RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL – (Opinion) I can’t remember who first voiced this insight: ‘bipartisanship’ is not just about agreement among the political parties in a country’s legislature. It should really be about agreement among the nation’s citizens.
They may personally hold hugely different general partisan political views, but can join together on specific issues. Who, for example, could be partisan against celebrating the 4th of July, our national Independence Day, a time for post-pandemic parties, picnics, and fireworks?
One wonders if our elected representatives, those folks who mainly hang out in the nation’s Capital have any understanding of this.
Based on recent performance, the US Congress has proven unable to come to a bipartisan view on whether to investigate the January 6th attack on their own Capitol, despite the large bipartisan majority of the population calling for that investigation. But that’s just the pimple, not the acne.
Since its inception eleven years ago in 2010, the Republicans in the US Congress have been trying to bury the Affordable Care Act, imaginatively nicknamed ‘Obamacare’. In the latest national opinion poll, a record-high 62% of voters support it, including 85% of Democrats and 36% of Republicans. That looks like real bipartisanship to me.
But the partisan Republicans can’t give up their unending fight against it even after three Supreme Court cases have ruled in its favor. Even if 23 million enrollees value it, what better partisan reason to want to strike it from the books than that it was signed into law by a black Democratic president?
While the entire Republican contingent in Congress and the Senate has been crying “crisis” about the nation’s current economic situation, the Consumer Comfort Index, a polling measure of Americans’ confidence in the economy, recently hit its highest level since before the pandemic.
It should be possible to bask in the “post-pandemic joy”, as some observers have labeled the current economic climate, with no bipartisan belief in an economic crisis. But listen to Fox News and the GOP partisan legislators and you would think another great depression is just over the horizon.
There is obviously a yawning disconnect here. Unless this gringo is crazy, all this indicates a serious gap between ‘the will of the people’ and the actions of the representatives they elected to look after their interests. That displays a dangerous fissure in the foundations of democracy. And it is becoming more and more serious.
It was a very hopeful sign when President Biden and a gaggle of bipartisan legislators emerged smiling from the White House last week to announce “bipartisan agreement” on a pared-down 1.2 trillion dollar infrastructure plan that would make a start on Biden’s top legislative priority and add believability to his stated desire that to ‘reach across the political aisle’ is not impossible.
The ‘draft’ agreement is the result of weeks of “you give me this” and “I’ll give you that” closed-door horse-trading between the partisans who share the common view of the desperately overdue infrastructure investments that are needed throughout the nation.
Roadways must be kept functional and improved, ports must be modernized, bridges like the pedestrian one that collapsed onto a busy Washington, DC highway last week, must be kept from falling, airports need major improvement and modern internet service needs to be made available throughout the nation, not just in cities and industrial areas.
However hard-earned those Rose Garden smiles and thumbs up, they still need to be converted into specific legislation that can overcome partisan differences. It’s a good start but It’s by no means a done deal or an easy path forward. All these positive feelings may disappear into one of those absurd and fantastic rabbit holes so prevalent in D.C.
As the ‘NY Times’ reminds us: “insisting on bipartisanship — given the major policy divide between the parties on economic recovery, tax reform, climate change, and health care — usually guarantees gridlock (which promotes voter cynicism) or actions that are watered down and ineffective (which are condemned by everyone, right and left).” Add to this the partisan battles over voting rights and the landscape has the look of a Civil War battlefield.
Perhaps I’m being too optimistic, hoping that the often bipartisan will of the public will make a positive impression on the legislators. The long July Fourth holiday back in their home districts should be a good time for them to probe the true feelings of their constituents – those folks who voted for them last time and will be considering whether to vote for or against them next time around.
That’s something for them to think seriously about when they are back in Washington doing the people’s business.