Opinion

Can the legislative process still work more or less as intended, with lawmakers balancing competing interests and arriving at a solution that the majority of the population can at least live with if not enthusiastically endorse? Or have we become so divided as a nation that neither side wants to concede anything to the other?

To the Editor:

During an interview with Illinois Congressman Adam Kinzinger, CNN’s Brianna Keilar played remarks from Arkansas Republican U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton.

The Republic

The Washington Post

Washington Post

One revelation from this bout of inflation is that many folks, from all walks of life, have no idea what is happening. In turn, they have little idea what to do, or how to think about the future. Nowhere is this more telling than in the way in which taxes and budgets are debated.

I was in the checkout line at my local branch library the other day, standing behind several youngsters slowly doing their own checkouts with minimal mother assistance. One librarian caught my eye with an “I’m sorry about this” glance to which I responded, “This makes my day.”

Democrats are hopeful they can buck tradition and not lose Congressional seats in this November’s mid-term elections. Tradition holds that they will lose the House of Representatives and likely the Senate. With only a nine-seat advantage in the House and a tie in the Senate, along with a President polling as low as Donald Trump during Covid, the best guess is that tradition will hold. After all, Democratic voters are notorious for poor turnout during the midterms.

Is America, both as a nation and a concept, coming to the end of the road?