revel in hallway conversations. We, as the new generation, need to become the agents of change. Being that agent of change starts with the understanding that civic engagement is a very important duty. We need to ask ourselves, “What kind of people do we want to send to Washington?” We need to figure out how to elect officials who are willing to listen to the people.

And, it starts with putting pressure on the politicians to change the system as the state of California did a few years ago. California passed laws to create nonpartisan commissions. These commissions drew lines to create competitive districts that would encourage candidates to seek middle ground. The primary system was scrapped in favor of an open system where the top two candidates irrespective of party affiliation advance to the general election.

We need to consider similar initiatives both at the state and federal level, to elect moderate candidates, and push politicians away from the process of creating districts that are bound to safeguard their interests. If we elect the right people, it may not eliminate the possibility of another crisis in the future, but it will definitely reduce the probability of one.

All of this change will take time and will require a lot of patience, and we need to work towards making our elected officials understand that partisan politics will not work. Unless we make our representatives realize the folly of their ways, we are bound to witness another episode of Tom and Jerry.