Reasonable Political Discourse - Lost in the Haze of Shallow Thinking

Mr. Vinistra, I hope you see the irony in blaming the Conservative Republicans. Seems like a comment such as that one serves only to divide more - widen the gap, as some might say. I'm sure a staunch supporter of the Republican party could list off examples of Democratic labeling and dismissing. I hope you can now appreciate the difficulty in reuniting (somewhat) the two parties, when each feels that the other is to blame.

redit for doing anything right? As longas conservatives have anything tosay about it the answer is - never.

The trouble with trying to find common ground with conservative Republicans when you're a liberal Democrat is that Democrats have been doing that for years now and we never get the least amount of credit when we do it. Bill Clinton rubber stamped much of the agenda of Newt Gingrich's Contract for (on) America and as payback he got Ken Starr's unreal witchhunt and an impeachment hearing. John Kerry voted for the War in Iraq, No Child Left Behind and Faith - Based Initiatives and as payback he got swiftboated out of a presidential victory. Al Gore's been out front on global warming for 30 years and as payback he gets labeled a nutjob. Gore was also on the forefront of promoting legislation to lay down fiberoptic cables through all 50 states, all counties,cities, municipalities, rural and mountainous areas of the nation to create equal access to an "internet" and for saying he did what he in fact did do he gets labeled a supercilious weasel. When may I ask are liberals ever going to get c

The trouble with trying to find common ground with conservative Republicans when you're a liberal Democrat is that Democrats have been doing that for years now and we never get the least amount of credit when we do it. Bill Clinton rubber stamped much of the agenda of Newt Gingrich's Contract for (on) America and as payback he got Ken Starr's unreal witchhunt and an impeachment hearing. John Kerry voted for the War in Iraq, No Child Left Behind and Faith - Based Initiatives and as payback he got swiftboated out of a presidential victory. Al Gore's been out front on global warming for 30 years and as payback he gets labeled a nutjob. Gore was also on the forefront of promoting legislation to lay down fiberoptic cables through all 50 states, all counties,cities, municipalities, rural and mountainous areas of the nation to create equal access to an "internet" and for saying he did what he in fact did do he gets labeled a supercilious weasel. When may I ask are liberals ever going to get c

I dislike the party politics of "voting down the party line". Why represent your constituents if you cannot think for yourself? Hang on, I am too shallow for that....now, where did I leave my cool-aid?

Insightful. I would LOVE to see a politician publicly give credit for an idea to the other party without making any effort to claim credit in some way. Political discourse should be about finding the best ideas and tweaking the good ones to make them better and working together to implement them. We all get shortchanged when Congress or other public institutions become a ideological battleground and when winning and getting credit becomes the object.