In the United States, the people have been led down a path of least resistance, a path laden with small compromises that ultimately bring about a final solution that no one is happy with. Compromise is the backbone of the political state. It is the only way in which people can come to a decision that everyone can agree upon. There are plenty of example of democratic thought all around us. Just try taking 3 or more people to lunch from your office. There's the one guy who needs a vegetarian offering, and the next lady who doesn't want to eat Indian food. The one paying for the meal doesn't want to spend too much money, and between the three of them, they come to a compromise.
American life is built around compromise, but it's not always the best thing for the country, or for the people who've made it. Take shoe shopping for example. In today's economy, America shops at a few big box stores. Many specialty shops have gone the way of the dinosaur. Shops like Thom McCan shoes, for example, a brand which is now sold through Kmart and Walmart - a shadow of its former glory. Have you bought shoes at Walmart or Target or even Payless Shoe Stores? Try buying some men's 'dress' shoes there and walk on them for a while. What happened to the quality of the heel? Where a solid rubber sole used to be, there is a hollow rubber heel. As soon as it begins to wear, the hole pops and street rubble begin to tear it apart. As a shoe, it is a failure. It's a shadow of its former self - the form is the same. Your foot fits in it - it even looks fairly decent for the first week. However, it doesn't last - it's not designed to do what a shoe is meant to do - act as a solid buffer between your feet and the streets. There are good shoes out there, don't get me wrong - but they're few and far between, and getting harder to find year over year. The shoes that we are left with are the shoes that we've compromised for. Compromised quality over price. We can no longer pay the price for a quality shoe - or we won't. We've decided something else is more important - perhaps our cable channel line-up, or texting options on our cell phone plans. After all, good shoes can last a year - and at the current price, they're about $100 more than the cheap shoes you can buy. After buying two cheap pair, you might be paying $70 more for a good pair of shoes - less if you get them at Marshall's or a discount outlet like Kohl's. What I'm trying to say is that there's good and there's compromise - and compromise is rarely good.
In Government, compromise cannot be the ultimate goal of public debate, politicking and law-making. There's a reason that our government has checks-and-balances, and one reason is to make sure that we don't compromise ourselves out of our principals, principals that are set to parchment and signed by the founders of this great nation.
The role of the President of the United States is NOT to make the laws of our country. Go look it up - I'll wait. You can find it in the Constitution. When it comes to law-making, the President's role needs to reflect his power - the power of veto. One of the best uses of this power is the power of common sense. To block legislation that just doesn't make sense and isn't in the best interest of the American people. A law passed by less than a 2/3rds majority of legislators is suspect and liable to be an abuse of power by a [barely] majority party line. By applying common sense principals, the President has the ability to turn poorly-thought-out compromises into 'Go back and do it again'.
There are some things that we shouldn't be compromising on in this country. I'm starting this blog to perhaps discuss some of these things. Hopefully I remember to take the time to write up my thoughts and I can share my platform with you. Hopefully you read my thoughts and agree with me. Maybe some day you'll nominate someone for the Presidency who agrees with my thoughts. Maybe you'll want me to run. We'll see.
