Nothing can so alienate a voter from the political system as backing a winning candidate.
– Mark B. Cohen
Some on the extreme left are disappointed with the performance of Presdent Barak Obama since his election and inaguration. He hasn’t pushed the radical changes they want.
It was once a reality that after elections, when in office to serve ALL the people, politicians had to compromise, and the most rabid (who are also the most vocal) would cry “betrayal!!!”.
Now, from one party at least, there is no more compromise, and apparrently no commitment to serve ALL the peoeple and not just “the base”.
If one party tries to compromise, makes changes, and the other refuses to budge, are they both serving ALL the people?
Politics was once the art of the possible, now it seems to be the art of forcing failure upon the opposition. Instead of acheiving what is possible that is positive, now the focus is upon denying success to anyone who doesn’t conform to the agenda of the vociferous radicals.
We now have verbally expressed hopes that the President fails, we have cheers when Presidental appeals are apparently rejected, and we have cries of outrage when the President is awarded, arguably prematurely, the Nobel Peace Prize.
Does any of this serve the United States?
My answer is no.
President Obama is not “leading” by making uncompromising statements, but instead outraging the most vocal of his supporters, those I ran into during the caucuses in Texas who annoyed me so much. He is trying to achieve the possible with an opposition whose rallying cry is “no compromise, no retreat, no progress, make him FAIL!”.
Who is serving our country better?
It is not that the right has no valid positions, because they do, just as the left has positions that are invalid. Compromise is the art of finding something that works by taking what is good from both sides.
Yet one side now refuses to cooperate at all, seeming to believe that only their supporters should be served, not the nation as a whole.
How do we change this? How do we make it better?
I fear we are on the road to ruin. Compromise is necessary in every part of life.
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Cross-posted to Random Fate and The Moderate Voice .
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