BipartisanShip Is BS
A wise friend, named Angie, taught me that in relationships, if you attempt to reach 50/50 all the time, somebody is guaranteed to be ticked off half the time. Truth! To be at your best, in a relationship, there will be some 70/30, 60/40, 80/20, 100/0 situations, too — and, that is AOK. As long as you are not compromising your value(s) or sacrificing something of utmost importance to you, you will be alright.
Some politicians & political pundits talk about how conciliatory the great leaders of the past were, as they complain that President Biden & House Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, won’t reach across the aisle enough. Folks “remind us” of selective moments in history where lions laid with lambs. They reminisce about how Dem. House Speaker, Tip O’Neil, and President Reagan found common ground. Folk keep using blasts from political pasts to criticize the first 100 days of President Joe Biden & V.P. Kamala Harris. Oh, the rants….
“Biden ran with a promise to work across the aisle, but he’s not doing it!”
“Biden’s bypassing Congress by pushing through all these executive orders!”
“BIden’s ignoring us!”
What type of selective recall potion have “they” conjured up and drank, en masse, in the Fox News green room party at CPAC? What silly juice is being served in Mar-A-Lago punch bowls? Sadly, many of the same folk, who were in office, when President Barack Obama was accused of heresy for wearing a tan suit (Petty today. Petty tomorrow. Petty forever!) are still holding public office — although, now in the minority seat. Those who said that they would work to make President Obama a one-term President, are still pushing division. MINORITY leader, Mitch McConnel, clearly saw bipartisanship as only mattering if D’s voted with R’s. Private citizen — and new critic of Cult45, John Boehner, was determined to be a thorn, not a rose, to President Obama. There was no working across the aisle for these two, who feared a successful dem president.
Partisan today. Partisan tomorrow. Partisan forever!
That’s been the GOP mantra since they promised Reagan’s prosperity pledge would trickle down to the 98% of us. Yep, that strategy — regurgitated in the last administration and used to criticized Biden’s rescue plans — makes up the REAL fake news.
GOP are red chameleons, meaning, they stick to their core party line votes, no matter how splintered they claim to be. Family Values. Freedom Caucus. Tea Party. Anglo-Saxon. They may protest their peers. They may morph into separate caucuses, to appease the semi-coherent constituents. Yet, they ultimately retreat to their R on election days — especially if a seat in Congress is on the line. They may, occasionally, feign condemnation, but too often select Red in the voting booth. Nevermind the lies, the sedition, the proven corruption, where their choice for president freely passed out get out of jail free cards to those who pledged loyalty to him over America.
So, the GOP will complain how Joe Biden & Vice President Kamala Harris won’t bend to keep them happy. Truth is, they don’t need to find common ground and work to collaborate with Republicans. Not Republicans who side with sedition, racism, lies and much too much nonsense. In fact, if our votes aren’t suppressed, the Biden administration should have more, competent representatives in future Congresses.
The New Administration has taken far bolder steps towards making America better — even while grappling with a cult. GOP’s first actions, in the last administration, included paying off those who bought votes, with an unwarranted tax break. There is a bizarre belief that the last administration was all that it has been proven NOT to be.
The GOP appear happy to embrace their extreme wings, if it gets them votes. Democrats must not compromise with those who are evil-adjacent.
If there is to be any aisle-crossing, Republicans need to condemn ALL aspects of racism, sedition, voter disenfranchisement & myriad disinformation campaigns at federal, state & local levels, orchestrated within their party.
There is no common ground with a racist faction of a party that attempts to label racial equity & Martin Luther King, Jr. as racist. Those celebrating white supremacist values, and who 45 has emboldened, are rallying against against truth, democracy and racial equity.
There is no meet in the middle when folk like Marjorie Taylor Greene are in your party, freely spreads lies & conspiracy theories like whipped butter on warm toast. You cannot align when someone on your side, like Louisiana state Rep. Ray Garofalo Jr. (R), suggests there is “good in slavery”. And, there is absolutely no common ground in a party that attempts to sugar coat sedition and the insurrectionists who helped made it happen.
See, while imperfect, there are aspirational goals that undergird this nation. Times have surely changed since the signing of the U.S. Constitution. Those goals have been amended to be far more inclusive than what was imagined by the original framers. But, to think it is ok to revert or undo some parts that you don’t like because they don’t help your party won’t fly. Trump & others are not fit for this nation.
Tiffany D. Cross, an astute journalist and host of The Cross-Connect, once posed the definitive question:
“How do I meet a bigot in the middle?”
The answer is, “You don’t. You are a bigot OR you’re not.” No one can credibly say, “I disagree with her racism, but she makes some good points.” You lose me if you embrace racism, bigotry, sedition, anti-Democratic practices, voter suppression & hate. There is no “good side” to any of that. There is no compromise to any of that. And, the lies, oh, the lies. You don’t hear lies, like we’ve all heard, and think there is room for compromise. Reps. Liz Cheney & Sens. Lisa Murkowski, Susan Collins & Mitt Romney and the others, have made this bizarro bed, by compromising their values to think that a pathological liar will suddenly redeem himself. They saw him willfully violate rules of law, and held their noses to support him. They made the bed, but, Biden & team don’t need to lie in it.
