The Week's Common Ground
It was a loud week. Here are four places where Americans on the left and the right actually agreed.
The Overview
The facts, straight
Every Sunday we look back at the week and ask a simple question: where did the two sides agree? This week, more often than the feeds would suggest.
What the Left Says
The progressive and Democratic case
Courage is courage. After the shooting at Silver Rail Elementary in Bend, Ore., Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (@GovTinaKotek), a Democrat, praised "the community member who heroically intervened to stop further loss of life" in her Oct. 15 statement. Police said the next day that a teacher threw her phone at the gunman, tackled him and fought with him before a parent, Kaylub Giamanco, a father of two Silver Rail students, shot the gunman, AP reported. Bend Police Chief Mike Krantz said the teacher "almost certainly helped prevent more bloodshed," as quoted by the BBC. Nobody on any side argued with that.
Write the bill before you promise the check. Critics of the $5,000 "Trump dividend" want to know how a roughly $1.2 trillion idea gets paid for, and on this point Speaker Mike Johnson (@SpeakerJohnson) agrees with them at least partway: he has acknowledged Congress would need to pass a bill, Yahoo Finance reported.
Where Reality Likely Sits
Radio Purple's analysis
The arguments will keep coming. But the week's common ground was real: honor courage, keep talking, read the bill, and respect the institutions. That's not a bad start for Monday.
Where did you find common ground this week? Tell us.
What the Right Says
The conservative and Republican case
Keep talking. Erika Kirk (@MrsErikaKirk), who leads Turning Point USA, wrote that "we need more dialogue, not less." Free-speech advocates such as the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression have made the same case about firings over online posts.
Let the justice decide. Justice Samuel Alito said he will serve through this term, Politico reported. Whatever they think of him, most people can agree a justice's tenure shouldn't be settled by pressure campaigns from either side.