December 27th, 2013 10:24 AM by Nick Rapplean
Hello and a very Happy Holiday experience to you. The season has already brought several gifts to those of us concerned with the health of the real estate market and the broader economy. We don't have to sneak into 2014 in a state of anxiety and fear, after all.
Congress seems to have fashioned an agreement that allows its members to say they stood up for partisan principles and were willing to bend a bit and, most important, were apparently capable of designing a way around another worrisome time in which the government might be shut down and the national and world economy imperiled.
It's amazing how we talk about this almost as if it’s an expected way of running the political ship. In truth, it is tremendously destructive. But I have a theory and I’m just certain you were waiting for yet another theory about what's going wrong in the political world. Probably, if you're like me, your greater priority at the moment is another glass of sparkling cider with the family. In our household, we have a tradition of making toasts, "To the snow!" one of the youngest would call out. Raising her fancy glass, "To sparkling cider!" another would declare.
Well, here's to the shaky revival of political compromise. But here's my theory: We as a society have been reaching the point where were stuck on issues that do not allow for compromise. There's no room to compromise, for example, if you wish to abolish abortion and no possibility of compromise if you wish to make it a matter of personal choice. You can rather easily make a compelling argument that totally convinces ME, on either side of the issue but you can’t come up with a solution that in any way satisfies everyone.
When the two sides of an argument are so deeply, unswervingly, and passionately opposed to one another, it is very difficult to do a good, functioning version of democracy, and we end up with a lot of potentially dangerous acts by both sides in which the end justifies the often sleazy means. Careers are ruined, good public servants are trashed, programs are voted down just to make the other side look bad, and one or another form of political paralysis is used as a means of striking out at the opposition side.
Political victories such as the evasion of another possible governmental shutdown, therefore, have shallowness to them. They avoid severe problems rather than voting in good, carefully-considered solutions. It is as if we are stuck in a waiting mode, trying to clear away initial disagreements before we can get to the actual business at hand.
It is difficult to imagine the government doing much we can cheer about, therefore the factionalism includes all manner of problems, like how much power one party should allow the other to have, even as it’s actions in proposing the placement of judges, for example is fully within its jurisdiction. Nonetheless, we do stumble along increasingly well enough to allow the real estate recovery and national economic recovery to proceed. Believe it or not, this could be a good year for us although we may have to stay light on our feet to avoid any shocks along the way.
I raise my sparkling cider high in the air, in any case, and declare, May this be a better, more sensible year for us all; may we prosper; and may we leave the campground even cleaner than we found it! Yea, verily!