This is typical of what we are dealing with in this country...

[Ike Bana]

Statesmanship vs. politics. "Good politics makes good government", something we used to hear in Chicago back in the Daley days (old man Daley and also his son).

Has there ever been "good politics" here in Chicago? Has there ever been "good politics" in this country? Bad politics goes way back, here in the good old USA. Back in the 1840's there were already two generations of "native born" Americans. And of course, as our species is noted for, hostility toward "the other" reared it's ugly head with the politics of the nativist "know-nothings."

And then there's the founding and the Constitution, which was developed and ratified without the issue of slavery being addressed. So I'm going with...no...statesmanship is absent from American government...and absent right out of the gate.