I understand what Biden was saying. He doesn’t understand that those times are long past, and good riddance.
It is unfortunately true that Congress has grown increasingly polarized; over the past thirty years the parties have voted together less and less. However, what Biden fails to understand is that this was a deliberate strategy dating back to Newt Gingrich, who established the principle that bipartisan votes equalled a GOP loss – ANY vote was a win-loss, zero-sum proposition, e.g., the crown jewel of Republican social action, Romneycare, became demonized as “Obamacare” just because Obama supported it. Then Mitch McConnell took it a step farther and simply stopped pretending that collaboration was possible: blocking ANY vote that might lead to any advantage to the Democrats – or even both parties together. He’s blocked votes to investigate and prevent Russian interference in our elections simply because the GOP benefited. He blocked Obama’s judgeship nominations right up to the Supreme Court, with no real justification; and he’s perfectly willing to ignore his fake precedents just to benefit the GOP.
THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE YOU CAN WORK WITH. These are people who see Joe Biden as the enemy at best, as a patsy at worst.
Even ignoring how Biden has waved away the harsh reality of the racist legislators who were “civil” in the past (to white men), these people are not and never will cooperate with ANY Democrat. Ever. Many of the most extreme, uncollaborative, and just plain ignorant GOP representatives are in highly gerrymandered districts that, in some cases, guarantees them a seat even in states that go 60-40 against them. They’re safe, they know it; their actions are aimed to protect that safety at the expense of American democracy. They have no motive to be “civil” or to “collaborate.”
But now they are open in their racism, sexism, and desire for tyranny. We SEE them. But Biden doesn’t. Why collaborate with people like this, anyway?
I understand what Biden was saying. He doesn’t understand that those times are long past, and good riddance.
It is unfortunately true that Congress has grown increasingly polarized; over the past thirty years the parties have voted together less and less. However, what Biden fails to understand is that this was a deliberate strategy dating back to Newt Gingrich, who established the principle that bipartisan votes equalled a GOP loss – ANY vote was a win-loss, zero-sum proposition, e.g., the crown jewel of Republican social action, Romneycare, became demonized as “Obamacare” just because Obama supported it. Then Mitch McConnell took it a step farther and simply stopped pretending that collaboration was possible: blocking ANY vote that might lead to any advantage to the Democrats – or even both parties together. He’s blocked votes to investigate and prevent Russian interference in our elections simply because the GOP benefited. He blocked Obama’s judgeship nominations right up to the Supreme Court, with no real justification; and he’s perfectly willing to ignore his fake precedents just to benefit the GOP.
THESE ARE NOT PEOPLE YOU CAN WORK WITH. These are people who see Joe Biden as the enemy at best, as a patsy at worst.
Even ignoring how Biden has waved away the harsh reality of the racist legislators who were “civil” in the past (to white men), these people are not and never will cooperate with ANY Democrat. Ever. Many of the most extreme, uncollaborative, and just plain ignorant GOP representatives are in highly gerrymandered districts that, in some cases, guarantees them a seat even in states that go 60-40 against them. They’re safe, they know it; their actions are aimed to protect that safety at the expense of American democracy. They have no motive to be “civil” or to “collaborate.”
But now they are open in their racism, sexism, and desire for tyranny. We SEE them. But Biden doesn’t. Why collaborate with people like this, anyway?