“No democratic government can last long without conciliation and compromise.”

Samuel Elliot Morrison – “The Wisdom of Benjamin Franklin” (1961)

While the leaders of our Republic have engaged in divisive and often virulent disagreements since John Adams ran against and defeated Thomas Jefferson, such disputes were generally between individuals.  However, during the past two decades, uncompromising partisanship and contempt for people with contrary views have risen to unprecedented levels.

This intransigence is driven by several factors.

  • A defacto requirement of both major parties that their members subscribe to their activists’ orthodox and frequently extremist views; resulting in mass desertions by moderates (45% of registered voters are neither Republicans nor Democrats).
  • Celebrity and 24/7 sound-bite “news” reporting has become a substitute for responsible and  impartial journalism to educate the public on current events and alternative solutions to many of the economic, social and political issues which actually affect people’s lives.
  • People increasingly watch or listen to only those shows and read and objectively consider only that information which reinforces their currently-held opinions (rational dissent and critical thinking have become a casualty of our politically-correct educational system).
  • The Internet has become an anonymous conduit for circulating emotional emails and social media postings rife with half-truths, innuendo, snippets taken out of context, doctored photos, outright lies and opinions which too many people accept as gospel.
  • Elected and wannabe politicians are more committed to partisan party politics and parochial self-interest than serving the public good.

Our nation is on the cusp of a financial crisis with far greater consequences than the recent recession.  Unemployment remains distressingly high while the government’s decade-long spending binge has racked-up successive trillion dollar deficits, ballooning the national debt to over $16 trillion; not counting unfunded obligations which multiply those obligations five-fold.

The only way out of our economic quagmire is a combination of substantially increased revenues and materially reduced spending, such as the Simpson-Bowles Commission’s modest recommendations, which were promptly dismissed by both parties!

Meanwhile, none of the “serious” proposals offered by the President or members of Congress do more than tinker around the edges.  Recent schemes, while sounding bold, only reduce the projected 10-year accumulated deficits by $2 trillion … but conspicuously avoid the fact the national debt could rise by $10 trillion over the same period.

The economy will not suffer any material downside if marginal tax rates for those making over $250,000, $400,000 or $1,000,000 are raised.  Tax loopholes enabling wealthy individuals and profitable corporations to avoid US taxes must be closed.  Finally, a vastly simplified tax code, with no carve-outs for any special interests, must be enacted, one ending most, if not all, current deductions while allowing the Alternative Minimum Tax to be abolished.

Concurrently, substantial cuts in spending are required.  This dictates slashing funding for many heretofore “sacred cows”, including defense (where any veteran will attest waste  is rampant), entitlements such a Social Security and Medicare (the  ”trust funds” are Congressional-created fantasies),and governmental overhead (specifically including White House, Congressional and Bureaucratic generous salaries, Cadillac benefits, and their bloated support staffs and expenses), to name a few.; while ensuring the costs of the Affordable Healthcare Act (Obamacare) remain within its most conservative projections.

Realistically, the debt ceiling will have to be increased in the short run.  In doing so, provisions should be written into any such legislation placing a hard cap beyond which no increases can be authorized without a super majority (perhaps 75%) in Congress.

Such tax increases and spending cuts will have their vocal, moneyed and politically well-connected opponents who will pull out all the stops to save their programs, without which they’ll contend, “The sky will fall”!

These are serious times which require serious, non-partisan statesmen and women who, rather than caving in to powerful special interest groups or worrying about the next election, will assume the mantle of responsibility they campaigned on and be willing to make what will inevitably be unpopular compromises for the long-term good of the nation and its people … from whom a shared national sacrifice has not been asked since the dark days of World War II.