Primary colors can lead to national harmony

There’s a lot of concern, these days, about the widespread division and discord between Democrats and Republicans, between “Blue” voters and “Red” voters or between those who support President Trump and those who do not.

So how do we narrow the division and lessen the discord and create a friendlier, more respectful and more positive relationship between those groups ?

My art teachers taught me that pure red and blue are primary colors — and they are neutral with each other (neither harmonious nor dissonant), but can be made to harmonize with each other by mixing a bit of red with the blue and a bit of blue with the red.

It appears that Republicans won’t accept any part of the “tax and spend, big-nanny government” philosophy of the Democrats — and Democrats won’t accept the “tax cuts for the rich, and smaller government” philosophy of the Republicans.

There have been times when Republican and Democrats have come together on a successful new way to deal with a problem.

One outstanding example happened during President Clinton’s administration, when he agreed to sign into law Speaker Newt Gingrich’s welfare reform bill. The bill provided free job training for able-bodied welfare recipients, and gave them two years to find a job — before being cut from the welfare rolls.

As a result, welfare rolls were cut in half. Able-bodied recipients found jobs, got off welfare, gained self respect, and became taxpayers ROBERT RAKESTRAW Bill Day, Cagle Cartoons instead of tax consumers.

Another example occurred during President Kennedy’s administration. Although Kennedy was liberal in regard to government social programs, he agreed with the Republicans on economic issues. He believed in the American competitive free-enterprise system — and called for a substantial income tax cut, which resulted in a boost to the economy, higher employment rates — and even an increase in tax revenues.

In the 1980s, President Ronald Reagan persuaded congress to agree with his “Peace Through Strength” policy and to go along with his plans to bring our military establishment back to a position of high strength and quality. This action, along with the collapse of the Soviet economy, led to the end of the Cold War.

So again I ask: How do we narrow the division and lessen the discord, and create a friendlier, more respectful and more positive relationship between the two parties?

For starters, I think the two parties, along with the president and all Americans, need to consider themselves as partners in a business, a very big business — the United States government — where, periodically, a new CEO and new members of the board of directors are voted in. A business where everyone connected with it strives to work together to achieve a good bottom line — peace and prosperity.