America’s crisis of compromise

Wed, 09 May 2012 14:45:00 +0000

Do citizens value compromise? Americans are ambivalent about it. That is the most striking pattern revealed in surveys of public opinion in recent years. The ambivalence shows itself in public attitudes toward politicians who compromise and also toward compromise itself. In a typical survey, the vast majority of Americans said they prefer leaders willing to compromise, but at the same time two-thirds of all the respondents also said that they “like politicians who stick to their positions, even if unpopular.”

When asked about compromise in general, most Americans like the idea. In numerous surveys over the past several decades, large majorities of Americans declared themselves in favor of political compromise in general. Even after the sweeping Democratic victory in the midterm elections in 2006, three-quarters of the public continued to call for compromise. Although Democrats then controlled both houses of Congress and more states than before, nearly 60 percent of Democratic voters still wanted their leaders to compromise with Republicans in Congress (though not necessarily with President Bush).

Salon.com > Dennis Thompson

America’s crisis of compromise