{"id":1739,"date":"2013-01-07T14:08:11","date_gmt":"2013-01-07T19:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/intentchopra\/?p=1739"},"modified":"2013-01-07T14:08:11","modified_gmt":"2013-01-07T19:08:11","slug":"more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html","title":{"rendered":"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn’t “Broken”"},"content":{"rendered":"

If we trace back the accepted opinion that Congress is broken, a turning point came right after President Obama’s first inauguration when Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking for all Republicans, it seems, said that his mission was to make Obama a one-term president. \u00a0The intractable divisions that made the fiscal cliff a nightmare – and a ridiculous spectacle – go back much further, as everyone knows.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But David Brooks exploded conventional wisdom when he said that the chief myth in politics today is that a reasonable nation is saddled with an irrationally antagonistic Congress. \u00a0In reality, Brooks points out, voters don’t want to make sacrifices, and they elect those candidates who uphold their refusal. \u00a0Republican districts send congressmen who refuse to raise taxes. Democratic districts send congressmen who refuse to touch entitlements. The will of the people is being carried out.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The problem is that the will of the people in this case is stubbornly wrong-headed. \u00a0During the run-up to the fiscal cliff dive, many commentators said that a grand bargain could be drawn up in half an hour if both sides would just be reasonable. What stood in the way was politics. \u00a0Yet it seems more true to say that a divided nation is standing against itself.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With many cliffs looming in the future, it will take a crisis every time to provoke both sides to reach a deal, and the deals are likely to be incremental. But that’s okay, because the national will needs time to shift. On the role of government, right versus left is a disagreement that runs as deep as racial inequality once did or the vote for women or the right of gays to marry. It’s worthwhile to believe in process, since the alternative – one side crushing the other – leads to unhealed wounds and long, long resentments.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

If John Boehner really told Harry Reid to go f— himself, it’s in keeping with calling the President a liar during his State of the Union address, the birther smear, the use of Willie Horton to terrify voters with the specter of an angry black male, and Nixon’s Southern strategy, which signaled with a wink and a nod that racism was respectable. \u00a0The whole trend has led to deep divisions because, as I see it, the forces of reaction have profited from the worst impulses in human nature. \u00a0To be on the good side of that trend means not giving in to it. \u00a0The same holds true for aspects of reactionary politics that are not so unsavory or immoral, such as dismantling the social welfare state, crippling government, removing environmental controls, and constantly inflating the defense budget. \u00a0These cliffs are unavoidable until the national will is weaned off right-wing values. \u00a0It takes time, patience, and a steady moral compass.<\/p>\n

www.deepakchopra.com<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow Deepak on Twitter<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If we trace back the accepted opinion that Congress is broken, a turning point came right after President Obama’s first inauguration when Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking for all Republicans, it seems, said that his mission was to make Obama a one-term president. \u00a0The intractable divisions that made the fiscal cliff a nightmare – and a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":125,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[451,766,108,765],"class_list":["post-1739","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","tag-david-brooks","tag-fiscal-cliff","tag-john-boehner","tag-mitch-mcconnell"],"yoast_head":"\nMore Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn't "Broken" - Deepak Chopra and Intent<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn't "Broken" - Deepak Chopra and Intent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"If we trace back the accepted opinion that Congress is broken, a turning point came right after President Obama’s first inauguration when Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking for all Republicans, it seems, said that his mission was to make Obama a one-term president. \u00a0The intractable divisions that made the fiscal cliff a nightmare – and a…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Deepak Chopra and Intent\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-01-07T19:08:11+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn't \"Broken\" - Deepak Chopra and Intent","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn't \"Broken\" - Deepak Chopra and Intent","og_description":"If we trace back the accepted opinion that Congress is broken, a turning point came right after President Obama’s first inauguration when Sen. Mitch McConnell, speaking for all Republicans, it seems, said that his mission was to make Obama a one-term president. \u00a0The intractable divisions that made the fiscal cliff a nightmare – and a…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html","og_site_name":"Deepak Chopra and Intent","article_published_time":"2013-01-07T19:08:11+00:00","author":"Admin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html","name":"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn't \"Broken\" - Deepak Chopra and Intent","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/#website"},"datePublished":"2013-01-07T19:08:11+00:00","dateModified":"2013-01-07T19:08:11+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/#\/schema\/person\/40a7773935ae623bbb543302f1b3520a"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/2013\/01\/more-cliffs-ahead-but-congress-isnt-broken.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"More Cliffs Ahead, But Congress Isn’t “Broken”"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/","name":"Deepak Chopra and Intent","description":"Beliefnet Voices","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/#\/schema\/person\/40a7773935ae623bbb543302f1b3520a","name":"Admin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e37\/e379d06bb2d8f3928b8fb1008e150364x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/e37\/e379d06bb2d8f3928b8fb1008e150364x96.jpg","caption":"Admin"},"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/author\/gbrown"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/125"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1739"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1741,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1739\/revisions\/1741"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1739"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1739"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/intentchopra\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1739"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}