Partisanship's disease: How it affects us all

Good Evening readers,

I hope all of my readers had a great weekend! The topic I will be discussing tonight is a very deadly disease tearing through many Americans as we speak. The Partisanship disease is incredibly harmful to a democratic republic like America. When I look up Partisanship in the dictionary, this is the definition that comes up: prejudice in favor of a particular cause; bias.

In politics there must be give and take, compromise, cooperation and negotiation. This idea is as old as America itself. Yet at this current time, America is about as far away from that as possible. Instead of that very compromise and cooperation in congress, one political party acts as a block to the others legislation. And this occurs on both sides of the isle. Pure Partisanship. Looking at our present situation, many people may think that this idea of bi-partisanship is an impossible task to accomplish. That couldn't be further from the truth. I can think of a few different scenarios of bipartisanship in the past eras.

The first was Democratic President Lyndon Johnson and the Civil Rights Act of 1964. While working with Republicans and Democrats, he signed a bill that made segregation by race in public facilities illegal. The next was President Republican President Ronald Reagan and his bipartisan bill to keep Social Security secure for the generations to come (1983). President Reagan, Republican leader Bob Michel and Democratic leader Tip O’Neill put aside their feelings for each other and their agendas to push this compromise through. I will also note that O’Neill was often very critical of Reagan and his politics. That goes to show me and hopefully my fellow readers that bipartisanship IS possible.

Our biggest problem is the active leaders of our political parties have allowed our political gatherings to become rally group meetings for our own prejudices against the other party.

Where do we go from here?

I truly believe that if congress and President Obama can set aside their differences and their pride that this can be accomplished. I also believe that if our leaders change their meeting styles into more listening than attacking, we can fix this partisan problem. If our party leaders would meet often to discuss ways of bipartisanship, and then meet with the president on the same issue, this could help solve the problem.

One thing we all must remember is that politicians are not trying to destroy America. They simply have different ideas on how they think America could become more successful. Sen. John Kerry said it well in a 2004 presidential debate when he stated that he and President Bush had different ideas on how to make America flourish.  

I will leave you with a few quotes from former presidents and other politician. I thank you all for reading tonight and I would love to hear your comments and opinions on this matter! I hope to see you next week!

We Must now put aside bitterness and rancor, move beyond partisanship.

-Bill Clinton

It is time to put aside partisan rivalries and work together for our nation's future.

-Ronald Reagan