Hurricane Sandy, of course, was horrific, but there was a silver lining, too. Not since Sept. 9, 2001 has this nation seen the kind of pitch-in-and-help togetherness that we witnessed during coverage of Sandy’s damage.
Case in point: New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and President Barack Obama. They stood together, side by side, and actually said very nice things about each other. They also worked together to coordinate state and federal aid to help the victims of the hurricane and to start planning for ways to help recover a devastated economy and infrastructure.
It was a sight for sore eyes. Here was Christie, who has lambasted Obama for so long with pointed criticisms, at one point comparing the president’s “lack of leadership” to a man in a dark room fumbling for the light switch. And there was Obama, who has dished out plenty of pointed criticisms of Republicans. Suddenly, there they were amidst scenes of wreckage, getting along, smiling at each other, as if they’d been the best of buddies since boyhood.
Why, oh why, can’t the U.S. Congress follow that example and start getting along for a change? A huge part of the problem for the past two years has been an obstructionist House of Representatives under the nay saying influence of Tea Party members. They would apparently rather toss themselves over a cliff than compromise one whit with anything the president ever proposed, even when – sometimes – they actually agreed with proposals. There entire reason for being, or so it seemed anyway, was to see to it that Obama would fail.
However, this deadlock was not just the Tea Party folks’ fault. There were plenty of Democrats, too, who became locked into a stubborn unwillingness to compromise with Republican proposals, at least on some occasions.
Wherever the fault lies, most Americans have become plumb sick of it.
Naturally, not everyone is happy with the election results of last Tuesday. Well, we’re all going to have to grin and bear it, like it or not. Get on with it. Wouldn’t it be nice if we all buried the hatchet, so to speak, and started working together for the benefit of everyone? America should be embarrassed because here we have a great country that is being demeaned in the eyes of the rest of the world by all of this vicious and sometimes petty squabbling. It’s not becoming to a great nation.
We should tell our president, senators and representatives in no uncertain terms we want the squabbling to stop and the compromises to begin. Let’s show ourselves, once again, proud to the world.
