We watched a little bit of the meeting between the President and the Republican House members today. We suppose it could be a start of sorts, but there is much to be done BY PRESIDENT OBAMA before we would accept it as any kind of “meeting of the minds.”
Let’s start with a word fraught with danger: compromise.
In the minds of liberals, compromise almost always means that conservatives move closer to their points of view. The idea of liberals moving toward conservative positions is considered a non-starter, and dead on arrival. This is poppycock pure and simple. It is no compromise at all, and we urge Republicans to tell liberals flat out that there will be no meeting of the minds if this is their definition of compromise.
So, for example, the health care deformation efforts that Nancy “The Off-the-Rails LOCOmotive” Pelosi tried to strong-arm through the House last year involved no compromise that we saw. Indeed, all opponents were cast by her as astroturf and Nazis. If there is any one person who poisoned the well last year, it was the Witch of California (with all due apologies to other witches – if apologies are due). This dingbat of a woman should be nowhere near the legislative process, let alone running it.
Mr. President, if you would have CONSERVATIVES talking civilly with you; looking for ways to compromise on legislation that for whatever reason you consider important, we urge you start calling on your own supporters to tone down the rhetoric. It would go a long way if you said something like this in your next speech to the American public.
“As you know, I have wanted to change the tone in Washington. I inherited very intense partisanship from the last admini — wait – no, I’m not going to go there again. This is on my watch now. OK – let me start over. I want – right now – I want to change the tone in Washington. I can’t control anyone else, so I will begin with myself. I will no longer demonize the prior administration which I acknowledge had to deal with some very tough challenges – challenges that I didn’t realize were as difficult as they were until I took office. So let me begin by apologizing to George W. Bush and his administration. You were patriots, doing the best you could. And while I disagree with some of the things you did, I will no longer second guess you, just as I would not appreciate the next administration second guessing me.
“But let me go beyond this. I cannot control anyone but myself. But I can call on everyone who supports me to start right now – today – to tone it down. Stop calling Republicans and Conservatives astro-turf or Nazis. They are neither. They are sincere; we happen to believe they are wrong. It is our job to persuade them to our point of view if we can, and to be civil regardless. If we can lead by example, maybe the Republicans and conservatives will respond in kind. God knows that there are many conservatives out there who have said as much. Maybe we can begin setting a new tone by leading by example. So, Speaker Pelosi, Vice President Biden and Senator Reid, please do what you can to tone down your language and the language of those who work for you. We are no longer at war with FoxNews. We are no longer at war with Corporate America’s boardrooms. You are all Americans, same as me, and I will no longer demonize you. I call on those who support me now to do likewise. Think Gandhi and Martin Luther King, who practiced civility under intense provocations. Can we do less? I call on our side of the debate to live more nobly and by our examples, perhaps the Republicans and conservatives will see that we are sincere in our desire to change things for the better.”
Will you do this, Mr. President?
- Off-the-cliff.com
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