Please Mr. Obama, No Compromise

Democrats are facing a disaster in the November mid-term elections. But even in the best case, even if things don't end-up as bad as the could, Congress will be different in the remaining two years of President Obama's term. Republicans will hold far more power and they will use it to advance their own goals. John Boehner, the presumed Speaker of the House, has promised no compromise with the President unless the President does what Boehner wants him to do. Mitch McConnell, the presumed Senate minority leader, has promised his Republicans would work only for the President's defeat in the 2012 election.

So what's Obama going to do?

According to this article he may follow President Bill Clinton's lead and try to work with Congress anyway. Quoted in the article, New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson says "The divided government result, if it happens, is good for the president, because he now has some potential enemies but he also has some potential partners to get things done where he didn't have them before."

My question to Gov. Richardson, or anyone willing to answer it, is: "Why would we want anything we could get from a Congress run by Republicans, even if we have Democratic President?" Clinton's administration, the presumed model for Obama's, was hardly a golden age for the American people. With Clinton's trade policies, welfare reform and banking reform, the Republicans got what they wanted and the American People got the seeds of the bitter harvest we have today.

Please Mr. Obama, no compromise. America can't afford any more compromise with Republicans.

A Perspective on Unfavorable Results

If the November elections go as predicted, the Democrats will lose control of the House and their control of the Senate will be imperiled. This will be a dark time for Americans of good will.

As bad as it will be, though, we should be be aware of the reason for the results. The Republicans will have won not because of the strength of their ideas but because of the depth of their depravity. They had no ideas but they were willing to distort and misrepresent the Democrats' ideas. Where the Democrats put forth honest attempts to move American forward, they obstructed and deceived. They put their party's interests above America's. The Democrats can take comfort in knowing their cause was just but the power of evil was just too great.