Tag Archives: compromise

Ya Gotta Have an Enemy

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

Organizations that depend on fundraising (as opposed to selling a product or a service) have got to have an enemy to survive.

When I was very young my brother – four years my senior – was stricken with polio which was the scourge of the nation back in the early 50s. He recovered but the cost of his treatment was covered by an organization known, as least colloquially, as “The March of Dimes” because a major method of raising money was sending people out with containers that look like Pringles cans, with a slit in the top into which people, answering their doors or walking into their local A&P, would drop a dime. Continue reading →

Can’t Always Get What You Want

BY RICH GALEN
Reprinted from Mullings.com

In 1969, the Rolling Stones – who have been touring since about 1343 – put out an album that had as one of its songs, “You Can’t Always Get What You Want.”

The U.S. House and Senate should do a quorum call right after the prayer and have every Member sing that song, every day they’re in session – which is only about five days a month. Continue reading →

The Bipartisanship Myth

BY JOHN FEEHERY
Reprinted from TheFeeheryTheory.com

Norm Ornstein and Thomas Mann recently released It’s Even Worse Than It Looks, a book dedicated to the principle that bipartisanship is a worthy goal and that its breakdown is all the Republicans’ fault.

It’s hogwash on two fronts.

First, the nature of our politics is adversarial. We have a two-political-party system, where compromise between the parties is supposed to be a rare accomplishment. Otherwise, why have two parties?

In such an adversarial system, it is complete nonsense to blame one party for being too partisan. The Democrats are looking out for their own constituents just as ardently as the Republicans are looking out for theirs.

In fact, Democratic leaders are far more beholden to their extremes than are Republican leaders. Think about it. Barack Obama is far more liberal than Mitt Romney is conservative. John Boehner, while not exactly a centrist, is not by any means a conservative ideologue, while Nancy Pelosi was easily the most liberal Speaker in the history of the House. Continue reading →