New tricks of the political trade.

Fair-minded people may be at a disadvantage. Especially in the world of politics. Because the game ain't played fair. It's a partisan thing. Most politicians don't intend to be fair. They want to take advantage of their opponent. To degrade him. To make him look bad. To make him disliked. Even if that means spreading lies. Look at the campaign ads. They don't come close to telling the truth. But in politics, almost anything goes. There's an almost total lack of civility. One wants the rival to fail. Miserably. Even if it's at the expense of the nation. Instead of two political parties coming together to do what may be best for the nation, many politicians would prefer gridlock. And get nothing done. Just for the sake of stifling each other. We've got that going on now. The idea is to block progress of the party in power. In this case, the Obama administration. And to blame Obama for the bad economy. Even though the economy had gone sour during the Bush administration. The truth doesn't matter. Not in the game of politics. What matters is that the opponent with a different point of view be treated like an enemy. With hostility. With disdain. I was brought up to believe that politicians were supposed to be friendly with each other. Didn't matter the party. That there was such a thing as mutual respect. And negotiation. Give and take. Compromise. The idea was to create win-win situations. In which both sides got some of what they wanted. Not everything. But a reasonable something. It was a little like a cordiality club. With good camaraderie. Despite political differences. Maybe it used to be that way. To some significant extent. But not anymore. The fair-minded people are gone. They were there once upon a time. But they didn't last. They were stepped on. Booted out. They didn't know how to survive. Because they didn't learn the new tricks of the trade. --Jim Broede