Paul Waldman’s July 18 Tuesday Opinion column, “ ‘Common sense’ in politics? No thanks.,” missed the mark on the frustration a lot of centrists feel in today’s unhealthy partisan climate. His criticism of those touting “common-sense” solutions was well-stated. Indeed, those on both sides of the spectrum typically claim their own solutions are common sense.
What most centrists long for instead is a revival of the ability of our system to develop compromises between two strongly felt views. Granted, compromise did get a bad name by prolonging the antebellum period and forestalling a solution to our nation’s original sin of slavery. However, most major federal enactments throughout our political history, including the Civil Rights Act of 1964, were built upon compromises that eventually led to solutions. It is likely some of those solutions lacked “common sense” and were far from perfect, but they generally served as positive steps toward addressing a critical problem.
What we have more often today is a choice between inertia and one-sided, divisive and often impractical solutions offered by those at the far ends of the spectrum. There would be no calls for a third party if the two existing parties could back off their absolutist positioning on virtually every issue.
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