Bipartisanship on Site Map subfolders
Paul Krugman, "The
Politics of Spite", October 4, 2009, The New York
Times
There was what President Obama likes to
call a teachable moment last week, when the International
Olympic Committee rejected Chicago’s bid to be host of the
2016 Summer Games. “Cheers erupted” at the headquarters of
the conservative Weekly Standard, ... Rush Limbaugh declared
himself 'gleeful.' ... So what did we learn from this
moment? For one thing, we learned that the modern
conservative movement, which dominates the modern Republican
Party, has the emotional maturity of a bratty
13-year-old.
But more important, the episode
illustrated an essential truth about the state of American
politics: at this point, the guiding principle of one of our
nation’s two great political parties is spite pure and
simple. If Republicans think something might be good for the
president, they’re against it — whether or not it’s good for
America. ... But the same principle of spite has determined
Republican positions on more serious matters, with
potentially serious consequences — in particular, in the
debate over health care reform.
The Republican campaign against health care reform ... is the
claim — based mainly on lies about death panels and so on —
that reform will undermine Medicare. And this line of attack is
utterly at odds both with the party’s traditions and with what
conservatives claim to believe. ... How did one of our
great political parties become so ruthless, so willing to
embrace scorched-earth tactics even if so doing undermines the
ability of any future administration to govern?
The key point is that ever since the
Reagan years, the Republican Party has been dominated by
radicals — ideologues and/or apparatchiks who, at a
fundamental level, do not accept anyone else’s right to
govern. Anyone surprised by the venomous, over-the-top
opposition to Mr. Obama must have forgotten the Clinton
years. Remember when Rush Limbaugh suggested that Hillary
Clinton was a party to murder? When Newt Gingrich shut down
the federal government in an attempt to bully Bill Clinton
into accepting those Medicare cuts? ... the old attacks on
Big Government and paeans to the magic of the marketplace
have lost their resonance. Yet conservatives retain their
belief that they, and only they, should govern. ... It’s an
ugly picture. But it’s the truth. And it’s a truth anyone
trying to find solutions to America’s real problems has to
understand."
Barney Frank on Bipartisanship
8min
Ray Bellamy,
Letter to the Editor, Tallahassee, Fla., Sept. 4, 2009, New
York Times
Fundamental change
in our dysfunctional and overpriced health care system is
absolutely necessary, and it will be impossible to achieve
that transformation while protecting the huge profits of big
corporate contributors to Congress.
Allowing Congress,
itself dysfunctional and unable to look beyond industry
lobbyists, to craft a mosaic that reinforces the most
expensive and wasteful processes within our present system
was a near-fatal mistake.
For those of us who
fervently supported President Obama as an agent of change,
settling for some Band-Aids on the present bloated systems,
which focus on profit rather than on health, is a missed
opportunity of colossal proportions. Not change we can
believe in.
Bipartisan Debate is
over?
Grassley - I've been told ...
8min
6min
God Forgive, It's Okay when a Republican Does
It Metaphor - Raising the
Goal
3min
7min
Bipartisan Republican Grassley - Knows
better
Howard Dean - Unhealthy Compromise
4min
5min
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