-By Warner Todd Huston
Last weekend I attended a townhall meeting held by my congressman. During the question and answer period one theme came to the fore that is all too common in America today. That theme was that we need less “partisanship” in Washington D.C., there is too much choosing of sides, too much party politics. Blah, blah, blah. Cry me a river.
What tosh. We don’t need less partisanship in our politics, we need more of it. At least the more honest kind, the kind based on real principles.
One thing was clear from those whining about partisanship, too. They were all the left-wingers in the audience guided there by MoveOn.org’s email blasts. Now the reason the lefties were piteously whining like this is because this particular congressman is one of the more conservative members of the House. (I am not naming him because this is not his opinion and I don’t want anyone to associate this op ed with him) So, their ideas were the ones on the losing end of this congressman’s votes, to be sure.
Of course, if this congressman were to be like most Illinois congressmen — a lefty — these lefty audience members would not be whining about partisanship at all. They’d be happy as clams with a left-winger’s votes and would find the whining about partisanship quixotic.
The problem is that this whole partisanship debate is empty of any logic. What these lefties meant by “too much partisanship” was that this congressman wasn’t left enough for them. They didn’t want a mixture of conservative and liberal ideas, they wanted liberal ideas and that is all. Partisanship to them meant their ideas were losing out. Partisanship to them means other people’s ideas are too prevalent. It’s really just that simple.
So, yes, I am calling them liars. They don’t want anything like bi-partisanship. They want their left-wing ideas to reign supreme.
And that is just the point, here. To be politically engaged means to have an informed opinion. And if you think your ideas are right, why in Heaven’s name would you break your principles just to be “bi-partisan”? You wouldn’t, of course. You’d fight for your ideas.
The fact is when you have strong ideas that means you must come down on a side. And we want people representing us that have chosen a side, understand the issues, can articulate their reasoning, and will fight for their principles accordingly. We want them to vote on a principled position, an informed position, one built on facts, not just a vote that blindly follows Party leadership but is otherwise empty of reason.
After all, if we are voting for a guy that will say in essence, “Gosh, I’ll bend and flip on anything just so that we can have bi-partisanship,” well what are we voting for? We are voting for a reed blowing with the winds and we will get someone we cannot count on for anything.
You see, there is a particular disconnect between this nebulous feeling about “partisanship” and reality. Reality is that we need more people so engaged that they have real principles, informed ideas, and real solutions. Compromise simply for the sake of compromise, compromise just for nicety, is not what we want from our government. We want hard fought, knock down, drawn out fights.
No, what we need is more fighting in Congress not less. What we want to avoid is this lack of principles that leads to namby-pamby bi-partisanship.
On the other hand, if the left wants to just fall to the floor in supplication to bi-partisanship, I am perfectly willing to let them give us the win every time! Otherwise, fight like a man and stop this childish whining.
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“The only end of writing is to enable the reader better to enjoy life, or better to endure it.”
–Samuel Johnson
Warner Todd Huston is a Chicago based freelance writer. He has been writing opinion editorials and social criticism since early 200 and before that he wrote articles on U.S. history for several small American magazines. His political columns are featured on many websites such as Andrew Breitbart’s BigGovernment.com, BigHollywood.com, and BigJournalism.com, as well as RightWingNews.com, CanadaFreePress.com, StoptheACLU.com, AmericanDailyReview.com, among many, many others. Mr. Huston is also endlessly amused that one of his articles formed the basis of an article in Germany’s Der Spiegel Magazine in 2008.
Huston has been a frequent guest on talk-radio programs to discuss his opinion editorials and current events and is currently the co-host of “Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Conservatism” heard on BlogTalkRadio. Huston’s work has appeared on Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Neil Bortz, and Michael Savage. He has appeared on the G. Gordon Liddy show, dozens of local shows from coast to coast, and many blogtalk radio shows.
Mr. Huston has appeared on local TV news to discuss his writing, has been a guest of CNN’s blogger lunch, and has appeared on Breitbart TV’s B-Team show.
Warner is also the editor of the Cook County Page for RedCounty.com and has a blog on the Tribune-Owned http://www.chicagonow.com/blogs/publius-forum/ChicagoNow.com website. He is a well known writer on Illinois politics.
He has also written for several history magazines and appears in the book “Americans on Politics, Policy and Pop Culture” which can be purchased on amazon.com. He is also the owner and operator of PubliusForum.com. Feel free to contact him with any comments or questions : EMAIL Warner Todd Huston
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