Hurricane Sandy ravaged the Eastern coastline this past Saturday, leaving a path of destruction that consisted of millions of power outages, destroyed homes, and even caused a few deaths.

However, in even the most trying times of crisis, Americans can take a little hope out of the destruction that ‘Superstorm Sandy’ caused: Compromise between two political parties, in America, is possible.

President Barack Obama toured New Jersey with Republican Governor Chris Christie, prompting Christie to say, “I cannot thank the president enough for his personal concern and compassion for our state and the people of our state”. In a time in which it has been impressively hard to find one instance in which Republicans and Democrats can agree on an issue, Christie supported Obama. When asked why he supported the president, Christie responded that in a time of crisis it is unnecessary to play politics, that people deserved to see the country’s leaders unite, even though it was only five days before the election.

The reason that this is such a story is not the fact that a member of one party supported a member of the opposing party; it is the fact that this story is so shocking to the American populace. Americans should not jump out of their seats and scream, “Apocalypse,” or rather, “The Millennium has arrived”; they should see the American government system working to help the American people in the interests of most, if not all, people.

This spirit of compromise has been lost in the last five years, especially throughout the Obama administration. The filibuster, a practice that has been used in history in only the most critical of situations, has been used repeatedly in order to block legislation. The main perpetrator of the once-oft-used-filibuster has been the Republican Party, attempting to block legislation from the Dream Act to various stimulus packages. When a “SuperComittee” was created to come up with a bipartisan solution to resolve the American debt crisis, they could not do it, even with a deadline that would mean significant budget cuts to various programs that neither party wanted.

Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney has run thousands upon thousands of television ads about the ‘failed policies’ of Barack Obama and how the president has not done enough to lower the unemployment rate or create more jobs. However, voters should take a quick look at their Congress’ approval rating, which reached an all-time low in April of 2012 and now resides at about a putrid 21 % heading into Election Day. This has largely been attributed to the aforementioned filibuster and lack of bipartisan cooperation, namely from the Republican side.

In essence, a voter should be voting for the candidate that they believe will get the country back on track; the voters have been fed this message for over six months now. If we have learned anything from the last four years, it has not been that the president has succeeded or failed, it should be that the Republican party, and the radical, tea-party politicians inside the coalition, have not been able to do anything to help the American people recover from the ‘Great Recession’. Republicans have instead signed the Grover Norquist pledge, promising not to raise taxes no matter what—a policy that was used in the creation of the Iraq War, which was the first war ever in which taxes were not raised. The Iraq War bankrupted the rainy day fund in Social Security, prompting many Republicans to lament that Obama has made social security unsustainable, an outrageous claim. Republicans cannot hope to be promoting compromise if they take such a firm stand against raising taxes, a centerpiece of Obama’s economic recovery plan.

Voters should vote Democrat in this election; they should vote for the President. People should ignore the rhetoric that has gone on between the campaigns, one promising this and meaning something else, and one saying something and it not being true. Some people may throw their support with trickle-down economics and swear to the Bible that it works, and if they truly believe that is the answer and the only answer, then they should vote for Mitt Romney.

But if the American people can open their minds and realize that there are two sides to every argument, and that it takes a combination of two policies, two ideals, to get something done, then people should vote for the politicians who have tried to compromise, who have tried to institute change for the American people—Democrats.

Now that is certainly not saying that all Democrats will be willing to compromise on all issues and that all Republicans are stubborn pigs who refuse to work with any Democratic policy. Obama’s policies have still been too weak to do much reformation in the top-down economic system that oppresses the lower middle and poorer classes of America and to repeal and denounce the Bush Doctrine. Democrats have certainly not done enough to help America change.

Nevertheless, if the last four years have been any indicator, it is that Republicans do not want to and will not compromise. Similarly, to FDR, Obama has received criticism from both parties, but FDR was able to pass his New Deals and bring America back from fiscal decadence. One of the main differences between the two administrations? FDR had a supermajority in the Senate and still instituted economic reform policies for big corporations and banks, while Obama must deal with a Senate that is prone to the filibuster and refuses to help.

If history is any indicator, then compromise is key. It will take both idea’s of Republicans and Democrats to fix America, and the party most likely to compromise at the moment is the Democratic party, and the current President of the United States—Barack Obama.

Obviously, no one wants the destruction of Hurricane Sandy to repeat itself; however, I am sure that America wants the compromise to continue.