The Letter: A Moderate Republican Philosophy
Regardless of my personal viewpoints, The Letter appears to be a call for a return to reason, balance, diplomacy, and statesmanship in our political system and away from extremism; and I find it timely, appropriate and refreshing. Here some thoughts I posted earlier in comments on another blog.
It gives me hope to see some in the Republican party calling for a more moderate approach to politics. What happened to the great tradition of statesmanship and diplomacy that once characterized the American poltical system? Time was when citizens could take pride in our political system because our politicians put real important issues and people first and knew that one of the hallmarks of democracy is statesmanship - that is the process of making decisions by debate, compromise, and reconciliation. What is achieved by such methods, you ask? BALANCE…,and its appears to be utterly gone from our political system.
Our political system is now like the “beam balance” scale wielded by Lady Justice http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:UKJUSTICE.jpg , and whichever of the two parties has the most votes rules with impunity - and as soon as the pendulum swings the scale falls with a sudden thud to the other side. So what do we get - the politics of extremism. We vaccilate from one extreme to the other while our politicians duke it out pandering to the most extreme interests of their parties - figuring - that without adopting the extreme views they have no chance of winning anyway. It’s a no holds barred - duke it out - fight to destroy the other side. Many if not most votes are along party lines - you have to ask yourself if these politicians and their constituents’ opinions really line up so perfectly along party lines. Sad thing is - average American’s go unrepresented, or at least they are not represented as well as those living at the extremes.
It’s time to end the potlics of exclusion and extreme partisanship - and for civility to return to the halls of Congress. How many can honestly say that the state of affairs in Washington today suggests that diplomacy and statesmanship are at work in our capital? How many believe that our polticians are hard at work trying to find a workable balance to serious issues that results in the best solutions benefiting the greatest number of people? It might be surprising to find the number of people, who may not be as vocal as the extremists, who are silently awaiting a return of civility and statesmanship to the halls of Congress.
