Do you have those friends where you kind of knew their marriage was in rough shape, but they were always good at hiding their fights from everybody? But then the unthinkable happened & they start blowing up in front of everyone.

As a counselor that is how I always know a divorce is on the horizon because when two people don’t care about who sees how bad things are then there really isn’t much left to save. It is sad when it happens but that is just how marriages work.

But what do we do when that marriage isn’t between two people but rather two political parties?

What do we do when divorce isn’t an option?

This is a scenario that has been haunting me for the past several years and unfortunately my worst fears came true yesterday. We have officially jumped the shark as a country Putting America On The Couch: “Mom & Dad Are Fighting Again” when Chuck and Nancy decided to take what was supposed to be a bi-partisan infrastructure meeting and instead used it to tell Trump he is a criminal.

Of course, that went over well & Trump did, well what Trump does.

Trump scrapped the meeting after 3 minutes and threw a temper tantrum in front of the press declaring that there will be no legislation until congress stops investigating him. Or what we would say is the equivalent of taking his ball and leaving until someone apologizes to him.

Great! Mom and Dad are fighting in plain sight of everyone and we can’t exactly find a lawyer to evenly divorce a country can we?

Nope! But we can find a counselor to bring them back together and I just happen to be “America’s Counselor” so we are all in luck.

So, counselor what is your advice for this couple?

Well first, you guys need to remember that you have these jobs to do what is best for the country…the children. This job is not for you, your party, or your brand so put aside your own emotions for once and do what is best for the country.

Good!

Now that we have that out of the way, you guys need to get off your butts and get back into a meeting where you are only going to talk about infrastructure. I don’t care if the press or some adviser tells you to use this opportunity to score political points.

YOU ONLY TALK ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE! APOLOGIZE FOR MISUSING THE MEETING FOR POLITICS AND ONLY TALK ABOUT INFRASTRUCTURE!

Lastly, do something that is almost unheard of in DC…make a deal!

You both want the same damn thing and you both have leverage against each other so make a deal! If warring mafia crime families and competing businesses can make a deal, then you guys can.

If you don’t then you are making a conscious effort to make decisions that only benefit you which comes at the direct expense of what is best for the country. You are literally driving the country off the edge of a cliff with the kids crying in the back seat.

I know emotions get the best of us and as much as I would like to be pulled into the rhetoric and think you are both evil people who only care about power, I think you both care and your emotions are distracting you from what is important. If you develop mutual trust and respect for one another then maybe we can step away from the cliff and realize that differing opinions are not just cause to go to war.

It’s just a marriage and like every marriage, we are going through a rough patch, but the counselor has this covered!