A presidency that works in partnership with a Congress embracing its role as the strong first branch of government might not only make better laws, but will keep the country from turning to more violent options, as Ronald Reagan pointed out at a tribute to Tip O’Neill in 1986: “The fact of our friendship is testimony to the political system that we’re part of and the country we live in, a country which permits two not-so-shy and not-so-retiring Irishmen to have it out on the issues rather than on each other or their countrymen.”
