Monday, January 17, 2011

Editorial: A show of unity way overdue

The unnamed Courier editor thinks mixed company in the joint session for the State of the Union would be very nice. My problem with this is that even if our fractious houses of Congress can be persuaded to go along -- I expect they won't -- it really would be just a show, a stunt to try to mask the political gamesmanship that will almost certainly monkeywrench our national government for the coming two years and make a stagnant economy the new normal.

Sorry, editor, I have no use for political theatre. If there's a core point to the recent calls for more adult political rhetoric, it's to make our political process work better on the ground. We should be demanding a little more than a nice photo op.

1 comment:

birther t. bagur said...

When I first heard the idea floated, the first thing that pooped into my head was "putting lipstick on a pig". The problem with our government isn't polarization, it is that the current Senate is operating using rules that were written back in a time when there was bipartisan agreement on numerous issues (racism is the biggest example) and the dynamics prevented a few ill-spirited Senators from filibustering every single piece of action.
That isn't the case today.