Common Ground?

I've mentioned before how I find great buys in books at the local Dollar Store.  Books that don't sell many copies are taken up by these stores and mixed in with Bibles and coloring books and sold for that magical one dollar bill.  Well, the other day in the store, I found a basket full of Books on Tape (actually on Disk).. and I bought them all.  If you are still with me, you know that I am ready now to talk to you about one of them.

Common Ground (How to Stop the Partisan War that is Destroying America)
Written by Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel. Read mostly by Richard Rohan.

ISBN 978-0-06-136360-3  Containing 7 CD's for 8 1/2 hours.

I spent the 8 1/2 hours listening while I drove to and fro around Maryland.

Bob Beckel has been called a rabid Liberal and Cal Thomas has been called a rabid Conservative.
However, both have set partisanship aside and have become great friends.  They wrote this book in 2007 when they thought that divisiveness in Congress had gone on as long as it could. (Unfortunately, they were wrong.  I wonder if they have written a sequel.)

Bob Beckel:  A leading Liberal DC political analyst and consultant.  I'm sure I have seen him on TV many times, but I just don't remember him.

Cal Thomas:  A leading Conservative commentator. I debated whether or not I should listen to this book because of Cal.  I have not had a good opinion of him since one time, many years ago, I felt that he had  twisted some of my words around to make it look like I was a racist.  At the time, I thought that what he said was a "cheap shot" designed to expose me as a hypocritical Liberal. I was "touchy" then, and could have just misunderstood what he said.   I can't remember if this was during an "in person" Baltimore event, a "call in", or from something written by me.  My feelings were hurt because of what he said, so I have tried to forget all about it.  (Of course, I was much younger then .. today, I am too old to let criticism, true or false, bother me.)

I liked this book.  It was many things.  Especially a history lesson. As George Santayana once said:  "Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

Case in point: They remind us that Newt Gingrich promised a new and wonderful harmonious Congress when he became Speaker of the House.   They also remind us that he was carrying on with a young Intern while loudly picking on President Clinton for the same activity.  They also remind us that he was convicted of an ethics violation.

Since I am an Independent, I can give my opinion about Congressional and Presidential candidates from either party.  So, I will continue mentioning Newt.  On NPR today, a member of Congress reminded us that Newt  published a memo for Republican Congressmen, listing negative adjectives to be used when talking about Democratic initiatives and positive adjectives to be used when talking about Republican initiatives.

Tune in to CSPAN and take a few minutes to listen to the floor debates even today.. the adjective throwing continues.. "Democratic job-killing initiatives"..  "Republican job-increasing initiatives".. etc.

OK.. to be fair.. one of the reasons I became an Independent is because President Obama is not exerting the power he has to override such negativity and unite Congress.

Anyway.. this book is a call for politicians to look for and embrace the "common ground" that they have on most issues.  Of course, there may not be "common ground" for some issues like abortion and same sex marriage.

Cal and Bob are asking politicians to "get beyond partisanship, restore civility, and move our country forward."  They wish that politicians would learn to be "friends" not enemies, just as they have. 

They also discuss so-called "polarizers" like Rush Limbaugh and Michael Moore, and feel that the voters are smart enough to see beyond polarization.

As I said, I liked this book, but I think that they could have said it all in two CD's instead of 7.  One gets their point right away.  The history lesson was enlightening, but also too long.  It's fun to remember what has happened in Congress since Nixon, but some of the repetition is a bit much.  Maybe that is why this is in the "remainder" category.

In my opinion, even though some of the elected Congressmen of 2008 promised bi-partisan civility and cooperation, the situation has gone way way downhill, and I think that the public is tired of it and will vote in 2012 to get rid of some of the divisive members and perhaps get Congress back to doing its job.. which is: serving the best interests of the citizens of the United States of America, rather than narrow partisan objectives.

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