Once upon a time, decent Americans representing different political philosophies could reach across the aisle, find common ground where they could, argue heatedly when they couldn’t but still, at the end of the day, go out have have dinner and drinks together and be friends.
Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill were famous friends. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were close friends. Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were close friends and often their families went out to the opera together.
Today compromise has become a dirty word.
In politics, the goal should be to advance your position as far and as fast as possible, but at least get as much as you can even if it is not as much as you wanted, and the latter requires compromising.
Once upon a time, decent Americans representing different political philosophies could reach across the aisle, find common ground where they could, argue heatedly when they couldn’t but still, at the end of the day, go out have have dinner and drinks together and be friends.
Ronald Reagan and Tip O’Neill were famous friends. Ted Kennedy and Orrin Hatch were close friends. Antonin Scalia and Ruth Bader Ginsburg were close friends and often their families went out to the opera together.
Today compromise has become a dirty word.
In politics, the goal should be to advance your position as far and as fast as possible, but at least get as much as you can even if it is not as much as you wanted, and the latter requires compromising.