Besides Congress, We the People Need to Compromise

The Presidential Election brought out more comments about the people's desire for bipartisanship between the parties in Congress and the White House.  Most read the election as keeping Obama to work on bridging the divide.  At least the majority wanted to not "change horses in the middle of the stream."  There are many other interpretations as well; just read some of the nasty Twitter comments (Trump needs to get a hobby).

I believe, however, that we got what we got - that's how democracy works.  But in addition to writing, emailing, and calling our representatives to do their jobs, we also can be mindful of how we treat our fellow citizens.  At the grocery the other days, I notice some of the bumper stickers on cars in the lot.

I was unhappy to see a Romney-Ryan sticker which had been defaced with an "F-you" in black marker across the sticker.  Deriding others legitimate choices, even those opposite of your own, is not democratic and certainly adds nothing to the discussion.  Spirited debate is good, but it should be out in the open and not a cowardly defacement of a sign.

My hopes were buoyed as I saw another another car with a couple of interesting bumper stickers.  On one side was the usual Obama-Biden sticker (not defaced), but on the other side was an NRA sticker.  So it seems that one can have differing views on topics and not just entertain an all-or-nothing dogma.