Proper Goverance and Compromise... Two Concepts Modern Liberals Refuse to Understand

by: Les Carpenter
Rational Nation USA
Birthplace of Independent Conservatism
Liberty -vs- Tyranny

"But with respect to future debt; would it not be wise and just for that nation to declare in the constitution they are forming that neither the legislature, nor the nation itself can validly contract more debt, than they may pay within their own age, or within the term of 19 years." --Thomas Jefferson, letter to James Madison, 1789

What, please tell is irrational, irresponsible, reactionary, a lie, self serving, or devoid of reasoned and therefore sensible thought in the above statement?

Maybe it's just us {real} conservatives that scratch our heads and wonder what it is this generation {actually going back to Woodrow Wilson's generation}of lawmakers fail to understand with respect to fiscally sound economic practices.

While recognizing the Tea Party is ideologically driven in the pursuit of achieving the purity of Jefferson's vision I challenge anyone to refute the wisdom in his words.

In this age compromise is as crucial to resolving problems and achieving consensus among rationally thinking lawmakers as it was in 1789.

What is bothering me, and I assume other rational conservatives as well, is the Tea Party's failure to understand the concept Kenny Rogers expressed in one of his hit songs, 'know when to hold em and know when to fold em.'

Refusing to recognize when it is time to compromise and thus achieve the lion's share  of ones objectives is not good judgement. Rather it is the the wisdom of fools.

There is a time to hold em and there is a time to fold em. The effective negotiator knows when it is time to do both. Just as in business so it is in government. Compromise is a necessity. Unless you hold all the cards, including the trump card.

Somehow reason shows the republican Tea Party caucus has neither. An so....

Falling back on history, as I usually find myself doing, consider this...

"I never submitted the whole system of my opinions to the creed of any party of men whatever, in religion, in philosophy, in politics, or in anything else, where I was capable of thinking for myself. Such an addiction is the last degradation of a free and moral agent. If I could not go to heaven but with a party, I would not go there at all." --Thomas Jefferson to Francis Hopkinson, 1789. ME 7:300

Perhaps the words of Thomas Jefferson, a brilliant thinker of the age of classical liberalism ought be considered. Both by our elected officials and the general populace as well.

Just sayin...

Via: Memeorandum