EDITOR:

A recent Blondie cartoon strip showed Dagwood sitting in his chair facing Blondie’s chair-back with his hair all raised up in Halloween fright. Blondie says, “Maybe you should stop watching so many cable news shows.” Another comic, BC, has one guy asking Mr. Know-It-All: “What do you get when you mix a country divided along political lines with loss of institutional trust?” Response: Two countries.

Left vs. Right. Liberals vs. Conservatives. Democrats vs. Republicans. There is no doubt that our country is severely divided along two primary lines, stretched well beyond Packers/Lions or Yoopers/Trolls. Who’s right?

Is there room for compromise, defined as “an agreement or settlement of a dispute that is reached by both sides making concessions.” Does our Congress understand this? Do we?

I was recently asked why I disliked immigrants, LGBT folks, Muslims, Palestinians, pro-choicers and welfare folks. I said, “What?” “You know, Mike, you write letters supporting stronger borders, traditional marriage, Israel, pro-life, etc. Why are you so bigoted?” Again, I said, “What? I think you misinterpret what I say or write. I dislike no one and maybe you have not met my friends Raul, Liz, Omar and Carol.” I only point out that many of our once obvious American values rested in preserving life, not giving into identity politics or caving to strident minorities, rejecting socialistic anything and not wanting our government to continue giving everything away for free. Too many of our higher education schools revel in political correctness and lean leftward noticeably and they admit it. The media is primarily very liberal and therefore don’t harp on Fox News.

As it is, the Left gets tons of free advertising nightly on most networks’ late night shows that were once funny. As columnist George Will wrote, “freedom of speech” is being limited and “freedom from speech” is too often the standard of the Left. Conservative voices are often prohibited and even Christian organizations and churches are labeled bigoted. Really, Jesus was bigoted?

The dreams and hopes of Lincoln, Martin Luther King, Jr. and our founding fathers are being trampled. We do not need to be “transformed” as a country. Let’s not let our liberties be squelched. Maybe we should let the voters decide the President’s fate in 9 months. Our representatives should focus on the following where there is some agreement on need and desire for compromise: Trade deals, directed job creation, sensible gun laws, Great Lakes preservation, tax reform, lower drug prices, cancer research, no more foreign wars, immigration limits (even a policy), streamlined work-welfare programs, prison reform.

As Rodney King said “Can’t we just all get along?” Can we return to statesmen in Congress, men and women willing to stop demonizing the opposition? Agreeing to disagree is a start, but we need more than that.

We all know the story: Trump, Pence, Schumer and Pelosi all went out on a boat ride and a storm threw them all overboard. Who survived? America! Let’s work on mutual solutions and concessionary compromise – -now! Pipe dream?

Mike Olson

Ford River/Escanaba