I finally broke 100 on the golf course for the first time after my colon cancer surgery.  Yaay, me!  I credit Dan for giving me the great advice on Saturday that I really needed to keep focused on balance as I was addressing and hitting the ball.  We got out for an early round today and I put his advice to work.  Very, very cool.  I even got a birdie on the 7th hole.

As for the second barrier, I read a very interesting opinion piece by Jacob Weisberg in last week's Newsweek.  Admittedly, Weisberg's history is left of center, at least judging by the publications for which he's written.  The article addresses the issue of what the Republicans need to do to get back in the game on a nation-wide level.  Given that Dick Cheney and Rush Limbaugh are the two most vocal (and most heeded?) voices of the GOP now, Weisberg argues for...well, balance.

I love it when themes dovetail.

He suggests that "It's past time for the GOP to abandon Gingrich-era, pseudo-libertarian antigovernment rhetoric and to accept the social consensus behind progressive taxation, retirement security, action to slow climate change and a government role in health care. It also might want to quit defending torture. It needs to move to a neutral or big-tent approach on most social issues, the way Democrats did with gun control and the death penalty."

I agree that such a strategy would serve the Republican party well, not just in garnering them new members and more votes, but also in terms of, as Weisberg says, aligning them with the social consensus of the majority of Americans.

Then, imagine if Democrats in Congess did the same thing; if they joined together on a middle path, less idealogical and more pragmatic.  Good golly, we might just find ourselves fixing the country's problems insteac of busily assigning blame to those other guys (whomever they might be from your perspective.

Now there's a barrier breaking approach.

Leave a Reply