State Rep. Malcolm Kenyatta deserves an Oscar for his convincing acting last week.

The Philadelphia Democrat walked 105 miles from Philadelphia to Harrisburg, stopping along the way to rally support for Democrats’ plans to fund mass transit needs – in particular the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority (SEPTA) that operates public transportation for the Greater Philadelphia area – and to slam Republicans for not doing enough to find a solution to mass transit funding issues statewide.

If you think you’ve seen such stunts before, it’s because you have. Kenyatta’s stunt harkens back to whistlestop campaign tours used by Presidents ranging from William Henry Harrison in 1836 to Barack Obama in 2009 for those who remember their history or fictional President Josiah Bartlett’s walk to the House of Representatives in the throes of a budget impasse in The West Wing for those who prefer fictional presidents.

Either way, Kenyatta’s walk is nothing new. It’s a stunt that doesn’t solve anything and, in fact, could very well backfire by ticking off state Senate Republicans. While Kenyatta says Senators have dropped the ball by not approving House-approved budget bills, one could argue just as convincingly that state House Democrats have also dropped the ball by approving budget bills they knew the state Senate wouldn’t approve in a million years. The House budget bills aren’t worth the paper they’re printed on, and during his 105-mile walk we’d hope Kenyatta would have realized that Democrats are as much a part of the problem for the budget impasse and lack of mass transit funding as Republicans. There’s plenty of blame to go around.

Democrats don’t support Republicans’ mass transit plan to use money from the state Public Transportation Trust Fund to shore up SEPTA service. Republicans don’t support Democrats’ plan to pull money from PennDOT’s federal highway money to maintain SEPTA until the legislature finds a solution to mass transit funding issues or Shapiro’s plan to dedicate 1.75% of the state’s sales tax revenue to invest in mass transit statewide.

What we really have here is a failure to communicate. Kenyatta is speaking through theater while Republicans are speaking through news releases and Facebook posts. Neither is talking directly to each other – and therein lies the problem.

Enough with the theater. Enough with the press releases. Mass transit is a need throughout the state. It’s time for elected adults to act like adults. Get in a room and hammer out a deal.