I’ve just been watching Donald Trump on Sky News (please forgive me, but the coverage was good) trying to present the election he just lost as a major victory. He has as much dignity on the rostrum as an out-of-his-mind evangelist who is convinced that some god is on his side. His altercation with the journalist from CNN simply demeaned the Presidency and was totally unnecessary. In reply to a journalist from Sky News, it became clear that he thinks that, now that he can blame the Democrat majority in the House of Representatives for blocking his legislative agenda, he will gain political traction. That remains to be seen – but even if he is right he needs no political traction with his supporters, and that seems to be the only part of the electorate that interests him. He says it’s all about making deals and he seems to despise those of us that believe it might less about making deals and more about finding common ground. He would probably say that’s the same thing, because he does not have enough finesse in his command of language to understand the difference. If I ask someone who doesn’t agree with me to ‘make a deal’, it’s as if I am trying to corrupt his ideals by, for example, trading one of my principles for one of his. However, if I ask someone to help identify common ground, I am trying to get him to set aside our points of disagreement so that we can move forward without abandoning our principles. I think that’s what moderates mean when they talk about bipartisanship.
