Confrontation or Compromise?

“Good government is like good sausage. It may taste good, but you don’t want to know what went into it.”

This old adage about what it takes to make a representative government work has more than a little truth to it.

The blockbuster movie “Lincoln” describes in detail the unholy alliances that went into getting the necessary votes to send the 13th Amendment (abolishing slavery) to the states.

In a column for the New York Times, David Brooks put forth the thesis that the movie can help “elevate” the political process by motivating people to become involved to achieve worthwhile objectives despite the “dirt” it might take.

There is no doubt that after the deceit, lying, mud-slinging and divisiveness of the latest political campaign season, many people are fed up with the whole process and want to “wash their hands” of the whole political process.

That would not be prudent because it will leave the arena to the least honorable. Since the Democratic Party has historically supported slavery, segregation, spending, socialism and Second Amendment denial, Republicans might have to get a little “dirty” to save the country and restore the vision and promise of the Founders.

You make me smile. I’m tempted to leave you where you are – it’s such a self-defeating place.

But then, how would we ever move forward? Alas, we must work together.

But despair not, nor threaten to secede. Ours need not be a fight, for us all, to the death. Our fittest can survive. We can adapt. We can change our ways of thinking, then of acting.

We must.

We can continue to conspire, to cajole, and to connive. But in the end we must compromise.

We must work together. We must cooperate because we both recognize that what binds us together as a community, as a nation, as a specie, far surpasses our differences, whether of thought or perception.

My friend, at some point we must stop calling each other names, besmirching our peculiarities, our parentages, our cultures, our colors.

The problems we face are ongoing and worldwide. Our solutions will have to be as broad and dynamic. And while the past will surely guide our actions, it cannot be our aim. Change is inevitable.

Let’s work together by recognizing, using, and conserving the wisdom of the past. Let’s move, each with our own shortcomings, scars and blemishes, into the future. Will you walk with me?