Only GOP is uncompromising

There’s a revealing contradiction in your recent editorial on the upcoming presidential contest (“GOP race ends with whimper, leaves two worthy candidates,” Our view, The presidency debate, Wednesday).

On one hand, it says President Obama’s health care law “is built on ideas developed by Republican lawmakers and conservative think tanks.” But later it accuses both Democrats and Republicans to be “increasingly ideological parties.”

But how can it be that the “increasingly ideological” Democrats passed a bill based on what were once mainstream Republican ideas? The answer, of course, is that both parties are not increasingly ideological. Only one is: the Republican Party, whose members have become almost entirely uncompromising, devoted mostly to simply opposing Obama, no matter how moderate his actions.

I know the political wisdom these days is that “both sides do it,” and that for every problem “both sides must be equally to blame.” But it simply isn’t reality. Democrats are passing Republican-inclusive bills, but Republicans are refusing to play ball and are instead cynically accusing Democrats of “death panels” and socialism.

The Democrats are never going to get credit from Republicans for being a center-left party of moderates. But they’re not going to get credit from voters either if commentary such as yours continues to misrepresent what’s really going on. Brent Hartinger

Seattle