[Best Of: Politics] On Compromising

Posted by JCLanier 9 years, 3 months ago to The Gulch: Best of
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A well stated warning on the evils of compromise.


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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    A bit more. Assume three to five or even more groups all had a common interest. They gather and list there planks and platform to use a useful tool.But they also list the substructure that hold together. The sacred ground is the core of their beliefs.

    At that point with all listed for all to see they look for common core beliefs, common secondary and those areas where they each stand alone.

    Each group has decided what is core, what is secondary and what is tertiary that being somethings that can be modified and even put off, Secondary is modifed maybe not put off and core is searched for ways to express the same thoughts in a common language. Perhaps that's all that is needed. Some will leave but feel a kinship for the effort afforded them. Some will stay and each keeping their own belief system and values look for common ground and sacred ground. Use that religiously or in a secular sense.

    The idea is to build a common platform with similar planks, a solid core structure but allow for freedom of thought and movement. it's a coalition not a single party

    Then comes goal setting and plans of action. All the rest. Politics is the art of the possible. Treating with the Government party even in definitions is not possible at least not probable.

    No sense wasting time and effort on them and with that I marginalized their whole game.

    But supper is ready so I'll leave you with that. Because the whole idea IS to navigate the middle ground and then the deep oceans

    Back to History and Moral Philosophy....and of course Objectivism or any of the other valid tools. Moral Philsophy of course will support or cause you to rethink your own personal belief system. It's very personal. You are the only critic.

    The curse we must avoid is something, anything that fits Lenin''s description of Marxist Economics. He stated that one cannot teach it one has to preach it meaning it can't be explained instead tell congregation to accept it on faith - there are those who understand it and they will lead the way. Another way of saying if I have to explain it you wouldn't understand. In short an insult to the individual man or woman capable of critical thinking and reasoning.

    That last sentence is not acceptable to the party chieftains of the left It is their weak point and there is nothing they can do about it.

    Independent thinkers do not make proper servants of the left. But it's perfectly all right to navigate your own boat towards your own landfall. Many boat designs and with common parts.




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  • Posted by BobFreeman 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yes. And the characters in the Gulch, who are all Rand, of course, were apparently about to make the same error that the framers of the Constitution made, given that Narragansett was supposedly re-writing the US CONstitution in order to create new coercive State when the strikers returned to re-claim America. They did not understand that, once given to, or seized by, the State, power can never be limited, as has been demonstrated for 6,000 years of history … the State always grows in power until it self-destructs.

    It’s time to break that cycle and try something new. The Win-Win
    Free-Market Stateless Society.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    MichaelA- You make some good points, even though it is not easy to navigate any middle ground.
    As you state, and I paraphrase, each of us must recognize our own center and be grounded in our values to be able to hold steadfast to what we believe.
    I agree with you that a coalition of individuals intent on giving and receiving like value for their efforts would indeed succeed.
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 2 months ago
    However ---- let us not confuse compromise with forming a true Coalition. Lots of small groups like this. What do they have in common.

    I would look for a belief in the Constitution and it's built in ability to make change legally and peacefully,

    I would look for people who were four square on the side of citizens controlling government as a right and a responsibility.

    I would look for the ability and willingness to make some widening to the left or the right. To the left that would mean recognizing the need for some government with specifically stated but temporary powers. To the right I would look for the belief in useful tools such as recall on all levels, term, the initiative process, a change from the fascist income tax to the non fascist end consumer consumption tax. the belief in and willingness to use all forms of voting such as regular ballots, voting a law up or done in the jury box, no conscription into the military or any other form of government service, banning political contributions of any kind to any entity that cannot vote and limiting the contributions collected to the precinct, district, state or nation in which collected in that the funds could not be spent outside of that geo- political area. An honest voting act which included None Of The Above.

    That sort of thing.

    But a coalition of similar thinkers and believers operating at the grass roots level who turned their back on the Government Party should attract a number of the disenfranchised, and those from Libertarians to the Non-Rinos. That party can be pared away to some extent and with a great deal of care.

    Trick is don't let the infiltrators destroy it as they did the Populists and that ;was Republican driven. Don't let the infiltrators swerve from purpose and never give them any form of support.

