By Emily Rosen
ERosen424@aol.com
It was the worst of times! It was the worst of times … except this Pollyana sees a sliver of “Best.”
Chaos at the Capitol, weeks of wrangling, deals made, deals fade. Leaders dashing in and out of closed doors, hallways, talk shows, anywhere but home, at all hours of the night – pontifications to the max. By Sunday, both Republicans and Democrats were squealing, almost in unison, “Just get it done already!”
Despite the rancor, the accusations, the finger pointing, the political sashaying, it was obvious that the main spokespeople for both points of view felt equally passionate and righteous about their principles, even as bundles of lobbying dollars were securely tucked in their coiffeurs.
But you don’t go to the Capitol to sit on your principles without budging. And with a ticking time-clock snapping at their heels, an exhausted Congress made a deal that everyone basically hated, the operative words being – “made a deal.”
For sure, we don’t know what will happen in the days to come, what follow-up clashes we’ll see, how the “committee” will work, but for now I think we’d be smart to take another look at how we got to where we are and to take big note of what did not happen.
As dysfunctional as it seemed, a certain (limited) civility was present. Rules were adhered to. Procedures were respected. And major ideological diversities were recognized, and accepted as being the fabric of our country. The folks who espouse them will never stop attempting to bring the opposition into their camp – with big mouths and rhetoric, and, yes, and, alas, dollars, but not with guns and torture.
If you are not a political junkie (as I am), you missed probably the most exciting news day of modern memory this past Sunday. It made every political movie and TV sitcom look like waiting for the fish to bite. And powering all the frenetic activity, and blowhard commentary, was the basic truth that the balance between spending and revenue in our country is askew and has been for decades. It was much too easy to slide by when there was no crisis looming.
No leader, no party and no disinterested citizen is immune to blame. Admittedly, some of the numbered details concerning this stuff is a cure for insomnia, but these past few weeks have been a jolting wake-up call.
We are a country bursting with diversity, changing at speeds heretofore unknown, and if we don’t accept that compromise is what holds us together, then we are doomed … to extinction … or bloody revolution.
The best of times? Maybe not quite, but surely not what the naysayers have put out there. History has chronicled the demise of many great civilizations. It’s possible that this seeming debacle has put the brakes on our journey in that direction.
