Come Together

Here come old flat top, he come grooving up slowly

Compromise - to come together in agreement - parties involve themselves in a process of give and take to reach a plan that works. Over the past few years, this concept has become vestigial in American politics.

Historian Shelby Foote postulated that one of the causes of the Civil War was Americans failing to do the thing for which they have true genius - compromise. The vitriol apparent in current debates on health care, foreign policy, the economy, or any topic you wish to insert, hearken back to those dark days.

Actually, I use a misnomer. A debate is an interactive argument in which facts, logic and rhetorical persuasion are used to support or negate a proposition. Today, political discourse has deteriorated to chaotic chauvinistic calumniation. Both sides are culpable.

Demagogues speak as if imbued with papal infallibility. To change one's opinion, or to compromise for the greater good is anathema. Displaying the ability to change his/her opinion, or just consider a different point of view brands a politician with the stigmata of "Waffler."

This unilateral discourse bodes ill for our future. George Washington and John Adams often paraphrased the popular 18th century play Cato: "We cannot command success, but we deserve it.' I'm not sure we deserve it anymore - as ever BB

"Under democracy one party always devotes its chief energies to trying to prove that the other party is unfit to rule - and both commonly succeed and are right." H.L. Mencken