Published in the Morning Call, Allentown, PA 6:17 a.m. EST, February 25, 2013
I've been thinking for a while about
Bill White's Jan. 22 column praising U.S. Rep. Charlie Dent and the
No Labels group, calling for "more moderation" in congressional
politics.
You can certainly make an argument
for less bitter partisanship in Washington. The public is rightly fed up with a
Congress so paralyzed
by partisan bickering that it doesn't seem to solve any of the problems facing
us. No Labels' call to "Tell the full truth" and "Govern for the
future" is admirable. Indeed, if these proved to be more than rhetorical
slogans, they would be complete novelties in American politics of the last 35
years.
However, the key flaw in Bill
White's argument is that more centrist or moderate policies in Congress won't
do anything to solve the critical, deepening problems we face as a nation. The
public wants less bickering in Washington so that the problems we face may be
constructively resolved.
White sets up his call for
moderation with a false polarization in Congress between what he calls the
"far right" and the "far left." For starters, there is no
real left in Congress, unless it is personified by Sen. Bernie Sanders,
whose ringing oratory against the distorted priorities and manufactured crises
of both Democratic and Republican leaders are largely ignored by the mainstream
media. Morning Call readers might check out some of Sanders' speeches online to
hear someone who has consistently spoken out for policies that actually meet
the needs of the American people, not the 1 percent.
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