I used to have a business class teacher who frequently told us, "A partnership is a sinking ship." He was convinced that partnerships in the business world did not work out in the end. He didn't ascribe to another common theory that one should either "love your partner or buy him out." If you happened to have no choice but to go into business with a partner, he said you should work as quickly as possible towards the goal of buying your partner out. Partnerships always ended in disagreement with partners going their separate way after a long and costly legal battle that hurt the business, destroyed personal relationships, and only enriched the attorneys.
We're supposed to have a partnership in Congress too, but that doesn't seem to be working out too well. This morning I happened to hear Charles Osgood on the news station I listen to on the way to work. The Osgood File segment started out with the following:
If anybody thought President Obama was going to twist Democrats' arms to get them to make the close to 900 billion dollar stimulus bill less costly and more bipartisan, they were sadly mistaken.
In Williamsburg, Virginia, Mr. Obama did exactly the opposite, encouraging Democrats to do more of what they've been doing --- that's what the election was all about, he said.
"They didn't vote for the status quo. They sent us here to bring change. We owe it to them to deliver. We can't embrace the losing formula that says only tax cuts will work for every problem we face..."
Meanwhile, in the latest CBS News-New York Times Poll, when asked...
"What's the best way to end recession --- more government spending, or tax cuts for business --- by a margin of 59 percent to 22 percent, Americans say it's tax cuts."
Osgood bemoans the absence of bipartisanship and lays the blame on Obama. He also conveniently neglects to mention another finding from the poll - 81 percent of the Amereican public disagrees with him. The same poll essentially contradicts the entire basis of his story. According to CBS, the poll found the following:
Americans believe the president is following through on his promise to establish greater bipartisanship in Washington: The public overwhelmingly thinks Obama is reaching out to Congressional Republicans, with 81 percent saying he is doing so.
The results of the poll can be seen here. Now why would 81 percent of Americans polled think Obama is following through on his promise to establish greater bipartisanship if he was not urging Democrats to make concessions, concessions which have already been made, in the stimulus bill? Apparently the days Obama spent before the inauguration talking with members of Congress about the stimulus bill, his visit to Republican House leaders on Capitol Hill, and all of the concessions made in the original bill to Republican demands are not examples of bipartisanship according to Osgood. Bipartisanship must mean something different in Republican speak.
For Republicans, bipartisanship means getting Democrats to cave to all of their demands. It means pressuring Democrats to agree to ideas that go against their principles and that ignore the will of the people who elected them. It means allowing Republicans to dictate terms. Arm-twisting is not Obama's style. He assumes that the people elected to Congress are intelligent and wish to serve the public. They do not need to be coerced to do their duty. They should be anxious to serve the public. Arm-twisting and threats are negotiating skills that are more appropriate for the Mafia, but perhaps Republicans are not all that different from a crime family. Obama has been trying to reason with Republicans and not having much success, perhaps because Republicans don't understand how civilized people resolve their differences. Republicans seem to have a pack mentality in which individual thought is discouraged and seen as disloyalty to the pack. The pack understands only what is good for the pack. It's hard to get bipartisanship to work under these circumstances and Obama is understandably upset with the lack of progress on a bill as important as the stimulus package.
When John Boehner made the following statement after all of the House Republicans voted against the stimulus bill:
The vote last night sent a clear, powerful, and bipartisan message to Congressional Democratic leaders about the current version of the economic "stimulus" package: the American people deserve better. The current product isn't good enough.
you can be assured that the pursuit of bipartisanship is a lost cause. Republicans apparently understand bipartisanship to have the exact opposite meaning and are proud of their obstructive behavior. It is now time to abandon any bipartisan efforts and to focus on the people's work. We cannot spend any more time trying to reason with those who are unwilling to listen. So before this ship goes under, it's time to abandon bipartisanship.