Letter to the editor: Congress reflects our political divide

I think that both Eddie Zipperer (“Point: The legislative filibuster is destroying Congress,” April 23, TribLIVE) and James Wallner (“Counterpoint: The filibuster is not the problem,” April 23, TribLIVE) completely missed the point.

There is no doubt that we live in a politically divided country. That division is reflected in the narrowly divided makeup of both the House and especially the Senate. Instead of working together for the good of all Americans, Congress has unfortunately devolved to a point where the two parties only want to destroy each other. They don’t seem to care about meaningful legislation or passing an actual budget. Compromise is a dirty word in today’s Congress. Compromise is equated to weakness by many in the media.

The Democrats currently hold a slim majority in the Senate, where the filibuster and cloture frequently come into play. Whether or not it was intended, these rules protect the minority party (today it’s the Republicans) in the Senate and keep them from getting steamrolled legislatively by a simple majority.

The filibuster and cloture would not be an obstacle to passing a bill if the party holding the majority would propose laws that contain some of the things that the minority party wants. It’s called negotiation and it appears to be a lost art in Washington, but I believe that’s what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they created Congress.

Ralph Dunsworth

Oviedo, Fla.

The writer is a former Murrysville resident.