In Defense of Partisanship

Digby:

This flawed [two-party] system hums along most of the time fairly well, but in times of crisis it depends upon the good will of the minority to stop using its built in extraordinary powers to obstruct and join with the majority to solve the problem, whether its war or depression or, conceivably, environmental catastrophe. Unfortunately, we are dealing with a rump, regional minority party today which does not believe in compromise under any circumstances.

…Republicans believe that until Democrats sign on to their ideology, openly and without any deviation, they must stop them, no matter what the consequences. When they are in the majority, they dominate without apology and when they are in the minority, they throw themselves into the machinery to obstruct anything that isn't part of their agenda. They are perfectly willing to destroy the country.

I don't think Obama gets this. In fact, I think he actively disagrees with it. And it has always been one of my biggest problems with him: "Obama positions himself as transcending the ugliness of partisanship, but I like knowing that Edwards and Clinton hate the goddamned Republicans as much as I do. I love it when Edwards gets into his zone and talks about corporate greed with fury at the anti-American fatcats seething so clearly just below the surface. I love it when Clinton talks about the GOP through gritted teeth and hides a snarl behind a smile when the name Bush passes her lips. I trust that. And I trust it because I can't imagine anyone who believes the things I do isn't that. fucking. angry. at the Republicans at this point."

I agree with BTD that it's time for "bold, persistent experimentation." (Like I just said earlier, I'm not the first progressive to suggest that Theodore ain't the Roosevelt Obama needs to emulate right now.) What is the point of bipartisanship with a party which seeks to fix things by destroying them? What is the wisdom of bipartisanship with a party which cannot distinguish, or will not, between a qualified strategist and a campaign prop? Bipartisanship with the Republicans, right now, it not merely galling, but also foolish.

The only people who are going to whine about sour grapes for rejecting the input of a party that brought the country to its knees in eight years are a bunch of dirty obstructionists for whom politics is nothing but a game, who treat voting records like scorecards and sneer at people who passionately care, admonishing them to get a life because they cannot contemplate an existence in which their policies really matter, beyond a balance sheet. There's no reason to care what these people think. None. They are anathema to everything this country needs right now.

A majority of voters has been smart enough to recognize that. I wish our president would get on board.