Uncompromising politics?

Someone defined politics as “the art of compromise”. Compare a recent news report of one ultra-conservative candidate saying he would never compromise or reach across the aisle in Congress. If that attitude had prevailed among the colonists assembled to declare independence there would not be a United States of America. The northerners who despised slavery had to compromise in order to gain a majority for independence from England. Similarly Lincoln, though he wanted to abolish slavery, had to put the preservation of the union first and delay and give piecemeal effect to the Emancipation Proclamation, in order to preserve the union – his first priority.

In Utah many have pilloried Senator Hatch for joining Ted Kenned in sponsoring legislation, because he was Ted Kennedy – not because the legislation was necessarily bad. Lincoln’s response to partisans who wanted him to destroy his enemies: “Am I not destroying my enemies when I make friends of them?"