PRAGMATISM

President Obama is a pragmatist, and he has already backed off some of his proposals and lessened others. This is necessary in Washington, I'm sure, but he does have to start fighting for some of his programs. If he thinks that by trying to compromise he will win over the Republicans, he is sadly mistaken. They have no intention of giving an inch on any issue. They have started their "tea parties" even though Obama is lowering taxes for most people. The wealthy leaders or millionaires who are going to pay a little more in taxes are incensed and have convinced many other people that everyone is going to have to pay more. And they are supposedly upset about the national debt. That is hard to believe since we heard nothing from them when President Bush was spending trillions last year. The Republicans have no intention of cooperating on any issue; so Obama might as well forget it and move on.



For the past twenty years people have been saying that there is a common ground where both sides can reach agreement on the issue of abortion. But there is no common ground. One way to lower the rates of abortion or to prevent abortion is to teach sex education and to provide methods of birth control. This is what the Europeans have done. But the anti-abortion groups do not believe in sex education or birth control. The "Pro-life" groups are totally opposed to sex education. They view this as teaching children how to have sex. They are opposed to contraceptives and even want to pass laws allowing pharmacists to refuse to sell them. What if pharmacists refused to sell viagra? There would be quite an uprising over that. Why should pharmacists have the right to decide what prescriptions to fill? If a physician writes a prescription the pharmacist's job is to fill it. It is not the role of pharmacists to determine the morality of each drug they sell. They could look closely at any given drug and decide that it should not be used by people. But it is the physician who should be making that decision. Anti-abortion groups are working at passing laws to totally forbid abortions. And they will not compromise at all. Since they have not been able to prohibit all abortions, they are trying to pick away at the laws to create every possible obstacle they can imagine. And they will not quit until they have achieved the goal of preventing all legal abortions. They don't comprehend that this will just result in more illegal abortions and more risk of life.



These are the kind of people that Obama has to deal with, and they are not about to compromise. They are not logical or rational. They are not going to cooperate. They do not care about the good of the country. They only care about having their own way.