Comments about ‘What other's say: True leaders work together to find common-sense solutions’

Details have emerged recently about a meeting held by Republican leadership immediately following the election of Barack Obama as president. They decided that the strategy they would implement was 100% opposition to every proposal no matter what it was. That is exactly what they have done. No president in modern times has faced an opposition that refuses to work with him in any way.

G.W. Bush was unpopular with Democrats, but he got some Democratic support for all of his signature proposals.

This essay is correct and the advice is certainly needed in all of our political arenas - local, state and federal - but when 279 of 289 Republican members of Congress and all of the Republican presidential candidates, with the lone exception of Jon Huntsman, have signed Grover Norquist's pledge to "oppose any and all efforts to increase the marginal income tax rate for individuals and business; and to oppose any net reduction or elimination of deductions and credits, unless matched dollar for dollar by further reducing tax rates", then I think we know where the real problem starts. This unwieldy and unrealistic approach to solving our current national debt problem can never be considered a reasonable approach to governing our people. We need to elect representatives who go to Congress to work hard at making things work, not simply to stand on an unrealistic principle and call themselves noble. Certainly there is some middle ground that will get us moving in the right direction but the Republican leadership in the House and the Senate, following Grover Norquist like timid children, will never get us there.

There is one candidate for Senate who meets this qualification.

His name is Scott Howell.

I wish every Utah voter had been able to listen to what he had to say on yesterday's Doug Wright show.

I could not agree more. The current party leadership has been focused on achieving Pyrrhic victories at the expense of our nation's long-term good. Pragmatism and even talking with "that other party" has been seen as a type of treason. Pragmatic party leaders have been seen as suspect and insufficiently conservative (both McCain and Romney).

We desperately need change before we make this country ungovernable. We need to go back to the concept of a loyal opposition wherein we recognize that those who oppose us politically are also loyal Americans who just see problems and answers differently. Further, we must recognize that how we treat the party out of power will significantly influence how we are treated when we are the party out of power.

None of this is hard to understand. It is just hard to implement. It is so much easier to give way to our passions. To paint our opponents as fools and worse. To dole out retribution and punishment whenever we can. But that is not the way we have been taught. Nor is it the way to create a society in which we want to live.

Anyone remember the parable about the frog and the scorpion? Where this Country has gotten in trouble is compromising on principle. If a policy or program is Socialist does giving in 50% make it all right? We have poured in over $13 trillion in poverty programs and haven't moved the problem 1%; in fact, we have destroyed the family and many individual lives. Would a 50% compromise make it better? Let's compromise and only solve part of the illegal alien problem. We've compromised and only tax 50% of the population--sure has worked hasn't it? We comprised with the environmentalists and ended up with commuter lanes that only increase traffic back-ups during drive time and therefore increase pollution. Yes compromise has really worked out well for the Country.

@Danish American

You need to take heed of this article and turn off the red meat radio.

Poverty Programs -

Poverty programs haven't made a difference because each year more and more of the middle class slips into lower class and even poverty. Our so called "job creators" have turned their back on this country to maximize profit. While labor unions have certainly done things to their own detriment, there has been a push to eliminate them for years. The problem is that when you look at the decline in middle class income, and especially disposable income, they are trending together.

Illegals -

Neither party has done anything to really address the problem. Maybe Democrats see them as potential voters, but conservatives see cheap labor for "job creators" to improve their profits.

50% Taxes -

Untrue and misused statistic. In 2006 before the economy starting tanking, that figure was 67% paying taxes. That 47-50% number represents only a single year. Before GWB doubled the per-child tax credit, EIC, and a few other tweaks, it was over 70%. Also, at least be honest and note that applies to only federal income tax. Everyone that works pays payroll taxes.

The problem with the electorate is that if the elected official does work across the aisle to get something accomplished then there opponents in the next election sticks that up as a flag that the incumbent does not support the party philosophy.

This is a republic and our elected officials should be working to improve things for us, not necessarily give everything to us but make the playing field such that we can do what needs to be done for ourselves.

Excuse me but could someone please send a memo to the editors of The Dallas Morning News and inform them that the Republican nominee for President is Mitt Romney and not Barry Goldwater? Not Michelle Bachmann, not Ron Paul, not Rick Santorum or not even (God forbid) their own Governor Rick Perry. Remember Mitt Romney- the Republican Governor of the People's Republic of Massachusetts? A man who would have barely been allowed in the Democrat Party circa 1950 because he was too left wing. And who was our nominee last cycle? Of course, that notorious right wing firebrand John McCain. Something about this editorial brings to mind the story of Brer Rabbit. Sorry we don't particularly care to follow "moderates" like Maxine Waters, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid et al into the abyss. Does that make us "unwilling to compromise"?

Re: one old man Ogden, UT
"There is one candidate for Senate who meets this qualification. His name is Scott Howell."

It is unfortunate that Obama didn't feel the need to work with the GOP when he had a veto proof Senate. I believe his comment about the GOP was "they can come for the ride, but they have to sit in back". Not the mark of a leader who would later need their help.

@mcgilm: The only point you are partially correct on is #2.

The GOP deserves the other side to stone wall, obstruct, spin, and try to ruin the economy and boycott if Romney wins. Karma.

Re: one vote Salt Lake City, UT
"The GOP deserves the other side to stone wall"

Translation: True leaders work together to find common-sense solutions, and by definition Obama doesn't fit that description.