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Ronald Reagan raised taxes many times to deal with mounting deficits created by his 1981 tax cut George H. Richard Nixon signed clean water and clean air legislation. Lyndon Johnson came from a Senate known for working across the aisle. John Kennedy started the legislative push for a substantial tax cut. Six years on the Portland City Council taught me that most local issues could be resolved without petty or partisan combat.ĭwight Eisenhower accepted the major legislation of the New Deal. Ed Muskie in 1970, Republicans and Democrats debated public issues vigorously, but there was more genuine give-and-take and mutual respect, and the players did not treat politics as a blood sport. When I first went to Washington to work for Sen. Nothing I had learned about politics before my election prepared me for the intense polarization of contemporary congressional politics. But in my experience, our greatest challenge is first to understand and then to bridge the gap between the dominant but incompatible worldviews of the two parties. Redistricting every decade creates chances for parties to draw lines that favor them for years. House and Senate rules can be used for partisan purposes. Vast sums of money and highly organized groups create pressure on elected officials not to stray from the party line. These days, political campaigns never end there is little breathing space for governing without looking toward the next election.

#TOEM ALLANG LANGUAGE TV#

Cable TV 24-7 news has broadened coverage, but the scramble for ratings favors short segments with guests representing both ends of the political spectrum, not the middle. To be sure, multiple other factors feed polarization and congressional gridlock. We share the same titles and vote on the same legislation, but we see the world through dramatically different lenses. But those dozen years left me alarmed and frustrated by the inability of Republicans and Democrats to comprehend each other well enough to work together on our country’s major challenges. Work on legislation of mutual interest with members across the aisle that I respected and admired. Bipartisan trips abroad with time to talk at length. Daily conversations with Republican members of Congress. Excerpted from 'Dangerous Convictions: What's Really Wrong With the U.S.

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