Why Do Americans Claim to Love Bipartisanship?

Spineless Democrats cling to bipartisanship the way Cletus and Lurleen cling to guns and religion, and for a simple reason: In every poll, overwhelming majorities, regardless of political affiliation, claim to support bipartisanship.

Here’s a recent example.

Why do so many people support the concept? For another simple reason: The question is loaded. Notice the wording:

Asked whether Democrats in Congress should “work across the aisle to get things done in Washington, even if it means losing out on some high-priority policies” or “stand firm on their beliefs without compromise, even if it means not much gets done in Washington,” 74% choose working across the aisle. A similar 72% feel the same way about Republicans in Congress, and 71% say President Joe Biden should try to work across the aisle.

The choice respondents are given is binary: Compromise gets things done, failing to compromise gets not much done. The problem here is twofold: First, what does compromise “get done”? Respondents are told only that it will mean “losing out” on “some” “high-priority policies.” That’s a lot of undefined terms, leaving respondents to imagine that what’s getting done will meet with their approval. In real life, compromise just kicks the can down the road. Have all the compromises on abortion settled that issue?

The second problem should be obvious: There’s no evidence that compromising gets things done anyway, while there’s plenty — Obamacare stands out — that it doesn’t. Furthermore, compromise with people who want the resulting legislation to fail is suicidal folly. When Democrats compromised on Obamacare, it didn’t result in a better law but in a worse one, which is exactly what Republicans wanted, because they wanted the program to fail (and then they didn’t vote for it anyway). What exactly did compromise accomplish?

Compromise is possible only when both sides have something to gain, and Republicans have much more to lose than gain by compromising. The radical portion of their voters treat compromise on any point as treason, so any Republican who compromises on anything will face a primary against someone who wouldn’t. And it’s the radicals, not the compromisers, who vote in primaries. So we should expect compromise offers to be rejected, and they have been.

The burden is on the advocates of bipartisanship to prove that it works. So far all Chris Coons has to show for his efforts is a pro-business giveaway that got 18 Democratic votes. Yeah, I never doubted that both sides would throw money at American business, Chris.

If that’s all you’ve got, holding out bipartisan compromise as an ideal isn’t just naive. It’s willful ignorance. But it will continue because Americans, given the choice between bipartisan comity and anarchic gridlock, will choose the option they’ve been steered to every time.