I recently offered a post commenting on the heated campaign for the Republican nomination in the 5th congressional district between Rep. Bob Good and the ever ambitious State Senator John McGuire.
Good, who unseated former Republican Denver Riggleman in 2020 on the basis that Riggleman was a RINO (Republican In Name Only), is being challenged by McGuire, who now alleges that Good is a RINO because he had the audacity to endorse Governor Ron DeSantis over Donald Trump during the 2024 presidential primary.
I made the point that it was somewhat laughable to see these two right wingers going after each other the way they are, and that in reality, neither one is worthy of representing the people of the 5th District.
In response to my post, one of my readers responded by taking me to task, alleging that I am the problem because I like to encourage compromise in public policy. She asserted that she was tired of politicians who promoted compromise. In part her post read:
“Your comments are really quite something. How do you think we’re going to get out from under the debt they are passing on to our children and grandchildren? How do you think we’re going to deal with the collapsing economy, overregulation, unelected bureaucrats running our government and dysfunctional agencies. Exactly how are we going to protect our privacy when the government refuses to do so? Playing footsie with the radical left is not going to make it happen. What do you … propose to stop this? Please don’t say it’s all about compromise.”
She makes some fair points. I too grow frustrated by many of the same issues she mentions, but alas, it is all about compromise!
At the end of the day, governing must be about more than breaking the dishes. It must be about solving problems and getting things done. In the real world, that requires compromise.
When Democrats control two-thirds of the government, or for that matter, even one-third of the government, you have no choice but to compromise.
When government is divided, as it has been throughout most of our nation’s recent history, no one gets everything their way all the time.
The Founders wisely designed the system to promote moderation, not extremism. In fact, they feared political partisanship and extremism.
If you don’t like that design, take it up with Mr. Madison and the other framers of our constitution. They understood that without compromise democracy doesn’t work.
The absence of compromise promotes extremism, dysfunction, and the type of pernicious polarization and division we are experiencing today. Ultimately, it will produce anarchy and democratic degradation if left unchecked, and we are rapidly headed in that direction.
And it’s all thanks to those who insist that things be done their way all the time. They’re not bad people, just misinformed, like my reader.
They don’t understand the necessity of compromise in our system. It’s a real-life lesson in American government 101, and I appreciate my reader giving me another opportunity to address it.