Irony

Here's a good headline from the fear factory over at Fox: Moderate Democrats a Vanishing Breed. The article cites as evidence losses by two moderate Democrats in Pennsylvania's primaries to more liberal opponents. TWO!

Fox of course is known more for its vitriol, embellishments, and outright lies than any type of real or factual attempts to report the news. It's hard to overstate the irony about disappearing moderates in the Democratic Party when the Republican Party for which Fox is a mouthpiece has been hijacked by people who are so far to the right that some of them are genuinely out of touch with the values on which this country was founded. This is all the more ironic since those same people claim to be the ones who hold the values of the founders so dear. In fact the only thing they have in common with the people who founded this nation are the tricornered hats they wear to their rallies.

But the article does touch on a problem of which most Americans are painfully aware, the fact that our nation's political system is deeply flawed, and there is no attempt to fix it. Maybe Democrats are becoming more liberal. Certainly the Republican Party is controlled by a fringe group who are not only woefully ignorant of how economics work, but whose moral values are the antithesis of justice and equality. The natural response to this - and one that I am admittedly guilty of - is to shift further to the left. Perhaps the rise of the Tea Party has made many Democrats even more liberal. In the face of stifling opposition to every idea, what is the point of compromise. This is far less than ideal, but it is certainly the current state of American politics, and if Democrats and Republicans both continue to dig in to their entrenched positions, then our country will never address the problems we face.

Faux News isn't helping, but neither is a shift to the left by Democrats. We've seen how detrimental the Republican shift right has been to the economy and basic rights. In order to make America work we have to have dialogue and compromise, not further entrenchment. We need both parties to make an attempt at bipartisanship. Tax hikes on the rich are important, so is entitle reform. Caring for all Americans in a sustainable manner is possible, but only if each side is willing to make important sacrifices. Right now only President Obama seems willing to do that.