Whose side are you on? That seems to have been mighty important in all the wrangling over who’ll be the next president. It’s taking quite a while to figure out who that will be, but it’s the work of a moment to see there are serious problems in our politics. The sense of legitimacy that serves to unite Americans of differing views just isn’t there.
A big part of the reason is that partisanship is playing a large and corrosive role from administrative officials to court justices. How many Republicans feel comfortable about the election boards in overwhelmingly Democratic Florida counties making decisions about the intent of voters ala dimpled or pregnant chads? And who can blame Democrats for suspecting that the Republican Secretary of State might perceive her discretion through a partisan lens?
For years Americans have supported term limits feeling that over time career politicians tend to put their political party and their personal careers ahead of their public duties. Madison, chief architect of the Constitution, warned against factions, his term for groups that pursue their special interests at the expense of the common interest.
Rep. Steve Largent of Oklahoma is an NFL Hall-of-Famer who has term-limited himself in Congress. He says, “. . . I wasn’t elected to represent just the Republican or Democratic teams . . . the team that we’re all on is the American team.” Let’s end the partisan stranglehold on our government.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.