Letter to the Editor: Scott Rosenbaum

The Need for Transparency in Opinion Guest Columns

n the recent edition of the AJT, two opinion pieces called on voters, especially Jewish Democrats, to vote for the Republican candidates in the upcoming Senate runoff elections to ensure checks and balances exist in our political system and to help President-elect Biden succeed. Both gentlemen are welcome to express their opinions, but the AJT should at least disclose in the descriptions of the contributors that both men are Republican activists. You need look no further than the archives of the AJT or online searches to confirm their affiliations.

We can skip over the fact that neither writer advocated for checks and balances when Republicans controlled the House, Senate and White House, and instead focus on the substance of their pieces.

They describe a situation where Democratic control of the House, Senate and White House would inevitably force Biden to the left to the point where bipartisan legislation would be non-existent. They harken back to a time when Congress governed in a normal fashion and the House and Senate worked with each other on behalf of the American people, but this is not our current reality.

The Senate was once known as “the world’s greatest deliberative body,” but there has been little to no deliberation in the Senate. No amendments, no debate, no constructive conversations with the other side to develop quality bills.

I am an ardent supporter of legislative compromise, but the realities of our current political situation have made compromise all but impossible. Compromise is used against politicians in their next election and our congressional districts, in which most seats are safe for one party or the other, rewards candidates who espouse the most extreme views of their parties in primary elections.

I believe that a 50-50 divided Senate might actually change that and lead to the meaningful compromise our country needs to pass legislation supported by both sides. President-elect Biden could work with his former Republican Senate colleagues to come up with bills that would pass both chambers with bipartisan support.

I fear the alternative, where Senator McConnell remains majority leader and maintains the status quo of gridlock, refusing to even bring legislation to the floor for debate, and once again returning to his 2010 priority, to pursue a strategy of conflict, instead of compromise and conciliation, to make President-elect Biden a one-term president.

Scott Rosenbaum, Dunwoody