Allentown Morning Call
Two-hundred and twenty years ago, a motley collection of 55 newly anointed Americans dedicated themselves not to fixing our national government, but creating a new (and revolutionary) one. Seeking to replace the failing Articles of Confederation, our Founding Fathers longed to provide for a more perfect union. Surely one has heard the Constitution Convention's truthful fables -- a sweltering Philadelphia summer coupled with the windows and doors shut tight, debates lasting six hours at a time, delegates laboring for 14 hours a day, six days a week. Yet even though there were flaws in the new document (slavery of course the most prominent), its adoption through compromise is something that deserves adoration, especially when compared to our current world.
Today, compromise is no longer a means of survival; it is blasphemy. The political divide that separates us has become something we cannot bridge because the ''R'' or ''D'' on our voting ticket is more important than being an American.
Examine any issue -- abortion, illegal immigration, Social Security -- and one will find a political partition where there's no middle ground and no solution. Today's government has become more of an exclamation (''I'm more right than you are!'') than collaboration (''How can we work together on this?'').
Asking a Democrat to compromise with a Republican is almost an open invitation to a liberal lynching. For example, when House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., cooperated with President Bush to extend our terrorist wiretapping system, war-protester Cindy Sheehan announced she would run for Rep. Pelosi's seat because Pelosi obliged President Bush rather than impeached him.
Asking a Republican to compromise with a Democrat is the equivalent to heresy. When Sen. Arlen Specter prodded former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales about his elusiveness in the dismissal of eight U.S. attorneys, Republicans held Specter in contempt. Despite his attempts to uncover the truth for Americans, he was harangued by his own party. Ironically enough, Gonzales stepped down Monday on the anniversary of the U.S. Constitution.
Will Sept. 17 remain a day where we celebrate one of the world's greatest governmental compromises, or will it be a day where we one day mourn its death?
I often wonder what it would be like if George Washington's hand were able to comfort President Bush's shoulder during tough times, with the first president saying, ''It is okay to work in the middle, because it is in the middle that often benefits most Americans.''
Or if John Adams and Thomas Jefferson -- fierce political opponents and yet the closest of friends on their deathbeds -- could address current-day Congress, how would they stress the importance of compromise?
It is hard to imagine it doing anything but help.
No comments:
Post a Comment