‘I pledge allegiance…’
My loyal readers understand that some weeks I find it necessary to comment on something other than divorce law; this week it’s politics.
Last Saturday’s headlines trumpeted the drop in the unemployment rates in Florida for the fifth month in a row. I could hear the gnashing of Republican teeth from Pensacola to Key West. “Oh no, the damn economy’s getting better…what can we do!!”
Michael Gora
On the left hand the Democrats seemed just as poised to cheer any faux pas managed by the Republicans, even if the country suffers as the result.
At a recent luncheon I heard Congressman Allen West talk about his willingness to talk to Democrats in Congress conditioned upon “other other side” agreeing with his positions.”
As he walked from the podium he passed, and gave me a hug. I whispered in his ear, “Congressman, there is only one side here; we are all United States citizens.”
Logic tells me that neither the Democrats nor the Republicans always have the right answers about all issues.
It seems probable that on many occasions the best solutions to the country’s problems lie somewhere between the positions of the two major political parties, and can emerge if, and only if, the members of the Congress are genuinely open to serious consideration of their colleagues’ views, whether or not they are in the same political party.
The blame for failure of the policies passed into law by one political party or the other which have gotten United States citizens fearing, instead of looking forward to the future, lies at the feet of the members of Congress who are more interested in getting re-elected then they are in fixing what is broken.
Pledging allegiance to a political party instead of to the United States is not acceptable to me, and should not be acceptable to you.
All of us, Rs and Ds alike, should let our senators and congressman know that they are expected to listen to all ideas, discuss all ideas, and leave the memos against compromise foisted on them by Nancy Pelosi, John Boehner, and the like, in their shredders.
Let’s return to the gold standard, “the Art of Politics is Compromise”, as practiced best by Ronald Regan and Lyndon Johnson, who twisted some arms, but always stopped short of breaking them.
