A little civility and even-handedness would help the country to start moving ahead

EDITOR:

Both the tenor and the content of the first two letters to the editor in last Sunday’s Vindicator should be a deep concern for all who hold a hope that this country will someday live up to the ideals of its founders.

In the first letter, the Democratic leadership was referred to as “the imperial Democratic aristocracy and their narcissistic king in the white house.” The writer was obviously out of the country from 2000 through2008 when then President George W. Bush claimed for himself the right to declare war (contrary to the Constitution) on a country that committed no act of aggression toward us and contrary to his claims, posed no threat to us. He also claimed the power to ignore the Fourth Amendment and eavesdrop on the private communications of U.S. citizens without approval of the courts and would later claim to be the sole arbiter of what level of pain could be inflicted on prisoners before crossing the threshold of torture.

The writer accuses the Democrats of “making deals to enrich themselves” (only the Democrats?) and makes the preposterous claim that the Democrats are trying to “destroy the only thing we had left — our health.” The deplorable lack of civility embodied in this letter is illustrated by the reference to the president as the “dunce king”.

While the second letter does not contain the acerbic language of the first, the writer likewise singles out only one party, in this case the Republicans, as solely responsible for the woes of the country. While claiming the deregulation of the financial institutions under Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush begot the current economic crisis, he conveniently forgets that this deregulation continued unabated during President Clinton’s eight years in office. He also fails to note that the economic growth during the second term of the Clinton presidency was primarily fueled by the Dot-Com boom that crashed and, along with the collapse of Enron and Worldcom, became the seeds for the recession during the first year of the Bush presidency. It was also during the second Clinton term that the practice of overseas outsourcing began, and we all know how well that has worked out for us. NAFTA, which many believe was the beginning of that exodus of jobs, was signed into law by President Clinton.

We must rise above the petty, often mean-spirited dismissal of those who view the world through a prism other than our own. Those with differing points of view are neither evil nor ignorant, but are typically good people who also want this country to prosper and be safe. We need both conservative and liberal perspectives to balance the excesses of the other. They have both, however, migrated to the extremes of their political philosophies and refuse to even discuss compromise, resulting in our currently dysfunctional Congress.

The genius of our constitutional form of government is the requirement that our leaders compromise, something both Democrats and Republicans have obviously forgotten. We, the people, need to convey to our representatives in both houses of Congress, that we will no longer tolerate name-calling, fear-mongering and their stubborn refusal to compromise. They need to know that their re-election is dependent on their responsible behavior, as well as their response to our needs.

ROBERT F. MOLLIC

Liberty Township