Looking back from this vantage point, 2011 was quite a year. Americans witnessed terrible, debilitating political theater at home, as well as revolutions in the Arab world, a tsunami in Japan, a financial Armageddon in Europe and the continued rise of China.

Last year was all about us. The fight against the evil, over-intrusive federal government ushered in the Tea Party—a crowd of justifiably concerned citizens led by a pack of anti-intellectual legislators who refuse to govern.

The year 2010 was a time when Americans looked inward at themselves, and learned nothing in the process. But 2011 was a year when the rest of the world did not revolve around America and its slew of problems. If America’s leaders are smart, they’ll learn from the trials of others.

Across the Atlantic, the debt crisis spread like a disease from Greece and Ireland to the larger economies of Spain and Italy. It’s now infected the very core of the euro zone, and the situation isn’t looking bright.

Germany adamantly refuses any small fixes to the euro zone that will negatively impact itself, and for good reason. Germany enacted painful reforms to balance its budget and get its economy back in order almost a decade ago, and German taxpayers don’t like the idea of suffering again for nations that never had to.

This is something America has not been able to do, although it desperately needs similar reforms. Instead of telling Chancellor Angela Merkel what to do, President Obama should be asking for advice.

Luckily for the U.S., the European debt crisis has sidelined its own debt problems; that’s evident in the fact that even though Standard and Poor’s downgraded America’s credit rating, its interest rate is now lower than Germany’s, which has far better finances. But that shouldn’t mean the U.S. can forget about fiscal reform—we’ll be looking like the euro zone pretty soon if no serious action is taken. And that could possibly be the biggest lesson of 2011.

America’s leaders acknowledge the need for action but refuse to take any. The nation is at an existential tipping point, and yet its people and politicians are stuck in neutral. Working-class citizens support Tea Party conservatives who would rather balance the budget by cutting services that the middle class needs instead of raising taxes one bit on the ultra-wealthy.

Yes, you read that correctly—it makes absolutely no sense. The far right’s takeover of the Republican Party was officially completed in 2011. The GOP nomination process has turned into a complete circus; just last week, Donald Trump announced he would be holding his own debate. With the expulsion of all moderate, reasonable voices from the GOP, any compromise on any issue is out of the question.

As the election year approaches, we’ll see more dirty political discourse. Both sides will claim they’re 100 percent right on all issues, and the other party is just a bag of cow dung that wants to see the nation fail.

But the truth is, the answer is always somewhere in the middle. It’s impossible to put the U.S. on a sound fiscal path without touching entitlements or drastically cutting wasteful spending. But those cuts must be made carefully, not blindly with an ax. On the other hand, it’s impossible to save the U.S. from a euro-style crisis without raising taxes on, at the very least, Americans making more than $250,000 per year.

Instead of letting the apocalyptic nature of the euro crisis mask America’s own problems, leaders on both sides of the aisle need to take this as a sign: Get something done already. If it doesn’t act quickly and decisively, as Germany did in the last decade, then America will soon look a lot like Italy. That thought alone should be enough for politicians to grow a pair, bite their pride and make a compromise on reform.

As the holiday season approaches, I can’t help but be reminded of one of the best movies ever made: “It’s a Wonderful Life.” Under extreme circumstances, humans have the ability to pull together and do something good.

Yes, America’s failure is a bit more impactful than the failure of Bailey’s Building and Loan Association. But sometimes it takes a little sentimentality to remember that, despite differing ideologies, we’re all in this together. And if we all give our fair share, which isn’t too much to ask, then we can make it out all right.