A more divided government would be improvement

James Moldenhauer, North Las Vegas

Friday, Oct. 29, 2010 | 2:03 a.m.

I must express complete disagreement with the message in Mike Smith’s Tuesday editorial cartoon. The cartoon shows a possible outcome of the upcoming election: a government divided between a “Yes We Can” White House and a “No You Can’t” Congress. Meanwhile, a passenger in a car driving by the White House and Congress says, “This isn’t good.”

Under the current situation, government divided (or shared) in such a manner is the absolute best we can hope (or pray) for. The past 21 months have seen the worst collection of legislation and appointees imaginable.

The current party in power is openly dismissive of its opposition and contemptuous of any kind of legal or moral constraints. Current “leadership” declares openly that they can do anything they want. Shared power looks good to me.

Also, from a personal-experience point of view, a divided government appears to be better for the country. In my lifetime (and I’m 60 years old), the best times in a variety of ways were the 1980s and 1990s, decades in which shared power was more the rule than the exception. I remember vividly the first two years of the Clinton administration. One party was in control of both the executive and legislative branches and we had hideous legislation and laughable appointees (sort of a mild, relatively innocuous precursor to the past 21 months).

So, let’s have more divided government!