Tennis Anyone? or Do You Prefer Cage Fighting?

I like to play tennis. Now don't be misled that what I play looks anything like what they call tennis on television. In fact, what I play probably should be called something else.

Over the years, I've noticed a similarity between tennis and politics. Or at least the way politics used to work.

In tennis, for the game to proceed, players often take actions not in their immediate self-interest. For instance my opponent gets to make line calls on my shots. When in doubt he gives me the point and not himself. If his service is disrupted for some reason, I allow him to take it over. And I apologize, if only halfheartedly, when my ball hits the net and trickles onto his court out of reach.

Of course I'm still playing to win but ultimately tennis won't work without both players having a stake in fairness, courtesy and cooperation. Win-win.

Ultimate cage fighting? Not so much. According to the rules, such as they are, among things prohibited include "eye-gouging, groin attacks, poking a finger into lacerations, grabbing the trachea, kicking the kidney with a heel and stomping the head of a grounded opponent." Requiring rules that ban groin attacks and poking fingers into lacerations doesn't bode well for cooperation.

Politics used to be like tennis. Now it's like cage fighting.

America was built on the grand bargain. Think of the passions surrounding issues like slavery and large and small state congressional representation. Only by meeting halfway did the Founders save the Union.

This is a country that swings back and forth from left to right in a kind of self-correcting pendulum. Without Democrats demanding social and economic justice, we'd still be living in the nineteenth century. Without Republicans applying the brakes to overreaching and over regulating, we'd see our individual liberties shrunk. Each side is essential to the progress and strength of the nation.

All in all, it's worked out pretty well for 220 years because at the end of the day both sides knew when to cut a deal. Compromise is what sets America apart from totalitarian regimes which view it as a weakness instead of as a virtue.

Till recently.

Fundamentalist Christian and tea party purists, holding the Republican Party hostage, have forgotten compromise is the essence of democracy. The hard left can be just as rigid but its small numbers and meager influence don't make it as alarming.

The far right's absolutist positions on abortion, gay rights, public prayer, entitlements and now tax increases just don't cut it in a country that's essentially centrist. In democracy as opposed to autocracy, win-win is indispensable to political stability.

President Obama is holding out the possibility of a grand bargain on the debt. Republicans need to get back to playing tennis.