You’ve seen them; we’ve all seen them: the headlines found on the front pages every media source on the Internet, splashed across ink and paper newspapers; uttered from the mouths of pundits, the words of bloggers, even the commenters commenting on all the above: CAVED. Anybody who’s had anything to do with negotiating, debating, giving/taking, coming to necessary accommodations towards the goal of progress has…CAVED.

Surrendered. Yielded, collapsed, squandered, crumbled.

Question: when did the fine art of compromise, the reasoned maturity of coming to terms with opposing sides, suddenly devolve into the realm of the weak? When did we get so presumptuous, become so politically…pissy?