Emma Ellman-Golan | Finding commonality in compromise

This summer brought out the worst in our elected leaders.

Our credit rating got downgraded, our economy weakened and confidence in the government reached record lows — all because our leaders spent too much time fighting and not enough time leading.

The childish behavior exhibited this summer, from gossipy accounts of stalled negotiations to the recent squabble between President Barack Obama and Speaker of the House John Boehner over the timing of the president’s speech to a joint session of Congress, suggests that our elected officials simply refuse to make any concessions and that they would rather let a negative outcome occur than let the other party win any political capital.

Hyper-partisanship has skyrocketed as leaders refuse to budge on issues that need to be on the negotiation table, such as tax increases and entitlement reform.

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With no compromise, we make no progress.

“Compromise” has become a dirty word in politics because we are too focused on what divides us rather than on what unites us.

We focus on our differences — our positions on taxes, gun ownership, gay marriage — rather than on the values that we share.

It hasn’t always been this way.

In the weeks and months following 9/11, Americans united after a national tragedy.

We felt a shared sense of fear and uncertainty.

We expressed ourselves through patriotic gestures and rallied around the same flag.

And we found a common priority in national security.

Sure, the decision to invade Iraq was controversial, but overwhelmingly, the events of 9/11 made our national bond stronger.

That bond seems to have disintegrated over the course of the decade.

A recent Rasmussen poll indicates that national security and terrorism have fallen to the bottom of the list of issues voters care about.

And in a Gallup poll released this week, only 38 percent of Americans think a terrorist attack is imminent, down from a high of 85 percent following the 9/11 attacks.

Clearly, Americans don’t feel as defined by a fear of terrorism now — but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be able to find other shared values or experiences that can unite us again.

The American political climate must become less acrimonious if we are to accomplish the things that make this nation great.

Without compromise, without open-mindedness, we will find ourselves in a series of messes like the one this summer.

But we shouldn’t need a national tragedy to bring us together.

We already face the common problems of a failing economy and rising unemployment.

Yes, these are far less dramatic than a terrorist attack, but they threaten our welfare and our country’s stability just as much.

We can learn a lot about unity and bipartisanship from the aftermath of 9/11.

In this vein, Penn Democrats and the College Republicans, together with the Undergraduate Assembly and a few other student groups, are co-hosting the 9/11 Memorial Event on Saturday to foster a spirit of respectful political discourse in the coming year.

As we mark the 10th anniversary of the attacks, we should focus on the factors that bring us together, not on the attributes that set us apart.

Emma Ellman-Golan, a College senior, is a former president of the Penn Democrats. Her email address is emmae@sas.upenn.edu.

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