A Dirty Word

It's good to see Congress finally do the thing that it was created for: Compromise. That dirty word was the whole principle our Founding Fathers had in mind when they decided the best way to run a government was to cram 535 people in one room, 100 in the other, and let them fight it out. They ran the entire revolution this way, remember. No President, no Supreme Court. If you look back through history most of Congress' glory moments were compromises, most of it's low points came when it was paralyzed by blowhards digging in their heels.

Ronald Reagan, the supposed rabid right-wing ideologue, knew this well. And why not? He was once head of a union and negotiated labor contracts. "As governor," he once said, "I found out that if I could get half a loaf, instead of stalking off angrily, I'd take it!"

It's also worth noting that notorious social engineer and liberal, Franklin D. Roosavelt, compromised away most of what he wanted in Social Security and Unemployment Insurance in order to keep the core of his programs.

With the world's economic systems so tightly bound together as they are these days it would be nice if they wouldn't wait to the last possible minute. But that's part of the system, I guess. It sure makes the rest of the nations jittery though.