Can You See Obama and McConnell Working Together?

The big politicians on both sides, most notably Obama and McConnell, say that they have to work together and get things done.  They say that they know that this is what the American people want.  Things have to change.  We can’t continue in a perpetual sate of conflict.  They both seem to be saying.  Will they do it?  We, the American people, have our doubts.

Take one issue: Obama Care:  Here, “working together” should mean neither trashing it all together nor giving it carte blanche support.  “Working together,” with respect to Obama Care, for example, first of all means respecting its best intentions while at the same time accepting that it needs a great amount of tweaking and correction to make it work properly.  It means not losing sight of its purpose—to ensure that Americans, who have heretofore failed to benefit from proper healthcare coverage, can do so and in a way that is equitable for all Americans.  Hence, working together means, both parties will work at ensuring that the Affordable Care Act really does become an effective, just, and appropriate policy that positively impacts American citizens as whole.

Or take the question of the Keystone Pipeline.  This refers to the oil pipeline system between Canada and the U.S. that runs from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (Alberta, Canada) to refineries in the U.S., as in Steele City, Nebraska.  Must it be a question of no oil versus ecological protection?  Can’t we have both?  Does it not make sense to BOTH protect our environment AND allow appropriate means of transporting oil?  Yes, it probably costs more to be environmentally protective while drilling or transporting oil; but, that kind of cost is far cheaper than carelessly destroying our lands and contaminating our water resources.  Hence, “working together,” means being environmentally protective AND applying dependable and credible safe ways for transporting oil.  Such an approach can’t be that difficult or impossible, can it?

“Working together” means actually listening to, hearing, and respecting the other party’s values and concerns, in order to find common ground and workable solutions so that win-win solutions may be had.  That’s it!  “Working together” means deliberately and purposefully searching for win-win solutions.  It means steering clear of extremely polarized “all or nothing,” all of this and none of that, “I win you lose,” positioning and posturing.  But, sorry to say, that’s exactly what most Americans don’t see happening, despite all this so-called new talk about “getting things done” and working together.

It is possible that the political system itself is broken.  If our two-party system can no longer find ways to literally and realistically come up with win-win solutions, then the system itself needs to be fixed.  If the political system ends up actively working against balance and subverts the moderate, middle ground, cooperative win-win approach, the system is the problem.  And if that is the case, nothing will work right until the system itself is corrected.