The number of ActiveRain political rants available for reading lately has increased as the Senate got closer to the 60 votes needed to move health care reform along to debate.

While I'm not one to compare one profession to a totally different profession, I think a comparison of what has gone on in the Senate is very similar to being a Realtor.

I'm not the biggest of history buffs unless there is a good scandal involved — sex, greed, murder, etc. — but it seems to me that when there are two parties involved — Republicans and Democrats, Tiger and Elin, Buyer and Seller — one can stand on principle and never seen anything accomplished, or one can negotiate and compromise. There have been negotiations and compromises in politics for many thousands of years. Sometimes those negotiations and compromises are illegal — California's Randy Cunningham and Chicago's Rod Blagoyevich being the most recent. For other "shady" deals, read about any president in history and you'll find lots of shady deals, depending on which side of the bed you sleep. 

President Obama promised us a transparent administration, but I'm pretty sure we don't want 100% transparency. We might wonder how we've made it for 233 years.

Is negotiating and compromising really a sell-out? A disservice to one's constitutents, whether they be many or just a buyer or seller? No one can get anything accomplished by being a party of one, regardless of one's principles. A preacher needs a congregation. Politicians need constituents. Realtors need buyers and sellers. I'm sure we all know about the real estate deal gone bad because of the principles of the Buyer or Seller when some backroom, nighttime negotiations and compromises might have reached a deal that everyone could live with.

So before you summarily dismiss the work your local representatives are doing "for the good of the nation," look at the complete picture. Your legistlative representatives are trying to do the best they can by looking at the complete picture, just like we as Realtors try to get our buyers and sellers to do. While we might not agree with everything the politicians do — and that might be an understatement — just reading the blogs here at ActiveRain indicates that we don't always agree with the things other Realtors do yet we only have one or two people to keep happy during any specific negotiation. Each state has two Senators, so each of California's two Senators are trying to represent about 18 million people. I suspect there are going to be a few who are unhappy.

There will always be wars, but in America those wars take many different forms — real wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, culture wars with gay marriage, religious wars to see whose God is bigger and badder, and the centuries-old war between the Democrats and Republicans.

"Sometimes the needs of the many must outweigh the needs of the few." I forget who said that but I hear it way too often in my household. Remember that what goes around comes around, so if Health Care Reform is passed, and the nation doesn't like it, they can vote new people in office who have the legislative power to overturn things by passing new legislation.

I can't believe I think I just wrote a post defending politicians. I must be sick. Maybe I'll go do an Open House. Get my sanity back. Yea, that will do it.

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