Give 'em the boot!

Obama sure is getting a lot of advice from Conservative Columnists. And that advice largely adds up to an admonition to, well, be Conservative. I guess it's not surprising Conservatives are in favor of Conservatism. Cal Thomas's latest article is in this vein, encouraging Obama to help the American people to become more independent of the government. Not by helping them, but more by encouraging them. Then Thomas makes this fascinating statement.

Don't make the mistake Republicans made when they ran all three branches of government. Make Republicans feel like fellow Americans with a different plan for reaching similar goals. No one wants poorly performing schools, more poverty and a weak national defense. If we can agree on the problems, we can then discuss the best way to solve them. Include Republicans in your decision-making and at least occasionally embrace some of their ideas. Disarming your opponents is less bloody and can be more productive than crushing them.

I suspect that Thomas thinks this is good advice for Democrats; but not as sure he would be as keen on Republicans following this advice. Democrats should be nice to the Republicans; Republicans should beat the hell out of Democrats. That works because Conservatives are nice people who genuinely want to make America better; Democrats may or may not be - after all Thomas did label us Taliban Democrats back in the day. So it makes sense to be nice and even accommodating to people who are good hearted and want to help America, but it makes no sense to be nice to people who are not nice and not good hearted and who don't really want to make America better.