Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid built a foundation on his intentions to "reach across party lines" and bring successful bipartisanship into a divided Washington political culture.
The thought of someone willing to bring the two major parties together and institute cooperation among them was too attractive for the American people to pass up.
Although Obama has successfully delivered on this promise in practice, it has not yielded the results anyone wanted.
Instead of boosting America forward with great legislative compromise, it has unfortunately stagnated Congress and led to a frustrating period of inaction.
Big agenda items such as health care reform remain on life support. Bipartisanship is threatening to pull the plug. The Republican Party has adjusted to its new role as the party of "no" due to its constant threat of filibustering any agenda item not meeting their every want.
Yet Obama still pushes for bipartisan Republican support. He needs to give up on them.
Bipartisanship, at its core, is a great method of uniting two conflicting groups. At its practice in the present day, however, it is hurting our country.
The constant pursuance of it by the Obama administration has resulted in nothing more than wasted time, vexation and the draining of American morale.
For bipartisanship to work, both parties must be willing to cooperate with each other, and this is where the Obama plan falls apart.
For example, a bill was recently introduced to Congress that would create a deficit task force to police and help control it. It garnered the co-sponsorship of numerous senators, including six Republicans.
The piece of legislation was introduced to Obama, who thought it seemed like a good idea and endorsed it. Once Republicans caught wind of this happening, the six particular ones mentioned removed their co-sponsorship.
Instead of working to improve the country, these representatives were merely out to score political points.
The bill failed to get the votes needed to pass.
The Republicans claim to want to reach across the aisle when confronted by the president or the media, but their actions speak louder than their words.
With organizations such as the Tea Party Movement, more or less a part of the Republican Party, spreading lies and hateful rhetoric about the president proves their actions contradict what they say.
This type of political tomfoolery is exactly why there is so much inaction and wasted time in Washington when real problems need solved.
Republicans may seem like they are the only ones to blame for the lack of problem solving in Congress, but Democrats are also to blame.
When Republicans force filibusters for anything they see unfit, this requires a supermajority vote of 60 to overturn, a number Democrats had for quite some time in the Senate.
The Republican base in congress can normally decide to vote unanimously against something and filibuster it, but Democrats are so diverse that they can’t decide on anything.
With blue dogs wanting special incentives to gain votes and the bleeding-heart liberals wanting to exile the blue dogs, the entire political process in Washington for the Democrats is an absolute mess.
Despite George W. Bush being a lame duck president, his disregard for bipartisanship led to him being able to push a lot of his agenda while he was in office – such as the Bush tax cuts.
Some of his policies worked against the well-being of the country, the principle still remains that he was able to advance his agenda without much help of the Democratic Party.
In today’s political arena, it seems evident Republicans don’t want anything to do with bipartisanship as long as the current president holds the office.
Because of this, the bipartisan dream is merely that – a dream.
Obama needs to rally his own party now before he brings the two bickering parties together if he hopes to deliver on his message of hope and change in America.
7 comments
And yes I did understand your post, I was pointing out that you were wrong.
The democrats probably do spread lies and hateful rhetoric, but that wasn't the issue. Sure it wasn't mentioned but you have failed to acknowledge that Tea Party people do spread hateful rhetoric and lies.
You first say that the tea party people dont use those things, then reverse that by saying that they might but democrats do too. Sure they do, everyone does. Democrats are just as guilty as anyone, but the difference is that the tea party is vocally and visually perpetuating these things
do you not understand the article?
First of all Obama does push for bipartisanism, the democrats in congress are the ones screwing things up for him. The whole reason healthcare reform is failing is because he's piddled with republicans instead of just uniting democrats.The point was not that democrats voted against the particular bill, it was that 6 REPUBLICANS WITHDREW THEIR SUPPORT BECAUSE OBAMA SUPPORTED IT.
that shows they clearly don't want to work with dems.
And what lies and hateful rhetoric from tea partiers, are you serious? just look at their signs, comparisons of obama to hitler regardless of your political beliefs is just wrong.
the author of this article could have gone into some deeper explanation granted but still you're wrong