Colin Powell: Not A Tea Party Fan?
November 28, 2011
Colin Powell always reflects a more moderate corner of the Republican Party. Did he prick the conscience of the Grand Old Party in his remarks Sunday on ABC’s This Week? The former Secretary of State expressed concern that the Tea Party may vote for someone who matches their passion, but who can never win the White House away from Barack Obama. Are his concerns real?
Powell objects to the lack of teamwork in Washington, and the complete failure of Congress to address its main function: Pass appropriations. Powell is right, heaven knows. There is so much division that Capitol Hill is paralyzed. Not unlike our suffering allies in Europe, Congress is suffocated with partisanship and by politicians looking ahead to their next election.
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Take this quick read of Colin Powell’s thoughts and see whether you agree with his point of view!
ABC NEWS THIS WEEK:
“CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, HOST: What about this tone in the country right now? It’s still very divisive. It’s still very sort of brash, some say poisonous. I mean, you can barely get anything done on Capitol Hill, just behind me there. What needs to be done, to actually improve the tone and the ability of people to work together?
New Congressmen Learn Practices From....The Old?
COLIN POWELL: The tone is not — is not good right now, and our political system here in Washington, particularly up on The Hill — Congress — has become very, very tense in that two sides, Republicans and Democrats, are focusing more and more on their extreme left and extreme right. And we have to come back toward the center in order to compromise.
A story I like to tell is our Founding Fathers were able to sit in Philadelphia and make some of the greatest compromises known to man — tough, tough issues. But they did it. Why? Because they were there to create a country, where we have a Congress now that can’t even pass an appropriation bill, and we’re running this country on a continuing resolution which is — what else are they here for but to pass appropriations bills?
And so we have got to find a way to start coming back together. And let me say this directly. The media has to help us. The media loves this game, where everybody is on the extreme. It makes for great television. It makes for great chatter. It makes for great talk shows all day long with commentators commenting on commentators about the latest little mini-flap up on Capitol Hill.
So what we have to do is sort of take some of the heat out of our political life in terms of the coverage of it, so these folks can get to work quietly.
AMANPOUR: I get your point about heat and light, but what about the fact that, in fact, it is one of the political parties,
Bi-Partisan???????
although — or rather the big political influence, which is the Tea Party, which quotes left and right the Founding Fathers? They say compromise is a dirty word, and they try to point to the Founding Fathers and the Constitution.
POWELL: They compromised — the Founding Fathers compromised on slavery. They had to in order to create a country. They compromised on the composition of the Senate, of the House, of the Supreme Court, of a president — what are the president’s powers? Can you imagine more difficult compromises today?
Congress Approval Rating? 9%.
Compromise is how this country was founded, and unless two people in disagreement with each other don’t find a way to reach out to one another and make compromises, you don’t get a consensus that allows you to move forward.
But the Tea Party point of view of no compromise whatsoever is not a point of view that will eventually produce a presidential candidate who will win.
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