Beyond Bipartisanship

President Obama gave it a try and discovered what many of us have known for some time now: the only bipartisan group in the US is the Democratic Party. The Republicans, at their core, represent that part of America which does not want to work in a bipartisan way. You cannot be bipartisan with the Republicans because they never respond in any bipartisan way to initiatives: whether in the Majority or in the Minority, they just insist on the same worn out formulas of the past.

But, if we think of "bipartisan" in the sense that is more profound and not in its very limited sense of actions which might gain the votes of both parties, we could move beyond the absolutely useless goal of trying to get Republican votes for sane legislation. "Ruepublican" and "bipartisan" are contradictory terms (like Military Intelligence).

The majority of Americans, I suspect, do not really care if any particular legislation is "bipartisan." They only care that it works for the betterment of the situation it addresses. At this point, neither the President nor the Democrats in the Congress should worry about getting one Republican vote. They should only worry about whether the legislation will help the majoriy of Americans, across generational, racial and ideological line. That is, "bipartisan" legislation is legislation that meets the needs, solves the problem of the majority of the nation.

This is exactly why the Republicans are not "bipartisan", because what they propose and support in the way of legislation is always something that solves the problem of the elites and not the majority.

So, by definition, to think of "bipartisan" in the normal sense means that in the more profound sense - legislation that serves the needs of the majority - it can never be achieved. Any legislation that the Republicans agree to is, by definition, legislation that serves the needs of only a small minority.

Let us go beyond "bipartisan" in its traditional sense of trying to get votes on both sides of the aisle and think of it as legislation that serves the needs of the majority (whatever partisan interests they might have). As long as the democrats have the majority, it will be enought to try to get enough Democratic votes to pass legislation that serves the needs of the majority. Concentrate on that challenge, Mr. President and forget about the Republicans. Pretend they don't exist. MAybe they will go away, in which case the nation and the world will be well served and we can all go on trying to find out how to pass really bipartisan laws to help the majority.