Mark

You might use the words competent, determined, and ambitious. But transparent, authentic, or a unifier? Please.

Whoever the Republican nominee will be I have no doubt that he’ll be of much the same stamp. How can you reconcile the findings with the results? People say one thing to pollsters and do another in the voting booth.

We elect these people because we want them to solve problems and build on America’s greatness. Instead, they seem to spend all their time looking for ways to screw the opposition, such as the childish efforts going on right now during the holiday to keep the Senate technically in session to prevent the President from making any recess appointments.

Now, it’s true that on any given issue, Americans are passionate and rarely unified. We accept the fact that majority rule means winners and losers, but we want to be able to vigorously argue the issues of the day and find ways to come together as Americans after the debates are finished. That’s the part that too many politicians fail to get. Your recent tribute to the friendship between Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill shows how an older generation was able to keep the big picture in mind, a picture this younger political generation needs to learn — we are not moral enemies, but political opponents who are also neighbors, and even friends.

Also, a whole lexicon of partisan shorthand has been created, and the language of ideas is being replaced by shorthnad slogans. BDS, PC and so forth are much more complex than an acronym can express, and using the shorthand cuts off real thought at the pass.
Sometimes it looks as if thinking itsefl were going out of fashion. It’s not a good sign that I can have more open and deeper discussion with older people than with the rising stars on the Internet.

What most people want is goodies from the government that are paid for by someone else. Why else do you think that Edwards is campaigning on a massive expansion of the government while claiming it will be paid for by taxes of the rich. The same is the same for Senators Clinton and Obama.

One of the real questions is will there be more or less unity after the collapse of the Republican Party is complete and the U.S. becomes a one party state. When political issues are settled in the Democratic Primary instead of a general election, will people be more unified or will each special interest group have to fight harder for their own interest.

Unfortuantely, the political venom spouted constantly on the airwaves and on many blogs has become internalized to an alarming degree. I don’t see much effort, or even interest, in thinking things through. It’s just too easy to fall in with one group or another and to quote barbed punch lines instead of trying to understand what compromises it really would take to resolve a national problem.

While Congress and the administration may set a poor example, I often feel it’s the public who push them to be as partisan as they are. We don’t reward those politicians who are the best at reaching compromise. with re-election. We reward the politicians who defend our particular views the most fiercely.
To a large extent, I think we get the government that we, ourselves, create.

I don’t mean to rain on the parade of those who are trying to bridge the gap. I applaud them!
I will keep my fingers crossed that pramatism will prevail, and that people will start to appreciate how fragile a democracy can be. It can be abused and neglected to such an extent that we lose it. So, I certainly hope with all my heart that this us a treacheroerous phase that will pass.