Gridlock! That's the state of our Congress. Yes, 90 percent of us think Congress is dysfunctional, primarily due to gridlock.
Why is this happening? Because highly partisan primaries typically nominate the more extreme candidates in both parties. Moderates who can negotiate real solutions are becoming rarer. Meanwhile, the partisans wrestle for the steering wheel while we go over the cliff.
To fix this, we must elect moderates whenever we can, both to lead the government in the right direction and to show the parties that nominating the more extreme candidate is not the answer. Here in Hawaii, the Democrats rejected the moderate Ed Case. The Republicans nominated the moderate Linda Lingle. We have an opportunity to elect a very well-qualified moderate to a position in the Senate, where her leadership can work with other moderate senators to help solve our country's problems.
So, I ask all the moderates - whether Republican or independent or Democratic supporters of Case - to cast their vote for Linda Lingle and send a strong message that we want to see some action from Congress.
Greg Stratton
Kihei
