All Together Now

We are trapped in an environment where it is set up as a win or lose option.  Take the current health care debate or whatever is actually going on.

Passing a Republican bill to "repeal and replace" the Affordable Care Act is now the goal, no matter how terrible some of what it does is. 

Now you may argue about how to control costs of Medicaid and you may want to allow younger, healthier people to have cheaper options, but those objectives are probably achievable in a bipartisan discussion without trying to only score political talking points.

Now is everything in the proposed plan  bad?  It can't be, that would be just as hard as making everything good.  It is a series of ideas, some good, some bad thrown together in a back room without much public input designed simply to pass a repeal and replace bill.

Of course it then has to pass the House and that is by no means certain.

Now this isn't just about health care.  The general idea of having elected representatives is that we have multiple points of view represented and everyone (or at least everyone with enough votes) gets to provide input.

So in tax reform what are we trying to reform?  Some argue that business is taxed at too high a rate and some argue the code is too complex.  On the other side the fairness of the system is in question, as some wealthy people pay much less than what some think they should.  However, whatever type of reform package might get cobble together it will not be bipartisan and won't address all the concerns.

This us vs them is simple and popular as we now demonize the other party and its adherents.

Well, we all live in this great country and are born, live, raise families, work and try to be happy.

The hate isn't real, its created at the top and by some of the media.  We need to demand they stop.