What we need, they say, is a government based upon mutual respect and understanding. My apologies for the quotation marks, but I can't use the words without a heavy dose of irony. Suffice it to say I like the argument culture. I think Democracy needs more conflict, more arguing.
Arguments are good.
When all of Washington agrees on something, hold on to your wallets and take an inventory of your liberties because the fire sale is about to begin. In the 1970s Republicans and Democrats agreed to deinstitutionalize the mentally ill. The Left thought this was liberating an oppressed minority. The Right thought this would save a few bucks. The result was that city kids like me had to spend their childhood roller-skating around Thorazine addicts who believed my neighborhood playground was really their Martian colony.