For some years now, the term "RINO" or Republican In Name Only has floated around among conservatives seeking to define who can and cannot be a member of the party, based on who they think should qualify.
If someone disagrees with them on immigration, welfare or taxes, suddenly they are a "RINO." If a Senator or Representative decides to compromise to get things done they are a "RINO." I'm sick and tired of hearing it. Instead of kicking people out, why not listen to their point of view for a change? Why not try to come to an understanding and take the higher ground.
As Republicans let's stop kicking people out of the party before it stops being a party. We need to stop alienating our allies before we find we have none. Ours is the party of Lincoln, of Theodore Roosevelt and Ronald Reagan. These were men who took bold steps to change what was in their worlds, that built our nation and brought opposing sides together, sometimes through conflict. Thomas Jefferson said, “Where the principle of difference [between political parties] is as substantial and as strongly pronounced as between the republicans and the monocrats of our country, I hold it as honorable to take a firm and decided part and as immoral to pursue a middle line, as between the parties of honest men and rogues, into which every country is divided.” There are times to take bold stands, and there are times to compromise. The ability to compromise does not make a man weak; it makes him stronger.
Some words of wisdom from Ronald Reagan on political compromise:
"When I began entering into the give and take of legislative bargaining in Sacramento, a lot of the most radical conservatives who had supported me during the election didn't like it.
'Compromise' was a dirty word to them and they wouldn't face the fact that we couldn't get all of what we wanted today. They wanted all or nothing and they wanted it all at once. If you don't get it all, some said, don't take anything.
I'd learned while negotiating union contracts that you seldom got everything you asked for. And I agreed with FDR, who said in 1933: 'I have no expectations of making a hit every time I come to bat. What I seek is the highest possible batting average.'
If you got seventy-five or eighty percent of what you were asking for, I say, you take it and fight for the rest later, and that's what I told these radical conservatives who never got used to it."
Our nation needs more compromise and less divisiveness. All the strength we have built in our past has come from more than two centuries of rich social capital, which was developed by our ability to come together as a people. Without this our nation will only continue to crumble, our problems will become worse, and we will struggle to prosper as a nation. Rather than focusing on what separates us we need to focus on what unites us. Both sides would do better to look at Eisenhower and Reagan and less to recent political leaders for guidance.
