Let There Be Peace On Earth, And Let It Begin With The United States Congress

      I did a double-take when I saw the picture on the front page of yesterday's Columbus Dispatch: It was a photo of Republican Senator Susan Collins and Democratic Senator Joe Manchin:

   They were smiling!  And looking friendly!  They were toasting each other! A Democrat and a Republican! Can you imagine?

      Senator Collins and Senator Manchin were celebrating the agreement the Senate had just made to end the two-and-a-half-day government shut down.
     But here's the news: it was a bi-partisan agreement; even more amazing, a cordial agreement.       
     According to the Dispatch, after the agreement was reached, "Republicans and Democrats chatted amiably with one another" on the floor of the Senate before the vote.
       Democratic senators, including Ohio Senator Sherrod Brown, were optimistic and "hopeful that the agreement would be the beginning of a new era of bipartisan compromise...and seemed heartened that the agreement would mean not only fewer short-term spending bills but possible compromises on pensions and other issues."
      Democrats and Republicans getting along. The Republicans ceding the Democrats the funding for the Children's Health Insurance Program. The Democrats deciding to trust Republican Majority
Leader Mitch McConnell to keep his word on his promise for debate on a DACA bill. Optimism and trust on the floor of the U.S. Senate!
      Ah, be still my heart!
     My heart beat even happier when I read that the details of the agreement were worked out by 30 moderate, centrist, willing-to-compromise Democrats and Republicans who called themselves the Common Sense Coalition; and that this coalition met in Susan Collins' office and carried out their negotiations using, per  Senator Collins' prescription: an African tribal talking stick.

     Only the person holding the stick was allowed to talk, and when one person finished talking that person then passed the stick to the next person who wished to talk. This modus operandi worked amazingly well at keeping the conversation civil and productive, even when Republican Senator Lamar Alexander threw the stick across the room at Democratic  Senator Mark Warner, accidentally missed and broke a little glass elephant figurine on Susan Collins' shelf.
       Senator Collins, perhaps sensing greater things at stake than a broken trinket, took the mishap in stride and traded the stick out for a rubber ball.
       Anyway, a deal was made to keep the government up and running for a few more weeks, at least.
     But less important than what was agreed upon was the bi-partisan gemütlichkeit, the good-old-fashioned All-American can-do spirit ― something that's been missing for too many decades in our Congress ― that accompanied the agreement.
        Let the lawmakers on the fringes of both right and left, along with the Spotlight politicians,

...continue to find reasons to criticize each other as they seek to score political points over the government shutdown and the deal that brought the re-opening.  And let Donald Trump gloat like a middle-schooler,

...even though he was useless as jello during the the whole shutdown crisis.

(Now we know what the "J" in Donald J. Trump really stands for),

     From the common-sense heartland of the United States Senate came a reason for all Americans to celebrate. At least a little.

...at least a little.

References:
http://www.dispatch.com/news/20180122/senate-compromise-ends-federal-government-shutdown

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/22/us/politics/moderate-senators-shutdown-common-sense-coalition.html

https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/22/politics/susan-collins-bipartisan-talks-congress-shutdown-talking-stick/index.html

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