Compromising Isn't Surrendering

It wasn't that long ago that Democrats and Republicans could work together for the good of our nation. What has happened to us?

David Frum is getting a lot of flack for his "Waterloo" post. His belief that the GOP should have been willing to bargain with Democrats instead of opposing the bill has been treated as "pollyannish."

I will agree that this bill is a mess and I do worry about the fiscal problems in the future (though I wonder if any of those who are so angry about the healthcare bill were as mad about the Medicare expansion passed by a Republican congress and signed by a Republican president in 2003 that also blew a hole in the budget). But I also think the GOP should have been willing to work with Democrats instead of opposing them. This isn't about giving up our beliefs, it's about accepting reality.

Let's face it: there was an election in 2008 and the Democrats won. This means that they can come up with a healthcare bill if they want to because they won. My fellow Republicans have refused to accept this reality, The fact is, they are in the majority, they get to call the shots. I don't like it, you don't like it, but there you have it.

That said, just because the Democrats won Congress and the White House doesn't mean that they can do anything they want. Republicans were also elected to Congress as well. We could come up with decent proposals as Paul Ryan did. We can also come to the negotiating table and make sure that some of our own priorities get into a bill. We could have bargained for better cost controls. We could have asked for better ways to fund the plan that would save money in the long run and not break the bank.

But Republicans refused to play along and so the Democrats drafted a bill that won't even come close to balancing the books. And for what? Some hope that people would still be mad come November?

I don't know what has come over Republicans that they think that compromise is equal to surrender. It isn't. But compromise is a reality that the other side exists and has to be dealt with.

It wasn't that long ago that Democrats and Republicans could work together for the good of our nation. What has happened to us?

At the end of the day, the Democrats are not evil. Most of them are well-meaning people. They are our fellow Americans. We might disagree on the issues, but we share the common bonds of citizenship.

I know this post will be interpreted as defeatist, but what I am calling for is honest to goodness pragmatism. I am not calling for the abandonment of conservative principles, but I am calling for common sense.

It's up to Republicans now to make the changes needed to right the fiscal ship. Will we have the courage to do this and give up trying to hurt the Democrats just because we can?