Statesmanship, Not Politics, Is What We Need!

A special luncheon of Town Hall Los Angeles, in conjunction with the Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC), presented A Conversation with U.S. Senator Dianne Fienstein.   The discussion was conducted by PPIC President and CEO (and fellow California Volunteers’ Commissioner) Mark Baldassare.  The conversation covered many topics including the economy, jobs, environment, water, foreign policy and intelligence.  For me the thread that ran through the discussion was the challenging situation we face as a nation and our inability to work towards solutions due to the polarization of our political process.  Let me share three quotes from the Senator that I wish our current elected officials at all levels of government would heed and that I hope voters will think about in future elections.  “If you elect people who will work towards the center and are solution oriented, you can get things done.  If you elect people who work on the sides and are more interested in politics, you get grid lock.”  “A lot of us have to put aside ideology, and be pragmatic, to urgently fix the problems that the nation faces.”  “All of our problems can be solve if people want to solve them.”   We need more elected officials, from both parties, with the admirable, and critical, view of legislating that Senator Feinstein embodies.  The sentiment was best described in her introduction by former Speaker of the California State Assembly, Bob Hertzberg, “the Senator is often the only adult in a room full of legislators.” www.PPIC.org www.townhall-la.org www.feinstein.senate.gov