Perils of purity

A Nov. 11 letter-writer states that America has spoken and the result will be four more years of high unemployment, more debt, higher taxes, more class warfare and a host of other undesirable things. Really? I have friends and acquaintances who hold views across the political spectrum. Not a single one voted for any of the things listed in the letter.

The writer concludes by asking, “It’s what we want, right? No? Well it’s what we will get.” Not necessarily. There is nothing in the results of the Nov. 6 election that foreordains the negative consequences the writer predicts. However, if partisans insist that their congressional representatives hew to the ideological purity of the most extreme elements of their respective parties, we will suffer from the kind of dysfunction that guarantees the consequences the writer predicts.

Michael Roush

Wake Forest