Working Together

“The enemy of my enemy is my friend”

-Ancient Sanskrit proverb

Donald Trump might be the best thing to happen to American politics since the Nixon Administration, when everything went South. Regardless of what happens on November 8th in the House and Senate races, both Republicans and Democrats are going to have to address the 30% of the electorate that is just pissed off and willing to strip the Washington political machine of all of its power and start over. Those people cannot be ignored any longer. From the way it appears currently, Hillary Clinton will be the 45th President of the United States, Democrats will control the Senate and Republicans will hold a small majority in the House of Representatives. If they intend to stave off an all out revolt of a very vocal plurality of the citizenry, the two sides had better learn to work together to pass legislation that will help average Americans in their daily lives.

Paul Ryan, as the leader of the Republican party, not withstanding Donald Trump, and Hillary Clinton need to meet face to face during transition to plot out some common ground and devise a plan to move forward together. I know that sounds like a revolutionary idea but revolutionary ideas are in order. A show of that kind of unity will be important for both Clinton and Ryan moving forward. It will demonstrate that Hillary’s campaign slogan was genuine and for Ryan, it will show that the GOP is done with it’s obstructionist ways and is truly willing to work with Democrats to do business.

Let us not forget that these factions exist on both sides of the political spectrum. For every supporter of Trump on the right, there is a Sanders supporter on the left and I am convinced that unless the two establishment wings of the political process can come together and work side by side, there may be no hope for any of them in the next election cycle. There is a groundswell emerging in America that is even more polarized than the current group of political hacks. Unless we want our national government to come to a stand still, I would urge “the establishment” to put its petty differences aside and learn to work together for the good of the country.