Republican leadership makes it clear. "No compromise."

johnson1010 · Tue Nov 02, 2010 11:17 am

This is a childish, silly, power-hungry position.

NO COMPROMISE, is not a successful path of governance.

"I wish we could have obstructed more."
"Our number one concern is that Obama be a one term president."

Really? Not fixing health care, or the deficit, or stopping wars, or looking after our citizens?
Its all team politics. It isn't about good governance. Its about taking power, and holding onto that power. Nothing else matters.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... inionsbox1

President Camacho · Tue Nov 02, 2010 3:11 pm

No compromise is something Republicans have been doing for a very long time.

JulianTheApostate · Wed Nov 03, 2010 12:13 am

And meanwhile, Democrats, especially Obama, are too inclined to compromise. The resulting right-wing policies are the main cause of this country's problems.

laurcunningham · Wed Jan 05, 2011 1:49 pm

I'm not surprised and I'm saddened if anyone else is surprised. All I have seen throughout the first two years of Obama's presidency are the Republicans complaining that he isn't bipartisan enough, even when he was doing more than he should have done in the Republican's favor. Now that the House's power has shifted, the Republicans are already playing the "no, why should we have a bipartisan union" game. It's disgusting, but nowhere near shocking to me.

We need more Anthony Weiner.

Paca57 · Wed Jan 05, 2011 3:47 pm

I could not agree more with all points shared in this thread. Divisiveness is our biggest issue. This country has got to pull together. Still, it is hard. I find myself not wanting to compromise and allow so many of the conservative priorities...

JulianTheApostate · Wed Jan 12, 2011 2:41 am


	Paca57 wrote: Divisiveness is our biggest issue.

I disagree with that. The biggest issue facing the country is that its policies are too conservative.

Were liberals less willing to compromise, the country might be more divisive, but the resulting policies would be more ethical and the population would be better off.

JasonP · Tue Jan 25, 2011 6:09 pm

Parties only compromise when the must. The dems have pushed through their agenda the last two years with no compromise. Put the GOP on the shelf. That's just politics unfortunately. And that's why we end up with better legislation when NEITHER party controls all parts of Congress and WH.

johnson1010 · Tue Jul 19, 2011 4:37 pm

"No compromise" is not a moral high ground. It isn't sound government, and it isn't reasonable, or realistic.

It is a delusion. It is a brick wall. It is stupidity. It needs to go away.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/15/opini ... .html?_r=1

BretAM5 · Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:17 pm

JulianTheApostate wrote:


	Paca57 wrote: Divisiveness is our biggest issue.

I disagree with that. The biggest issue facing the country is that its policies are too conservative.

Were liberals less willing to compromise, the country might be more divisive, but the resulting policies would be more ethical and the population would be better off.

If only it were so. Unfortunately, when liberals refuse to compromise, and conservatives refuse to compromise, nothing gets done, which ultimately benefits the conservative position. And people in need continue to suffer. Much of what the Obama administration has been forced to back in the past few years was only done to wrench some sort of feeble concession out of Republicans: the unemployment benefits extension, for example, that was passed only when Democrats agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts.

The Republicans really have a gun to this country's head, and I don't know how to make them put it down. I wish there was a way Democrats could force them to move to the left on anything, be it the debt ceiling, or taxation ... anything. But I'm afraid all that will do is make them pull the trigger. And thus, we are where we are today.

BretAM5 · Tue Jul 19, 2011 10:24 pm


	JasonP wrote: Parties only compromise when the must. The dems have pushed through their agenda the last two years with no compromise. Put the GOP on the shelf. That's just politics unfortunately. And that's why we end up with better legislation when NEITHER party controls all parts of Congress and WH.

I disagree on the point that Democrats "pushed through" their agenda in the last two years "without compromise." Even someone who was opposed to the health care bill, or the stimulus, must at least acknowledge that compromise with the GOP watered down both of those bills. You can argue that this was for the better (personally, I believe it made both bills worse, but without compromise they never would have passed at all) but you cannot say that the Democrats got their way completely.

It's also worth considering that since the GOP took over the House, very little legislation has made it to the President's desk (I believe I read that he has only received 12 bills, but I don't have it in front of me so I could be wrong. Numbers aside, it's not a lot). This is the downside of having neither party control all branches of government. When they become this divided, they don't do anything.

JulianTheApostate · Fri Jul 22, 2011 2:16 am

BretAM5 wrote:


	JulianTheApostate wrote: Were liberals less willing to compromise, the country might be more divisive, but the resulting policies would be more ethical and the population would be better off.

If only it were so. Unfortunately, when liberals refuse to compromise, and conservatives refuse to compromise, nothing gets done, which ultimately benefits the conservative position. And people in need continue to suffer. Much of what the Obama administration has been forced to back in the past few years was only done to wrench some sort of feeble concession out of Republicans: the unemployment benefits extension, for example, that was passed only when Democrats agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts.

The Republicans really have a gun to this country's head, and I don't know how to make them put it down. I wish there was a way Democrats could force them to move to the left on anything, be it the debt ceiling, or taxation ... anything. But I'm afraid all that will do is make them pull the trigger. And thus, we are where we are today.

As you say, the immoral fanaticism of the Republicans puts the Democrats in a very difficult situation. Republicans demand cuts in social programs that will cause immense suffering, or they'll wreck the global economy by not raising the debt limit.

Personally, I wish Obama would unilaterally raise the debt limit, using the 14th amendement as justification. That seems better than the alternatives.

Every time Democrats give in to Republican demands, it makes the Republicans even more assertive and unwilling to compromise. Standing up to the right-wing extremists is necessary.

BretAM5 · Fri Jul 22, 2011 10:23 am

JulianTheApostate wrote:

BretAM5 wrote:


	JulianTheApostate wrote: Were liberals less willing to compromise, the country might be more divisive, but the resulting policies would be more ethical and the population would be better off.

If only it were so. Unfortunately, when liberals refuse to compromise, and conservatives refuse to compromise, nothing gets done, which ultimately benefits the conservative position. And people in need continue to suffer. Much of what the Obama administration has been forced to back in the past few years was only done to wrench some sort of feeble concession out of Republicans: the unemployment benefits extension, for example, that was passed only when Democrats agreed to extend the Bush tax cuts.

The Republicans really have a gun to this country's head, and I don't know how to make them put it down. I wish there was a way Democrats could force them to move to the left on anything, be it the debt ceiling, or taxation ... anything. But I'm afraid all that will do is make them pull the trigger. And thus, we are where we are today.

As you say, the immoral fanaticism of the Republicans puts the Democrats in a very difficult situation. Republicans demand cuts in social programs that will cause immense suffering, or they'll wreck the global economy by not raising the debt limit.

Personally, I wish Obama would unilaterally raise the debt limit, using the 14th amendement as justification. That seems better than the alternatives.

Every time Democrats give in to Republican demands, it makes the Republicans even more assertive and unwilling to compromise. Standing up to the right-wing extremists is necessary.

A 14th Amendment solution would certainly be nice, and by the sound of Tim Geitner recently, I don't think the Administration has ruled it out as a last resort if a deal can't be struck. But even that isn't a complete panacea. Assuming a 14th Amendment solution survived the court challenge that would undoubtably follow (it's never been done before, though I would like to think tht the court would uphold it), Obama would only be able to spend the money that Congress appropriated. They would eventually need to craft a new budget, and this whole thing would begin anew, with Republicans threatening to shut down the government unless their severe cut demands were met.

It never ends. Not until the electorate gets its act together and stops sending so many conservatives and Tea Partiers to Congress.

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