Why can’t we just get along? I don’t know how many times I’ve rhetorically asked that simple question of Congress. I guess it’s not as easy as we think. Over the years our two political parties have taken on distinct personalities and I can’t see any change coming soon. I’m not certain that these personalities are true representations of what the parties believe, but it does explain why they won’t (can’t) compromise with each other. A typical example of their personalities comes shining through when we look at their reaction to some recent phenomena: Occupy Wall Street and Tea Party activism.

Occupy Wall Street is a grass roots protest movement against income inequality, unemployment, greed and corporate (especially the financial service sector) influence on Government. The movement’s slogan is “We are the 99%” which refers to the vast concentration of wealth among the top 1% of income earners compared to the other 99 percent, and indicates that most people are paying the price for the mistakes of a tiny minority. Irrespective of the validity of their assertions, the Occupy Wall Street movement is embraced by the President and the Democratic Party.

The Tea Party is a grass roots movement against inherent government excesses such as government spending and taxation. It seeks to reduce government spending and the national debt; it opposes taxation in varying degrees and promotes an originalist interpretation of the United States Constitution. Similarly, irrespective of the validity of their position, the Republican Party embraces the Tea Party movement.

So, tell me: where is there room for compromise between these two positions? Democrats can compromise with themselves within the framework of Occupy Wall Street. Republicans can compromise with themselves within the framework of the Tea Party. But it would be heretical for a Democrat to embrace reduced government spending; similarly, it would be heretical for a Republican to support higher taxation. So where is the room for compromise?

My take on it is that as a country we will need to go in one of two basic directions: one party rule or one fundamental understanding of the relationship between the public and private sectors. In one party rule 50–55% of the population (the majority) will determine the direction of the country. The remaining percentage of the population, 45-49%, will be disaffected. There will be no need to compromise with the Party out of power. The people will generally vote with their pocketbooks. When the population has a majority of economically satisfied citizens, the tendency will be to stay the course politically and gradually increase the role of government to more equitably redistribute wealth. This is the inexorable movement of the nation to European-style democratic socialism. This is our recent history. In the second direction the two political parties have a common understanding of the relationship between government and free enterprise. The common understanding is based on either limited government principles or expanding government principles. Based on this commonality they engage in the give-and-take of satisfying varying interests and reach a mutually acceptable compromise. This requires men and women of opposing parties to associate with one another professionally and socially. Our country’s history is based on limited government principles. But as Bob Dillon, the cultural spokesman of the 60’s, sang “these times they are a’changin.” A common understanding around limited government principles is the harder course and, consequently, the less likely.

So, why can’t we just get along? There just aren’t enough Jethro Tull freaks left who want to “go living in the past.” We want progress. We want to move forward. Who needs to read old books? C.S. Lewis famously said that “the only pallative was to keep the clean sea breeze of the centuries blowing through our minds.” And the only way to do that was to read old books. But, we all know that you can’t trust anyone over 40.

Here’s some interesting data to chew on:

Breakdown of Income and Taxes Paid by Category
Income category	2009 AGI	Percent of All Income	Percent of Taxes Paid
Top 1 %	Over $ 343,927	17 %	37 %
Top 5 %	Over $ 154,643	32 %	59 %
Top 10 %	Over $ 112,124	43 %	70 %
Top 25 %	Over $ 66,193	66 %	87 %
Top 50 %	Over $ 32,396	87 %	98 %
Bottom 50%	Under $ 32, 396	13 %	2 %