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What President Barack Obama needs now is a very thick olive branch. For the next two years, Obama will likely resort to a little-used strategy to manage the Republican take-over of Congress: the art of compromise.

Now that Republicans control the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate, Obama is already planning to meet with incoming GOP Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) over a glass of Kentucky Bourbon.

But it may take more than few shots of whiskey to bring Obama and McConnell to a political consensus on a range of critical issues. In Washington, “compromise” is such an ugly word. So here’s what a political gulf sounds like in the nation’s capital.

“Congress will pass some bills I cannot sign. I’m pretty sure I’ll take some actions that some in Congress will not like. That’s natural. That’s how our democracy works,” Obama said at a news conference Wednesday after a nationwide GOP beatdown.

“I don’t believe a thing he says,” Reince Priebus, Chairman of the Republican National Committee, said Wednesday.

Many Republicans have no desire to work with Obama. They haven’t partnered with the president for the past six years and they probably won’t work with him tomorrow. I listened carefully to some Black folks who accused Rep. Marcia Fudge of being an alarmist.

Fudge, a Democrat from Ohio and chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, urged black voters to turn out strong to prevent the Republican control of the U.S. Senate. But they didn’t.

Two-thirds of the American public didn’t vote Tuesday, many of them African-Americans, citizens of color and young people. In Ohio’s Cuyahoga and Hamilton counties — the counties with the largest black populations — turnout was down 21% and 19%, respectively.

Some Black voters thought Fudge was running around screaming “the sky is falling” – but she was absolutely right: The sky did fall and it crushed Democrats all over the country.

Obama lost more Democratic seats in Congress (about 70) than any president in either party since WWII. But what does this stunning Republican landslide mean for African-Americans? Fudge says the GOP plans to cut domestic spending for health care, education and social service programs while also cutting minimum wage and rolling back Social Security.

Does President Obama Need An Olive Branch Or A Switch After Midterm Defeats?  was originally published on blackamericaweb.com

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