QuakerOats;536632 wrote:WRONG; that is exactly how we got into it. Either the liberals agree to massive reductions in government, or the ship sinks.
Hahaha. Man, this is so messed up, I don't even know where to begin.
The whole concept of one party rule, where one side, D or R, forces the other one to cave to its point of view is so flawed.
Over the past 20 years, when one party has had control in Congress, nothing good has come from it. Whether it is the R's in the early 2000s who really pushed the D's around and ran up the debt, or the D's in 2006-current, who did the same thing to the R's and run up more debt, the concept of one party needs to force the other to follow its ways is wrong.
If you look at the modern Congress, the only way we got ourselves out of big holes was to work together, to cross the aisle and come to common agreements. Think about it, in the 80s it was Reagan and Tip O'Neil, and in the 90s it was Clinton and Newt. It was not one party saying to the other do this or the world will end (Newt came close, but backed off), it was some rhetoric, but ultimately, a discussion on what common ideas could liberals and conservatives come to to solve the major problems.
Also, the R's will not have enough power in the House or the Senate to do just what they want. It cannot and will not happen, that is why the founding fathers put so many checks in the system. It stopped D's from their agenda and it will stop R's from theirs. It is impossible to do things in this town without the other party, unless there is that rare instance where there is a "supermajority" (But we saw what that got the D's-nothing)
Why should a liberal in California be forced to adhere to the conservative way when 1. they fundamentally disagree with it, just as a conservative fundamentally disagrees with them, and 2. they have a liberal voting bloc back home that is not going to turn conservative any time soon.
The broader debate over government-liberal vs. conservative, Jefferson vs. Madison goes all the way back to the founding fathers and is not going away. There is no way to force a liberal to vote for a strong conservative plan. It is not going to happen, just as a conservative is not going to vote for a liberal plan, and just as an OSU fan will root for Michigan in the OSU-Michigan game. It is not happening.
Therefore, with those differences that are so fundamentally opposed, the only way to avoid gridlock and further arguing, it is negotiate and work together.
Yes, both parties have screwed up the country, but it will honestly take both parties to fix it. Liberals and conservatives need to come away from the fringes and instead come to common agreement on practical steps that can reduce the debt, limit government takeovers, build the private sector, and get us out of this mess.
Saying one party will drive it is naive and honestly avoids American history and the way the American government functions.
