America and Building Consensus

Why is it that almost everything we learn in life we learn the hard way? If that is so, let’s apply that to our nation. The last eight years we have seen national division grow to a fevered pitch. It’s been hard, but now let’s look at what we have learned.
The first important gain is America’s military posture against our foes. Wait, I can hear my conservative friends objecting, wondering if I have lost my senses. To this I say, yes, our military is a lot weaker at a time when 80 percent of American voters say terrorism is their number two concern.
But hold on, it is the long run I am talking about. For decades, our allies in the Western world have stood back and let us carry an ever-larger portion of the mutual defense burden. After President Obama’s refusal to continue that practice, and in the face of worldwide terrorism, Russia’s saber rattling and China military expansionism, our friends have now realized that they have to step up to the plate. Not that this was Mr. Obama’s strategic objective, but it is happening, and it is a good thing.  
The second gain is a national awareness that Washington is broken, with the Republicans and the Democrats being unable to build consensus on almost anything. When Mr. Obama was recently asked, what is one of the main accomplishments of his administration, he answered ObamaCare.
Unfortunately, the address to our national health care problems was done in such a way that not one Republican in Congress supported the legislation, and now that we are getting a Republican president, it will likely be dismantled.
What caused this division? A prevalent Republican view is that Obama stepped back from America’s leadership role, creating world instability. Further, they considered his domestic agenda radical and would not support it.  Democrats argue that the Republicans were simply impossible to deal with.
Regardless, Mr. Obama went forward on his own, announcing to Congress that he was not going to wait for it to act, that he had a phone and a pen, and that he was going to use them. If President Trump tries to drive his decisions down people’s throats, he will fail, and his presidential legacy will likely be later undone. 
Over the last number of years, the office of the president has grown greatly in power, while Congress’s influence has diminished. Now, with the White House containing so many agencies, decision-making at the policy level has increasingly been coming out of there, not Congress. When decision-making rolls up to one man instead of from 535 representatives from every corner of our nation, we create polarization instead of an amalgamation of everyone’s thinking.
Of course, getting a majority of 535 people to come to a consensus on anything is a time-consuming and laborious task. But when they do come together, we have common ground, not a rubber band pulled in two directions, later to snap.
My wife, Patricia, and I had dinner in Philadelphia after the election, and our table was close to that of a couple of young attorneys, who were expressing to one another their utter dismay at the defeat of Hillary Clinton. As they were leaving, I asked them about the election and they freely shared their consternation.
One of them, however, told us she is coming to realize that they live in a metropolitan bubble, that there are many others in the nation with vastly different concerns, and that we all need to work to understand one another. Building consensus made America, and for the good of our nation and the next generation, I hope there are a lot of young people like her, who understand the necessity of compromise to achieve it. 
Art Hall 
From the Bible: Be devoted to one another in love. Honor one another above yourselves. Romans 12:10