There’s no question that partisan acrimony and dysfunction have reached unprecedented levels in D.C. There’ve been so many op-eds and interviews wherein the question “why?” has been asked. More recently, on MPBN, Sen. Susan Collins blamed the extreme elements of both parties.

In none of these interviews and analyses, however, have I heard reference to the real origins of this gridlock:

On the very night of President Obama’s first inauguration, the Republican leadership met and committed themselves to one policy: to make Obama a “one-term president” and to obstruct him at every opportunity. Obama had yet to sleep one night in the White House.

This well-documented meeting of the Republicans, and the policy it engendered, created a poisonous climate wherein a congressman could shout “You lie!” with impunity to the president during his first State of the Union message, to the recent unprecedented Republican sabotage of the president’s nuclear talks with Iran.

The next time you hear a political analysis of the acrimonious dysfunction of Washington, expect every convoluted reason but the real one: that treasonous Republican meeting on Day One of Obama’s administration.

We’ll hear, once again, Obama does “not reach across the aisle.” No wonder: the “aisle” is a moat as wide as I-95, filled with crocs, gators, piranha and cottonmouths. Especially cottonmouths.

Bill Ronalds

Rockland

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