So, I mentioned a while back that I’m reading “Getting To Yes”, one of the seminal books on the art of negotiation of the late 20th century. Between work, kids, and local politics, I’m getting through it at an average of a page a day. I hope to finish before I retire.

As I read, I’m impressed by all the commonsense strategies for negotiating, like “take the person out of the position” (a nicer way of saying “hate the sin, not the sinner”), allow the other side to save face, etc.

And reading through the strategies and real-life examples they provide fires my imagination. I think about how I could apply them to my workplace, my home life, and even in certain political situations.

But when I think about applying these to the County Leg, I blank. I mean, what if I had the misfortune to be a Dem on the Leg, trying to negotiate with the GOP majority?

Taking the person out of the position is fine– I could feel frustration with the positions and policies they support without disliking them personally. But what about the fact that they kill virtually all Dem-initiated legislation in committee? And most anything that makes it to the floor of the leg gets “referred to administration” so Maggie & Minarik can sit on it until it rots? Or that even requests for a little extra time to review the budget plan get shot down summarily so the plan can be rammed through in 45 minutes?

We’re not dealing with rational actors here. This is party over people, party over the county’s best interests. The few times you see folks on the GOP side voting rationally, they get punished and whipped back into lockstep by the GOP leadership.

Similar to the US Congress the last 6 years, “bi-partisanship” means “Dems should go along with whatever the GOP majority wants”. Only now that the Dems are in the majority in Congress do you see significant breaks with the GOP leadership. It would be great to see some of the GOP legislators be able to spread their wings and vote their conscience again, without fear of the Minarik Machine.