Is it me…?
Note: Having just re-read this, I’d skip this post if I were you. If you like good blogging, read this Kavips post instead. Life is short.
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I get Nemski’s theory about being nice to Republicans means that Democrats want to “govern” and “get things done.”
I GET IT. Great theory.
The problem is that I’ve also been awake over the past 8 years, and I know that our nice Democrats are living in a dream world. What, exactly, gives these nice Democrats the impression that any Republicans (other than Mike Castle) would reciprocate and want to help any Democrat “govern” or get anything done?
Earth to Democratic Charlie Browns,
Lucy is never going to let you kick the football.
I see what you’re saying, Jason, but let me ask you this… If the Republicans (or Lieberman) revert to their old tricks who will the American people (who voted for unity) blame?
One of the reasons Obama got elected was his message of changing the tone. Voters liked what they heard, and rejected the politics of division. Politicians would be foolish to disregard this message.
Personally, Obama’s actions strike me as giving the opposition enough rope to either make a difference or hang themselves.
Will unity work in the end? Who knows, but I do think the benefit of the doubt will be given to the person who tried to work together.
Well said, Pandora!
If the Republicans (or Lieberman) revert to their old tricks who will the American people (who voted for unity) blame?
If?
We have a very close at hand example of how the next four years will play out in the Auto Industry bail out saga.
Being nice to Senate Republicans has done nothing but given them an election issue. It is the prism through which they look at EVERYTHING. Just as Burris if you don’t believe me.
I guess don’t trust voters to think through and apply reason and logic to why nothing happened over these next four years.
The trick about changing the tone is getting something done in the meantime. And, if you take a good look at the polling done right after the election (the ones that dispute that we’re a center-right nation), Americans very convincingly want this government to do something about a number of issues that Obama campaigned on.
He (and us) will be in a world of hurt if, in 4 years, we have nice shiny new tone, but absolutely nothing done.
And Jason is right — it isn’t a question if if, it is a question of when (and who sets the media narrative).
Okay… color me Nemski. 😉
Nemski-ites vs. the Bullshi-viks.
Cassandra and Jason can be our Anderson and Feroce. 😉
The thing is, when Republicans say they want to “end the partisan bickering,” what they really mean is that Democrats should vote for Republican bills, and harmony will rule the earth. Instead of bipartisanship, they want mypartisanship.
But when a Democratic bill is on the floor (just hypothetically, suppose Harry Reid is actually supporting a bill from the Democratic agenda) – then the Republicans will forget their pious pleas for bipartisanship, and the lockstep obstructionism and namecalling will begin. Because they really don’t know anything else.
The only things Castle would want to work with us on are coinage and stem cell research, and the latter Obama can accomplish with a single executive order.
For anything else, you’ll get his famous milquetoast maybe.
I think it’s the Republicans that need to change. Bipartisanship only works if you have two parties with ideas. One party with ideas and one party with discredited ideas won’t work. I think “change” was the message of the election and not “unity.”
Jason wrote that he remembers the last 8 years . . . . I remember further back and if you look at the start of the Clinton years, it was a cluster f. You can whine all you want about actual and imagined wrongs the Republicans did over the last 8 years, but let Steve Newton through the grenades towards the Democrats, not us. God, the Republicans reading this blog must enjoy watching Democrats self-destruct even before Obama becomes President.
imagined wrongs …?
Are you nuts? Sheesus. We’ve spent the past eight years trying to get Democrats to stand up for fuck sake. They did, and they won. Shocker!
Now you want us to assume the fetal position again so the the beatings can be resumed.
I don;t care what the Republicans think and I’m not calling for a jihad against DINOS. I’m calling for Democrats (at long last) to act like Demcorats.
I remember all of those years too — and apparently, what we are trying to return to is an era when we are thought well of and people like us but paying attention to what people voted you in for is never going to be as important as being well-liked.
The Steve Newtons of the world are not inclined to think well of Dems anyway, if anything because said Dems aren’t organized the way the Steve Newtons want. If in 4 years we can tick off a few accomplishments even though whoever is throwing grenades — who cares? The grenades will always be there and stopping those grenades is always going to be a distraction.
The self-destruction comes with fetishizing “tone” and Style points and pretending that Obama will be giving us all Ponies! at the expense of getting an agenda done.
BTW with Lieberman in our camp, the Democrats are now at 58.
Which is meaningful only if you think that Lieberman is voting with Dems on the tough stuff.
And he doesn’t have much of a record of that recently.
Very well said Cassandra (13).
“BTW with Lieberman in our camp, the Democrats are now at 58.”
Which is where Lieberman wants to be since he wants a chance at re-election in Connecticut. (Boy, I hope he loses BIG!) And who does he owe for this? Gotta love political maneuvering wrapped in unity.
And I do think this election had as much to do with unity as it did with change. Obama fused the terms. I seem to remember him saying something about there being no red America and no blue America…
That resonated.