If you read one political link of mine this year...

[yesthattom]

We Can’t Wait for Bipartisan Solutions:
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2007/8/7/221810/4901
My favorite part:

Senator Biden, please look around, and realize that the solutions to our nation’s woes, the answers to our challenges, aren’t bipartisan. The involvement of people looking for solutions and to meet our challenges could eventually be bipartisan, but current evidence suggest otherwise. No more than four House Republicans have voted for any of the most meaningful pieces of legislation dealing with Iraq. Only four Republicans have joined the Senate Democrats on Iraq. The Republican Study Group in the House engages in delaying tactics almost every day; to see one reason why the House—which has passed significant legislation—isn’t doing more, look at how many bullshit procedural votes the Republican offered last week. In the Senate, the Republicans continue to use the filibuster and cloture votes to bottle up almost everything the Democrats try to accomplish. The Republicans go along with just about everything Bush and Cheney shove down our nation’s throat.

And unfortunately, a consistent minority of Democrats buckle under and accept what Bush and the Republicans shove down our throats.

Comments

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Heh. Between your exceprt and my long excerpt last night, I think we've got almost the whole piece, with no overlap.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

I read it on my Treo while on the train to work and immediately thought I should blog it. Then a little while later I saw it on your LJ and thought, "damn, he beat me to it!"

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

Are you reading Daily Kos theses days? So many have given up because it flows by so quickly. (old joke: Nobody goes there anymore, it's too crowded. Was that the Marx Brothers?)

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

So what you're saying is that because they have screwed the country and ignored the 50% of Americans who disagree with them, we should do the exact same thing when our people are in power? That seems a bit Tit-for-Tat.

Bipartisanship doesn't mean working with the Republican leadership. It means working with those Republicans who do want what's best for our country and who are willing to work with us. It means listening to their views, and the views of the 50% of Americans that regularly votes for them and coming up with policies that a majority of Americans support. That's what Biden is talking about. Remember, when the Republicans controlled everything, it was the Democrats who "continue to use the filibuster and cloture votes to bottle up almost everything the [Republicans] try to accomplish".

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

I don't think so. Biden is talking about seeking consensus among Washington insiders, ignoring the fact that over the course of his career the world has changed so that too many Republican insiders think acting in good faith is unmanly and unnecessary.

[fengshui.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. I don't know Biden too well. However, that doesn't mean we should be as bad as they are. There are Republican insiders and outsiders who do act in good faith. We should work with them, if they're willing.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

The Republicans have demonstrated that their distorted view of reality has gotten so extreme that they can no longer competently govern. Coming up with "compromise solutions" only results in taking a potentially good solution and tainting it.

More importantly, this article is yet another one demonstrating that the DLC strategy doesn't work in today's environment. Politics is war fought without guns. By going to battle with knives against people with nukes, you are dooming yourself to fail. The article's statistics show that in today's environment, being partisan wins new voters and elections.

[yesthattom.livejournal.com]

It's not saying to be antagonistic, it's saying to stand up for what we believe in and voters will support us. We have excellent plans; communicate them! Don't wimp out.

Imagine the opposite: Would you recommend that Republicans try to get votes by promising to vote with the Democrats in congress?

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> There are Republican insiders and outsiders who do act in good faith. We should work with them, if they're willing.

No, the point of the article is that there are no longer Republicans that act in good faith. They've all be squeezed out; so we have to stop pretending that they exist.

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You made a point about working for "what's best for our country". Both sides want what's best for the county. The problem is that each side has a very different method to get there. Thus, you can't merge them without getting a plan that won't work. I believe, however, that while Republicans want what's best for the country, their methodology is wrong-minded, hurtful, and doesn't work. (They've proved that over the last 30 years.). What's worse is that in the last 6 years Republicans have demonstrated that their distorted view of reality has gotten so extreme that they can no longer competently govern.

[barking-iguana.livejournal.com]

> No, the point of the article is that there are no longer Republicans that act in good faith. They've all be squeezed out; so we have to stop pretending that they exist.

I think fengshui's right, there. They haven't all been squeezed out, they're just not in charge. And someof the ones most inclinced to act in good faith aren't moderates, but people we'd disagree with at three quarters of the time, but not on basic issues of the functioning of democracy. Richard Lugar is a good example of that.