Acceptance Should Be Inevitable

Published in the Eastern Echo, Thursday, October 18, 2012.

Acceptance Should be Inevitable

by Casey Wooley

Staff Columnist

So here we sit, a few weeks before the election that has bewildered us for the last two years. A few weeks before the choice before us becomes real. And what do we know?

We know that Mitt Romney is a Big-Bird hating, Olympic-horse owning, 47%-contempt driven fundraiser, who lives high on the hog.. And we know that President Obama is secretly not an American, practices in the Muslim faith, wants to turn America into a socialist nation, and is pushing to take away people's gun rights.

I'm glad we have that out of the way. Now, let's shift back to reality.

Whatever your political persuasion, the reality of life is that in just a few weeks, one of these two men is going to be elected President. And whoever this person is will have to somehow figure out a way to govern us in a very politically-charged, partisan government. So sticking to one's ideologies once this election is over will prove to be detrimental to American interests.

Now look, I am a full-on Barack Obama supporter. But, it's also no secret to those who know me that I am the last person to condemn any person in my life for being a Romney supporter. My secret to why is simple. In the long run, either man is capable of running this country. Yes, I said it.

Moreover, for either man to succeed in running this country, they will have to cast away their partisan interests and work to govern from the middle for us to rebound in the way we all want. And for the country to succeed, whatever party is in Congress is going to have give up their personal agendas in order for this to work.

Neither side can be radicalized if we are to move forward. Personally, I'd love to see President Obama win a second term and raise taxes to put more government programs to work for us. Just as many of my Mitt Romney supporting friends would love to see him outlaw Roe vs. Wade and form a constitutional amendment that defines marriage as one man and one woman. But none of those policies are what this country as a whole needs right now.

So when the dust settles on November 7, and we have a clear winner, he must be willing to engage the other side and work together. It's how we have gotten through many historical gridlocks in the past.

Just look to the framing of our constitution for the very first example. The Senate and House of Representatives were two of this country's greatest compromises. Smaller states wanted equal representation with larger states. And larger states wanted representation based upon population. And so the two chambers of Congress were formed.

There's also precedent in modern history too. Bill Clinton, after a tumultuous two years attempting to push too many left-wing ideas, lost control of the Congress. And had he not shifted gears moving into the 1996 election to become more moderate, he would have lost. But, after his reelection, he stayed moderate, working with the republican Congress, and it was the first time in modern American history that we not only balanced the budget, but kept a surplus.

We as citizens all have a responsibility to accept that our politicians need to compromise in order to get work done. And moving into 2013, if we don't live to that responsibility, America will head down a dangerous road it hasn't traveled before – where political ideologies keep Washington in total gridlock, and the American people left thinking “what went wrong?”