NYT editorial: Time for Obama 'to abandon his hopes of reaching a grand budget bargain' with GOP

[davidthegnome]

104. Do we have centuries?

Setting politics aside for a moment, the greatest issue facing not just our Country, but the whole world... is that of climate change. This is something that everyone should agree... we need to do something about. Yet we have so many conservatives in positions of authority who don't even believe it exists - some of the same people who think that humans and dinosaur walked the earth at the same time... oh, a few thousand years ago.

It is my hope that that sort is in the minority. There are some more reasonable, rational republicans who might get on board to combat climate change, to come up with policies that do more to protect our environment, reduce greenhouse gas emissions. They would be even more likely to get on board for this if they weren't so wealthy, with their campaign funding often depending upon the worst of the polluters.

We have to reach across the aisle at least in regards to that issue. The conservative ideology may be fading, but it is not fading quickly enough to save our struggling world. However much we wish it were otherwise, the right has significant power and influence in this Country.

This is why, for me, it can't be all or nothing politics. We can't stubbornly refuse to try to work with the other side. We can't afford to. We can't afford to stand on principle in the hopes that, in time, perhaps over hundreds of years, conservative ideology might go the way of the dinosaur (pun intended).

Republicans are not stupid, as a whole. Frequently, they are ignorant, angry, selfish, even violently opposed to progress... unfortunately though, we have to work with them, nonetheless. We have to use the tools we have, not those we wish we had. In this regard, the President is generally thinking clearly.

It the old saying that, "United we we stand, divided we fall..." is true, then we must find some means of uniting our political parties and our people overall. If we don't, we get terrible policies, worsened conditions socially and economically, greater ignorance, disappointment, cynicism, hatred, ignorance... I too, could go on and on..

I'm with you in spirit, but logically, rationally, we can't afford to keep playing the political game as if we were the only player. I don't think part of the solution should be to give in to conservative policies, but I do think we have to acknowledge that they are going to have a say in most legislation that has any hope of passing.