Connecticut Commentary: Red Notes from a Blue State

The idea behind the “Comeback America Initiative” (CAI) and “No Labels” (NL) is commendable. Social and political problems, to the extent they are not considerably worsened by partisan bickering, cannot rightly be characterized as Republican or Democratic, which may mean that men of good will can come together to settle seemingly intractable issues while leaving at home their partisan slings and arrows. Such is the theory. In the real world, politicians, in whose hands lay the fate of nations, are partisans, and solutions to problems are various. For instance, the Republican Party solution to debt control is to cut back on spending, while Democrats prefer to increase taxes. A “moderate” solution to debt build-up would seem to involve a bit of both. This calculus works fine so long as the solution admits of compromise. The wise King Solomon reminds us that in the matter of splitting babies in half, all compromise solutions would be both immoderate and murderous. At the Hartford C...