The Case for Compromise

There's a common thread among voters, it seems, and that is that they want a candidate/President that compromises less, or doesn't compromise at all. "Less compromise, less compromise!" "Stick to your guns!"

My question is, why the heck do people dislike compromise?

I'm going to use the debt ceiling situation for my example. We essentially had two sides completely unwilling to compromise. One side wanted to essentially tax everything, but no real spending cuts and the other wanted to cut spending, but no taxation. Yes, in the end, they got a deal done. But it should not have been so hard, or the ridiculous charades by both sides going on so long. If both sides had compromised, we could have had SOME taxes, and SOME spending cuts. It's really not that hard. However, you get people thinking more about what they want to do for their political career, and not for the best interests of the country.

When it comes down to it the best option for the country is not always the most popular. You can't build a nation when you are too busy arguing among each other. Compromise is a GOOD thing!

The American Civil War: What we should remember

Well, the American Civil war kicks off the weeklong series on Wars: What We Need To Know So We Don't Keep Making the Same Friggin Mistakes. I'm fairly sure that most of you know the saying, "History repeats itself." Well, unfortunately for us, most politicians seem to be absent when you should have learned that. (Actually, most seem to have missed history all together, and simply live in their little fantasy worlds where the world revolves around them. So, I decided to put together this series so that hopefully, if any one that reads this blog ever becomes a politician, they won't screw up the world so badly.

The American Civil War- while most people think the war started on the issue of freeing the slaves, it actually started as a dispute about the expansion of slavery into the newly acquired territories.

I have to admit, that this war is the hardest for me to wrap my head around. This war put a straight-line split between pro-slavery Americans, and anti-slavery Americans. This war was fought over a difference of opinion. A difference of opinion was strong enough to rip the country apart down to the family level. Brothers, fathers, and neighbors fought against each other, and even killed each other.

The sad thing is, there are fault lines almost as deep as those during the Civil War which divide this country today. Between the political party lines, the controversial wars, as well as the issues of race and gender that still divide this country; we must remember something in order to prevent the lines from going deeper. We are all Americans.

This country was founded on the belief that all men are created equal. If we focus on the things that we have in common, rather than the differences, we can overcome the final boundaries, to become the country that our founding fathers intended.

We will be truly, the land of the free.



~Mer