Maybe, just maybe, a Clinton vs Trump race would allow Republicans (the more moderate ones anyway) and Democrats to rally behind the moderate, rational, and able Secretary Clinton.

This could happen (ok, maybe with a fair dose of magical thinking), and, if it did happen, it could have wide-ranging positive repercussions on politics, the economy, and our national and international security.

Indeed, politics is not, and has never been, about winning unilaterally. Secretary Clinton is a person willing to work with Republicans to move the country forward. It is quite exciting to think of all the things that we could accomplish with just a little bit of cooperation between our two major parties.

Note that this does not necessarily mean that only far-left ultra-liberal policies would get through, in fact, cooperation would have the opposite effect!

Indeed, Republican leaders feel that they’ve had no say in Obama’s policies, but that is mostly because those very same people vowed never to agree with Obama, and have kept that promise.

Here’s an example of how things could work if only there were a little more cooperation: Last week, the Obama administration signaled that, if the Republican congress were willing to consider, in earnest, a nominee to replace Justice Scalia, Obama would be willing to nominate someone that is closer to the right on the issues that matter most to Republicans.

This is how a country moves forward! This is how politics is done right!

You give a little, you get a little.

And Secretary Clinton has made it very clear that she is most interested in moving forward and getting things done. She could not be sending a message more clear to Republicans that she is willing to revive the great tradition of horse-trading that built our democracy in the first place.

But Republicans must participate, and maybe the specter of a Trump presidency is enough to get them to the proverbial table, because that is one frightening alternative…

So many Republicans, including Cruz, keep lamenting that Washington is broken, but he, and more generally the tea party, are the ones who broke it!

The dysfunction in Washington reached new heights when, the very day of Obama’s inauguration, leaders of the Republican party decided to categorically oppose everything that he would propose. This has been the Republican modus operandi since Obama’s first day in office, and clearly continues today, as evidenced by the Republican refusal to even entertain an Obama nominee to replace Justice Scalia.

It should be no surprise that the Republican base is disappointed with their leaders since they have expressly chosen to do nothing to such a point that Cruz even caused two government shutdowns, thus causing the entire government to do nothing.

Now Cruz and is compadres are clearly being repudiated by their party’s base for their inaction.

Indeed, one can say many things about Trump, but not that he is prone to inaction. This, in fact, is a very strong message: Republicans are telling their leaders that they would rather unite behind a man who promises grotesque falsehoods and de facto impossibilities, rather than subsidize more of this inaction.