Nevada Appeal columnist Guy Farmer wrote this week that “(Chuck) Muth believes that ‘compromise’ is a dirty word;” that I subscribe to the “I don’t win unless you lose” school of politics.
Absolutely not true.
First, it’s true I don’t believe one should compromise on issues of principle…which doesn’t apply to many GOP members of the Nevada Legislature because, well, they HAVE no principles.
But secondly, it’s not that I object to compromise so much as compromising in return for table scraps; compromise for compromise sake. To be nice. To be liked. To go along to get along.
Indeed, the GOP version of compromise in Carson City is the Democrats get the gold mine and we get the shaft. For it to be a true compromise, BOTH sides have to win.
Exactly what have Republicans won for selling out their principles on extending 2009’s “temporary” tax hikes, not once, but twice? Spending restraints? Public employee pension reform? Construction defect reform? Prevailing wage reform? School vouchers?
No. They keep getting a bag of magic beans. But unlike Jack’s beans in the fairy tale, ours give us nothing but gas.
