Courage vs. compromise

In his June 3 letter, Gary Smith quotes President Eisenhower for the proposition that compromise is the solution for today’s “hyperpartisan” politics, the focus of which is the size of government and how much power it should have to tax and regulate an individual citizen.

The quote from Ike may not be fair; Ike’s been dead for over 40 years and probably couldn’t imagine $14 trillion deficits or individual mandates. Regardless, what about the country’s founders, who believed that the English government was infringing upon their personal liberties and oppressing them with excessive, unfair taxes? The founders were so adamant about their beliefs that they rebelled and fought a war over them. That was treason, according to the English government, and treason was a hanging offense. It doesn’t get more hyperpartisan than that.

On the Fourth of July do we celebrate the legacy of those who fought and sacrificed for individual liberties and limited government, or the legacy of those who would have compromised them? And if we don’t have enough courage to simply argue for them, what will be our legacy?

Mike Wolfe

Spokane