Two Dumbbells

George Stepanek

Opposition: The Act of Opposing or Resisting

 

Dumb?

Senator Diane Feinstein descibed the opposition as the biggest stumbling block to passing her proposals.  Well Duh?

"The opposition is venal. They come after you, they put together large amounts of money to defeat you," she said on CNN's "State of the Union." "They did this in '93, and they intend to continue it." Sen. Feinstein

Substitute NRA for opposition and you'll have the exact quote.  But think about it for a minute, isn't the opposition supposed to oppose?  If they were in agreement with you they wouldn't be the opposition.

Dumber?

Our President recently said that Republicans:

"may not feel compelled to pay attention to broad-based public opinion, because what they're really concerned about is the opinions of their specific Republican constituencies,”

Who does he think Republican representatives are supposed to represent?  Should the Republicans of Colorado's 5th congressional district be representing the interests of the democratic voters in Colorado's 2nd?  Need we point out that the representatives are doing their job representing their constituencies?  The representatives of Colorado's 5th or California's 42nd are not supposed to be representing anybody else, let alone 'broad-based public opinion'.

Framing

Do you notice a distinct and not so subtle framing of the topic?  The opposition is bad because they oppose us, if they would just compromise we could accomplish all our objectives and everything would be hunky-dory.  The opposition is doing its job Mr. President,  opposing that, which if you could, would be accomplished by fiat.  It is what makes a representative democracy instead of a totalitarian authoritarian state.

Perspective

Perhaps, where it comes to human rights and the rights of American citizens,  the Republicans should have just compromised on slavery in 1861.  No?  I didn't think so. Perhaps compromise isn't the panacea you currently think it would be.