Flat Tire at MN Capitol
"Opinion"02/12/2006
Paul Munnis
Minnesota politicians, who are seeking solutions to capitol gridlock, government shut-down, and perceived lack of civility, need to start over again.
The mother of politics is ‘Disagreement,” and the father of politics is: ‘Power.’ The children are thus pawns torn between opposing camps and in order to live they must be named: ‘Compromise.’
With that said, there is no reason that politics has to be so darn bitter. What we have after all are differing viewpoints. Rarely are the touted positions the only ones, usually they are positions designed to command power for one camp at the expense of the other.
History has shown three things help a lot in politics: collegiality, a willingness to look for a satisfactory third-way (usually reflecting power sharing), and a genuine demand by the leaders that the outcome be a timely win-win situation for the citizens being represented. With those three cornerstones of behavior in place, politics can be a positive force in society rather than a negative one.
So far Minnesota reformers have looked at improving collegiality but until the political leaders and influence-makers within our state adopt the other two pillars of politics then we will continue to have major problems.
Our problems are not helped by the GOP ‘politics of division’ that hold a need to polarize citizens in order to accomplish change.
You will know that real reform and change is happening when the politics of division is replaced with the politics of uniting. Until then you can expect business as usual.