Let us not seek the Republican answer or the Democratic answer, but the right answer. Let us not seek to fix the blame for the past. Let us accept our own responsibility for the future.

Stop keeping score, start fixing things

We live in a world obsessed with sides. Your side versus their side, with victory meaning the other guy admits defeat. But Kennedy's point cuts deeper than politics—it's about how we actually solve problems. When we're too invested in proving we were right or they were wrong, we stop looking at what actually works. We get stuck defending positions instead of finding solutions.

The trickier part is that accepting responsibility for the future sounds noble in theory but feels genuinely hard in practice. It means not waiting for permission or for someone else to move first. It means if something is broken, you're partly responsible for fixing it, even if you didn't break it. That's uncomfortable. It's easier to diagnose whose fault things are than to ask what you can actually do about it right now.

What makes this still radical is how it applies to everyday disagreements—with partners, colleagues, family. The moment you stop collecting evidence that you were right and start asking "what do we both want to happen next," the conversation completely changes. The answer might look nothing like what either side predicted it would.