Working Across the Aisle

For many years Congress has observed strict separation of the political parties. They do not talk much with one another. They do little compromising; hell, they don’t spend enough time talking about common issues and goals in order to make any compromises!

Now comes a time in which the Supreme Court, the White House and the Congress is under the control of the republican party. At least in name this is so. So far the republican ideology has attempted to force the repeal of Obamacare. The White House is unilaterally attempting to undo all of Obama’s executive orders; although these attempts have been made, they are not yet viewed to be successful. Time will tell how the record stacks up to the attempts.

But another little noticed issue is approaching that will be a disaster if it occurs: potential shut down of the Federal Government. This will be caused if funding agreements are not forthcoming. The trouble is that no one party controls the vote on this issue as it currently stands. Agreement will need to be worked out among Democrats, the White House and republicans in Congress. A compromise is needed. It appears the White House is incapable of such a concept. So Congressional authorities will need to craft a deal between the many ideologies and political sentiments now steamrolling throughout the halls of the Capitol Building.

One wonders what the chances are for this compromise? My personal view is that it will only work if the White House manipulates republicans behind the scenes. Already Speaker of the House Ryan has stated he doesn’t want republicans working with Democrats. In his view evidently a shut down is not only inevitable, but preferred. It is consistent with his world view that government should be as small as possible and also ineffective. Both terms – small and ineffective – are desired by Ryan. And most conservative ideologues would agree with this stance.

However, not everyone in Washington DC is a conservative. Of course liberals exist, but so do ‘middle of the roaders’. I’m one of those, just not residing or working in DC. But there are a lot of middle of the roaders in the republican party and a lot among elected Democrats. Perhaps this is where we will inevitably end up: a moderate solution to a problem defined by extremists of both parties?

The important thing is this: moderates are reasonable and logical. Extremists are not. Any form of government operating at any moment in time is a product of moderates. They are the ones who make the decisions that work. They are the ones that fund the operations and programs. They are the ones providing oversight and management advice to operating segments of the government.

In short, moderates hold the keys to the offices and functions of the government itself.

Extremists have provided ample evidence of their inability to govern. In the middle of all this are the citizens of the nation. And the reputation of our nation in the eyes of the world community.

Thank God for moderates. Fie on extremists.

Now, let’s get back to work.

April 3, 2017