    Just a few of the ideas for what I think of as a constitutional centrist coalition made up of some disparate, fragmented other party's who are not asked to give up their beliefs.

    But first make damn sure you know where the center is and your own sacred ground and it's not the Center of the Left as at present.
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Me being "Person 2", I paid for two developments rather than one. Seems like that qualifies.

    I could've given in and let it take 4 months, or used a lot of political capital and forced the issue. I think the cost was less valuable than the political capital, and it would've been a harder lesson to learn from.

    Think we are pretty much in agreement.
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  • Posted by $ jdg 9 years, 2 months ago
    Look at the federal budget. Every step in its growth, from sanity before the New Deal to today, was a compromise. Refusal to compromise in any one of those cases could have stopped it.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    DeanS- And sadly there is truth in your comment... what do we have if we cannot depend on a vote to demand change... That is why AS had to sever all ties and wait out the governments self-destruction.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Herb- Yes, well stated, and in particular reference to our current situation where our compromising government has blurred the lines drawn by the Constitution to a meaningless drivel. A once proud (and rightly so) nation the U.S. now stands at the crossroads of hype propagated by the current administration who welcomes any other country that sees fit to deride her.
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  • Posted by Herb7734 9 years, 2 months ago
    Compromise always and eventually, leads to the worst of all possible worlds. If you look just at the history of the USA and it becomes apparent that every time a compromise was implemented, it temporarily relieved the problem, and as time passed created bigger and less solvable problems. Compromise is chiefly responsible for much of the mess we're in today.
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  • Posted by 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Thoritsu- Good example, yet I would call your example smart thinking and not necessarily a compromise. What did you give up? What concessions did you make? Maybe you paid for a good lesson and that could be interpreted as fair value.

    I too have "lived to see another day" on a compromise, regained momentum and bypassed the competition. Yet, compromising costs valuable time and often dilutes the outcome for everyone.
    Assessing a decision to compromise is crucial and requires weighing what you gain from what you are giving up ( not always easily discernible). In other words, "when you pickup a stick you pickup both ends" - one good and one bad... and somewhere towards the middle you dilute the meaning of both.
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  • Posted by DeanStriker 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Yep, the Government Collectivist Party got 98% of vote2012. Sadly, voting is no longer an alternative, if indeed it ever was.
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  • Posted by DeanStriker 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Or to turn that inside-out, everyone is UNhappy, as compromises usually involve so many aspects. The Rulers don't have to compromise with their Subjects!-
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  • Posted by $ MichaelAarethun 9 years, 2 months ago
    Add the terms bi-partisanship and cross-partisanship. Just as Spin is another word for Deceit Those two are other words for Compromise and all of it means giving in to one form or another of evil. Same thing spelled two other ways is Vote Republican or Vote Democrat. Same as Vote for the Government Party and against the Constitution.

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  • Posted by $ allosaur 9 years, 2 months ago
    I see :compromising" and then a picture of Sir Jeb of the Royal House of Bush.
    Looks like a match.
    It fits a hand like a well-picked glove.
    It fits so do not acquit. .
    Yeah.
    Uh, huh.
    PA-TOOIE!
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  • Posted by $ Thoritsu 9 years, 2 months ago
    The mathematical example is a fools compromise.

    The second compromise comes from the other party, and so on. In addition, success in outcome of a compromise often compels the other party to reassess the root thinking, and the series need not be endless.

    Here is a personal example;
    1 - It takes 4 months to design a circuit board.
    2 - It should be much less than that.
    1 - Never was.
    2 - Maybe our resources are inefficient (or incompetent).
    1 - don't think so.
    2 - Tell you what, we'll start the design internally, and at the same time hire an external designer. It will cost more, but we'll learn something.
    1 - Not sure I like it, but ok.

    4 weeks (<1 month) later the circuit board was designed and prototyped. The internal effort was terminated. The head of engineering reevaluated, and fired the internal circuit board design manager (root cause), and farmed out the design team to other managers. Everyone won. We have a much more efficient team. Even the design manager let-go, learned his prescriptive, control-centric methods were outdated and inefficient (for sure), and has a pretty good new job.
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  • Posted by sdesapio 9 years, 2 months ago in reply to this comment.
    Click the title of this post above, "[Best Of: Politics] On Compromising", to go to the comment this post refers.
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