Source:  Maine GOP Sen. Snowe’s retirement makes way for Democrats – USATODAY.com.

“I do not realistically expect the partisanship of recent years in the Senate to change over the short term,” she said, adding that she would seek opportunities outside of the Senate to encourage civility in government. “It is time for change in the way we govern,” she said.

It truly saddens me to see our politics move to the extreme edges. Moderates in either party just are not welcomed now. The same goes for voting your conscience. If they don’t vote how their political leaders instruct them then they are in a hidden way shown the door. That seems to be what has happened to a couple of moderates recently. One is Senator Snowe and the other is Senator Nelson.  They were shown the door because they dared to cross the aisle and vote with the “enemy” when they saw things they could agree on. How has our politics gotten to this state?

The founding fathers based the way they set up the government around pragmatism. That is whatever works best is what should be applied. One of the biggest problems within government and most large corporate cultures  especially in the United States it seems is “NIH”.  This is “not-invented-here”. If a good idea comes from the opposing party then something must be wrong with it and therefore it cannot be supported. I ran into this culture in the R&D corporate world many times during my career. No one wants to take someone else’s good idea and implement it themselves. The rest of the world has universal healthcare but since it was not invented in the U.S. few here are willing to go that route. It wasn’t invented here so it is un-American?

I must admit that I am for the most part a pragmatist. This gets me in trouble in a number of spheres. My friends who are Democrats can’t understand why I would support some of the ideas of the “other” party.  My Christian friends can’t understand why I would think there are some good things to be found in all religions. I am a pragmatist and proud of it. Just because something has worked in the past doesn’t mean that there aren’t better ways to accomplish it in the future. We must always try to find things that work best for every situation no matter who first thought of it.