A musing Beam

This is the third installment of a series of posts on lessons we progressives should take on the election. The overview is here . One of the most important functions of a democracy is to allow people who vehemently disagree to reach fair compromises that prevent non-legal solutions. This works when people believe that the process is fair and that, while their solutions didn’t win, at least they had the opportunity to make their case, and they can still win out if they can convince enough other people to join them. For many years, it was considered the role of the elected official to guard this process and preserve its prestige and strength.  There have, of course, always been those that wished to win out no matter the cost – the feud between John Adams and Thomas Jefferson has dozens of examples –, but they at least tried to appear otherwise. For most of our national history, bipartisanship has been viewed as a virtue. When there is a process that everyone thinks is fair, it has