The only combative negotiation now gripping people is the one about raising the debt ceiling in Washington, D.C. Upon close inspection, the two issues really aren’t all that different.

Both issues were more about ideological stands than the product. In the NFL lockout, the owners were motivated to hold out because they believed the players screwed them over on the last CBA, and they took the stance that they wouldn’t be screwed again.

In the debt ceiling issue, House Republicans are motivated not to raise the debt ceiling because they’re unhappy with the fiscal policy of President Barack Obama, and they’re taking the stand that the federal government needs to control its costs. Neither position is right or wrong, and each has reasonable defenses.

Both issues also caused a heavy amount of impetuous behavior from all involved. In the NFL lockout, owners and players sniped at each other through the media and in negotiations. Carolina Panthers owner Jerry Richardson reportedly insulted Indianapolis Colts quarterback Peyton Manning to the point even fellow owners thought was extreme.

In the debt ceiling negotiations, Republicans and Democrats have insulted each other in the press and in negotiations, the highlight of which was Obama walking out of a meeting with congressional leaders because of interruptions by House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va. And in both this and the NFL’s case, the hostility did nothing to further negotiations between the two sides.

In both cases, the ideological stands, bickering and negotiations were not for the benefit of the groups that mattered most: football fans and the American people. Football fans repeatedly expressed their desire for the lockout to end and for a return to football for football’s sake. The fans never were addressed fairly during the negotiations, and when the lockout came to an end, only one player or owner bothered to apologize to the fans for their trouble: New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft.

And the American people, who, according to poll after poll, are more concerned about the lack of jobs in this country, have to put up with this debt ceiling trouble preventing the federal government from addressing their job concerns.

By and large, ordinary people don’t care how the sausage is made, they just care how it tastes. They don’t care about the inner workings of the CBA or whether the U.S. will default. They don’t care about the ideological differences and the name calling. They just want to watch football on Sunday and go to work on Monday. More and more, that fact is being ignored by those in power.

But ordinary people are what sustain the government and the NFL. Without taxpayers, the government would have no money with which to go into debt; without the fans, there would be no NFL with billionaire owners and millionaire players.

In the end, the NFL slowly (very slowly) acquiesced to the demands made by its fans and returned to the business of creating the most entertaining sport in America. And that’s how the debt ceiling issue can be resolved: The American people have to demand it.

In the end, that will spur the federal government into doing what it needs to do. Pressure will cause legislators to push aside partisan politics, work around the ideological differences and raise the debt ceiling. When the American people demand it, then — and only then — can the business of creating jobs be done. Only then can the will of the American people be done.

Lazarus Jackson is the State News opinion writer. Reach him at jacks920@msu.edu.