What relief there is to be retreating in time away from that Theater of the Absurd that played out every day and every month this past summer in Washington, D.C. There seems now to be an uncommon stillness laying on all of the political news since that regrettable fiasco.

It would be a huge step forward to believe that something good was learned from the political deadlock that prohibited reasonable solutions to our critical national issues. We hope that there will now be commonsense compromise on the congressional budget and the raising of the debt limit ceiling this next time around.

The restrictive terms presented by some of the U.S. House of Representative Republicans made compromise impossible. Their actions caused great damage to our international reputation and to the economy.

The absence of common sense and decency during that political stalemate should be a clear sign to all Americans that it was the worst case of bad politics. It makes for a strong and conclusive case for politicians to do the right thing this time around – to bring differences to the common table for review and debate but in the end agreeing to meet together on measures that are best for America.

We need now to move ahead and encourage all of our elected officials in Washington to take the high road in political discussions. If there is even a hint of going back into that political morass of this past summer, then I would expect and hope that the outcry from all Americans would be so deafening that even the most brazen of congressional leaders would know that they have crossed our “red line” of no more! Hopefully, we can expect the best in future negotiations.

John Oser

Parsonsfield