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Political disagreements are nothing new. But in 2017 we don't just disagree with our political opponents, we loathe them.1
We’ve never been shy about telling people they’re wrong about about politics, but these days we often go further. Our opponents are not only wrong, they're evil. They shouldn't just be defeated, they should be punished. We shouldn't just prevent people from believing what they say, we should prevent people from even hearing what they say. And forget about actually talking to them - that would just make us complicit in their evilness.
I totally understand this. After all people are saying some really crazy, evil things in 2017, and we certainly don’t want the rest of America to forget how evil and crazy those things are.
At the same time, there’s a lot of evidence that, if we want to make things in America not suck quite so much we’re going to need to get some Americans to change their minds about politics, and to do that we’re going to need to talk to them.
But how can we have a genuine conversation with people who are so obviously wrong?
Of course, they think the same thing about us. And you know what? They’re right.
But so are we.
The truth is that in 2017, both sides are almost certainly wrong about something.
We know this because 100 years ago both liberals and conservatives believe things that, in 2017, we all believe are not only obviously wrong, but as evil as anything our opponents are talking about today.
So it stands to reason that, 100 years from now, people will be saying the same thing about all of us right now.
Don't believe me? Let's take a trip back in time to 1917.
Wednesday, October 18, 2017
Tuesday, October 3, 2017
Democracy, Ideological Purity, and Getting Stuff Done: Pick Two
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After the 2016 election, Republicans figured that they could have a bill repealing Obamacare on President Trump's desk by inauguration day. Nine months later they still haven't done it.
If you're a Democrat, this is all pretty fun to watch. Schadenfreude is a hell of a drug. But politics is cyclical, and one of these days, Democrats are going to be back in the majority, trying to pass their own big piece of legislation. Maybe it's a single-payer health care plan, or a progressive re-write of the tax code, or something else entirely.
When that happens, we don't want what just happened to the GOP to happen to us. So we should take a look at why exactly the GOP couldn't get their act together, and try and learn from their mistakes instead of just laughing at them.
There are a number of lessons we could draw from the GOP’s legislative faceplant.
For example:
"Don't make impossible promises to the American people, because someday you'll be asked to keep them."
Or:
"Don't try and use parliamentary tricks to railroad through an awful bill in the name of 'getting a win,' because some of your members might actually care about the dignity of the legislative process."
These are good lessons, but I want to focus on what we can learn from the actions of Senator Rand Paul.
Rand Paul teaches us that, in a democracy, you can refuse to compromise and stand for unyielding ideological purity, or you can get stuff done, but you can't do both.
After the 2016 election, Republicans figured that they could have a bill repealing Obamacare on President Trump's desk by inauguration day. Nine months later they still haven't done it.
If you're a Democrat, this is all pretty fun to watch. Schadenfreude is a hell of a drug. But politics is cyclical, and one of these days, Democrats are going to be back in the majority, trying to pass their own big piece of legislation. Maybe it's a single-payer health care plan, or a progressive re-write of the tax code, or something else entirely.
When that happens, we don't want what just happened to the GOP to happen to us. So we should take a look at why exactly the GOP couldn't get their act together, and try and learn from their mistakes instead of just laughing at them.
There are a number of lessons we could draw from the GOP’s legislative faceplant.
For example:
"Don't make impossible promises to the American people, because someday you'll be asked to keep them."
Or:
"Don't try and use parliamentary tricks to railroad through an awful bill in the name of 'getting a win,' because some of your members might actually care about the dignity of the legislative process."
These are good lessons, but I want to focus on what we can learn from the actions of Senator Rand Paul.
Rand Paul teaches us that, in a democracy, you can refuse to compromise and stand for unyielding ideological purity, or you can get stuff done, but you can't do both.
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