I found this essay to be excellent, thought-provoking and a reasonable amount of hopeful. I'm afraid to be too optimistic when I remind myself that there are actually people who believe the crap that Q'anon spews. I think you're right about the basic centrism of the American people, but that centrism is under attack by media organizations such as Fox news, which has managed to dupe otherwise intelligent people into its web of lies. Similarly, there are progressives whose impatience I understand, who aren't willing to give an inch or to consider compromise. Unfortunately, without compromise, as you point out, we will all be totally fucked in the end.
This is one of your best, Henry. It really nails it as to where we are and what path to success might yet be available to us. It is clearly going to take at least a handful of Republican senators. Right away, Biden ought to invite whatever Republicans are willing to meet and talk over proposals for infrastructure funding. I think that a fair number would respond, and then they could build on that success as they took up additional topics such as the pandemic, minimum wage, police training, the environment and health care. It is hard to imagine all Republican senators just sitting on their hands for the next 4 years when people are crying out for help.
If only I could believe in any good coming from Mitch McConnell, I would agree but I am willing to hope and pray for some cooperation from the centrist Republicans in the Lincoln Project mold...maybe Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. I hope that any sensible person can see that "Democracy is a system that can only be sustained when we see one another as valued compatriots, and when we regard the outcome of the electoral process as sacrosanct, even when we’re not happy with the result. When we chafe under its constraints and begin plotting how we can get our way without any need to be accountable to our political opponents, we’ve already given up on representative government."
I could not be happier about the election. We removed Trump's malignant personality from the white house but avoided the huge blue wave that many anticipated. The message of the far left does not resonate with the majority of Americans and is downright scary on some issues. Hopefully that means that there is room for compromise in the middle if some one is bold enough to go there.
I found this essay to be excellent, thought-provoking and a reasonable amount of hopeful. I'm afraid to be too optimistic when I remind myself that there are actually people who believe the crap that Q'anon spews. I think you're right about the basic centrism of the American people, but that centrism is under attack by media organizations such as Fox news, which has managed to dupe otherwise intelligent people into its web of lies. Similarly, there are progressives whose impatience I understand, who aren't willing to give an inch or to consider compromise. Unfortunately, without compromise, as you point out, we will all be totally fucked in the end.
This is one of your best, Henry. It really nails it as to where we are and what path to success might yet be available to us. It is clearly going to take at least a handful of Republican senators. Right away, Biden ought to invite whatever Republicans are willing to meet and talk over proposals for infrastructure funding. I think that a fair number would respond, and then they could build on that success as they took up additional topics such as the pandemic, minimum wage, police training, the environment and health care. It is hard to imagine all Republican senators just sitting on their hands for the next 4 years when people are crying out for help.
If only I could believe in any good coming from Mitch McConnell, I would agree but I am willing to hope and pray for some cooperation from the centrist Republicans in the Lincoln Project mold...maybe Mitt Romney, Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins. I hope that any sensible person can see that "Democracy is a system that can only be sustained when we see one another as valued compatriots, and when we regard the outcome of the electoral process as sacrosanct, even when we’re not happy with the result. When we chafe under its constraints and begin plotting how we can get our way without any need to be accountable to our political opponents, we’ve already given up on representative government."
I could not be happier about the election. We removed Trump's malignant personality from the white house but avoided the huge blue wave that many anticipated. The message of the far left does not resonate with the majority of Americans and is downright scary on some issues. Hopefully that means that there is room for compromise in the middle if some one is bold enough to go there.