SERIOUSLY, POLITICAL COMPROMISE IS NOT A SIGN OF WEAKNESS

…George Washington speaking at the first Constitutional Convention

 

Dissention has started to infect and seep into the nation’s common culture.

 

What is so disturbing about what is going on in our capital city today is that the rules they used to work by, don’t seem to be working today.

 

·       Remember when the way the politicians came to agreement was by the way of compromise?

 

·       Remember, when the concept of being a moderate in either party wasn’t boring and was an acceptable position.

 

·       Remember when winning it all 100% wasn’t everything?

 

·       Remember when members of the two major parties had different opinions, but they showed respect for the other party’s views?

Today, it appears that the two parties think the other party is rude and they both continue to belittling the other party.  They can even be personally crude and cruel.  Each party seems to always insist on getting their own way, and they many times become the angriest individuals in the room.

 

It is appearing that what is going on in DC, has started to infect and seep into the nation’s common culture.  Having a bullying president that continues to miss-use his Twitter account has only legitimized these changes in our common culture.

 

The messages we receive, and that we seem to forward, through the latest advent of social media, have many times turned to moral cynicism and chaotic viciousness. 

 

I believe this all started well before the addition of a President Trump to the political scene. 

 

When Mitch McConnell and the other key Republicans met for dinner the days before President Obama’s inauguration, and it was decided to “Make Obama a one term president”, that was the start of this division.  You may recall that the word eventually got out that the decision was made for all the Republicans in Congress to not support any of the new president’s proposals, even if they agreed with them.

When it turned out that they had failed at their goal, and Obama handily won his second term, that just increased the GOP’s resolve to stand their ground. 

 

That began the requirement from all of the members of the Grand Old Party to be outwardly against the president’s number one achievement of the health care bill.  Instead of using compromise to make the health care bill work better, they told their supporters and constituents that it must be repealed.  After over 50 attempts to repeal “Obamacare”, knowing that a repeal would never be signed by the president, all the while more and more Americans were signing up for their new health care coverage.   The Republicans eventually realized they could not back down or change their goal to repeal Obamacare, so they doubled down on the repeal approach.  They were then stuck with what they had committed to.  They had to get rid of Obamacare, even if it meant that they would be taking health care away from millions of their own constituents.

 

This attitude has since permeated into the nation’s culture and it has set the boundaries of what has become unacceptable discourse across the country.  Today we are seeing more truculent teenagers, nastier co-workers, ego-centric corporate executives and assorted misogynists across the country claiming that  “president Trump is on my side.”

It has become very public as to what is occurring today inside our nation’s politics.  Some politicians seem to feel that boorishness is an example of America’s populism and that is demonstrated by the public use of more profanity.  The latest Twitter assault by the president on “Morning Joe’s”, Mika Brzezinski is a prime example.  Even Ms. Brzezinski put her response properly when she said, “I’ve had much worse said about me, but it makes me worry about the stability of our president.  He can be so easily played.”

 

For true democratic politics, we need to do things such as to repair our health system in a bipartisan fashion, while preventing our entitlement commitments from swallowing the entire federal budget.  But instead, today we seem to have the politics of resentment that is demonstrated through the foul language of the sleazy campaign operatives on both sides.

 

The founding of our nation did require a clash of its factions before it turned to a spirit of civility and compromise.  The basic structure of our original Constitutional Convention was based on those that had the strongest views, but was from those with strong views that could still find a basis for agreement.  Yes, it is the same today that critical issues still take time, frustration, disappointment, and finally a reaching of agreement.

 

But if that same Constitutional Convention were held today, it would probably totally fail.

 

It does appear that today’s US political system would probably be too divided to reach any agreement. Who in today’s politics would want to face their primary voters after being identified as someone that would be part of a “great compromise”?

Today, it is seldom understood why our founders eventually came to the political system we have today.

 

The founders knew that they had to have two approaches to our constitutional order.

 

Yes, first the system had to have separate and equal powers for each department of government.  But it also had to offer the basis for public virtues such as civility, compromise and moderation.  This is what defines a nation’s population as it citizens, instead of as a mob, which of course, even today is to be feared.  But it's where we seem to be today.

 

Because of our politics, our democratic structure is still sound, but it is under serious stress.  If our founders were alive today, they would see a country having some serious issues in being a true democracy.

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Due to past issues regarding problems in campaign finance and district gerrymandering, we now have problems of basic political propriety and a lack of mutual respect.  As Americans, we need to be more conscious and intentional about rebuilding the infrastructure of our democratic values.

 

We must get back to agreeing that civility is not a weakness. It is the basis of a successful democracy.  The Yale law professor and author Stephen Carter calls it, “civil listening”.  It is what allows people who are opponents to avoid becoming enemies.

 

To compromise is not to give up.  It is a basis for an operating democracy.  It allows for on-going progress with difficult and complex issues such as health care and tax reform.  It is a moral principle that allows progress for the common good and it is above any concept of ideology.

 

Today unfortunately, moderation is sometimes considered as indecision.  It is not that.  It is the true basis of a working democracy.  It is the foundation for political reasonableness, prudence, modesty and overall balance as it says that “no single individual can or should possess the whole truth”.

What needs to be determined for the US, and it needs to be done now, is that this is what is absolutely required for real self-government. 

 

Our governmental leaders need to start bringing this issue up for discussion and more of them need to speak out loudly and without apology, but in total sincerity and clarity.

To avoid doing this, the nation will just continue down its current path and that could be more devastating than anyone could ever imagine.

 

Some very basic approaches to our issues need to change, and they must change very soon.

 

Copyright G.Ater  2017