Oh, Wait — We Do! October 19, 2023October 19, 2023 You know what’s so interesting about this quote? Read it first and then I’ll tell you: The GOP has become an insurgent outlier in American politics. It is ideologically extreme; scornful of compromise; unmoved by conventional understanding of facts, evidence and science; and dismissive of the legitimacy of its political opposition. When one party moves this far from the mainstream, it makes it nearly impossible for the political system to deal constructively with the country’s challenges. It was written 11 years ago! Even before Trump and his alternative facts. Even before the burn-the-House-down election deniers. By Norm Ornstein, et al, in their book, It’s Even Worse Than It Looks: How the American Constitutional System Collided with the New Politics of Extremism, condensed here in the Washington Post. Wish we had a leader who did not want to burn the House down? Whose goal were not “retribution?” Who, in his quiet dignity, wanted to get things done to move our country forward — with low unemployment and higher wages, with better health care and cheaper drugs, with revitalized infrastructure and cleaner energy, with domestic manufacture of critical computer chips? With respect for women and minorities and straight white Christian males like himself? With a preference for compromise and bipartisanship? With deep domestic and international experience? With empathy and humility — and an effective team of 4,000 competent experienced appointees who, like him, respect the rule of law? A leader who stands up for democracy against authoritarians? Oh, wait. We do. If you have time, watch this interview from a couple of weeks ago, before Kevin McCarthy was ousted for failing to shut down the government. And then watch his Oval Office address scheduled for 8pm Eastern tonight.