An Unhealthy Debate

            One of the biggest differences between our political parties these days is in their unity or lack of it. For example, Republicans promised to repeal and replace ObamaCare, but they can’t agree on how to do it because the many factions within the party seem to place their narrow interests before the good of the country. Democrats, on the other hand, are almost monolithic; they have fashioned a tight bond based on a single factor, i.e., opposing President Trump on every issue. That is not good for the country either.

            The healthcare debacle is symptomatic of what ails this democracy. But it wasn’t always so. Back in the 80s, ideological opposites Tip O’Neill and Ronald Reagan managed to compromise on a tax reform bill that raised us out of Jimmy Carter’s malaise into the most vibrant period of economic growth in my lifetime. Such cooperation appears to be impossible with Chuck Schumer and Nancy Pelosi browbeating their colleagues in the Senate and the House into a unified resistance to the President’s every move.

            Democrats, of course, are supported by a mainstream media that can find little to cheer in the President’s first 100 days in office. When the country and the world applauded Trump’s bombing of Syria and dropping the MOAB on ISIS tunnels, even then the media’s reluctant praise read like constipated rhetoric.

            Symptomatic of what ails a Democratic party that has not gotten over losing the elections is the unending stream of consistently negative comments from Nancy Theodore in my local paper. I have looked in vain through her lengthy diatribes against President Trump for anything positive, anything constructive. Why can she not acknowledge that there has been good news on jobs, on immigration, on energy, on reversing job-killing regulations, on foreign relations? If she does not agree, where are her ideas for improving our economy, for improving healthcare, for shrinking the size of the federal government, for controlling illegal immigration? In view of its repeated disasters at the polls, what exactly does she think the Democratic party has to do to regain the confidence of the American people in its ability to govern?

            Debate is healthy. But not when one side denies that the other can ever have a valid point.