The vain illusion of bipartisanship

Maribel Hastings is Executive Advisor for America’s Voice

Photo: Alex Wong / Getty Images

For: Maribel Hastings 01 of June 2010

After the federal Senate defeated last Friday the measure that would create a bipartisan commission to investigate the insurrection of January 6 – perpetrated by fans of Donald Trump convinced by their leader that they “stole” the election – President Joe Biden and the Democrats should be convinced that the Republican Party will not work in good faith or in a bipartisan manner. And in that sense, it is time for Republicans to be overlooked if Democrats intend to push forward some elements of their legislative agenda in the remainder of the session.

In fact, Republicans are more interested in holding hearings on the arrival of a few thousand children to the border seeking asylum, than in getting to the bottom of the matter surrounding the attack on the Capitol on January 6. . They fear migrant children more than a group of violent insurgents led by Trump, who attacked the Capitol police and literally wanted to hang former Vice President Mike Pence for recognizing Biden’s triumph.

If the leader of the Republican minority in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, does not tremble to sink a measure that in a normal world should enjoy bipartisan support because it is a frontal assault on our democratic system – where even there were deaths, all with the sole purpose of not upsetting their leader Trump or the Republican hosts that continue to believe the great lie of “fraud” – why continue to have so many contemplations with a Republican bench, whose sole purpose is to stop the agenda Biden’s Legislature so that Democrats cannot show their achievements to voters heading into the halftime elections in 2022 and the generals in 2024.

With each new Republican affront, the fledgling Biden administration continues to resemble that of Barack Obama when he came to power in 1999 promising “hope and change,” and ran into the same Republican wall of inaction when Trump wasn’t even listed. in the panorama. The same Republican bad faith operated then supposedly supported by ideological differences, although it was more than evident that the election of an African American to the presidency shook the most racist and prejudiced sectors of that party, resulting eight years later in the election of Trump.

But Obama tried to appease them, called for bipartisanship and achieved nothing, except to lower his popularity ratings and see his legislative agenda bog down, for in 2010 lose a majority in the House of Representatives when Republicans added 63 seats. The Senate was left in the hands of the Democrats, but the Republicans added seven seats.

The question is how many slaps the Democrats must receive from the Republicans to understand that they are not dealing with a group of politicians interested in the welfare of their constituents or the country. They do not have proposals nor do they want to cooperate. They only seek to seize power even if they have to continue kissing the ring of Trump, an instigator of violence facing criminal investigations.

The sad thing is that Biden’s ambitious legislative agenda, five months after taking office, it remains stagnant. There is too much at stake. His budget has already been declared dead by the Republican minority; its infrastructure project is going the same way, despite attempts at “negotiation” on the part of the Republicans. And in immigration matters, at the legislative level, the measures that would legalize millions remain undefined.

Biden still enjoys good popularity ratings, especially due to his handling of the Covid crisis. But from here to 2022, when the midterm elections are held Time, there is a long way to go and the Democrats have to show the voters that the campaign promises are coming true.

I don’t know if the Democrats will use the process in the end of budget reconciliation to approve measures by simple majority without the need for the 63 votes that are required in the Senate to overcome dilatory measures or filibuster. Aside from the Republicans, Biden also has to deal with the conservative Democrats. Since 1999 have been approved and promulgated 22 Projects reconciliation laws, almost all related to taxes, expenses or the debt limit. It was reconciliation that the majority Republicans used to try to undermine the Affordable Health Insurance law, known as Obamacare.

There are times when historical moments require extreme decisions and brave. And if it is even illusory to expect bipartisanship to work with a Republican Party that years ago lost its compass and only worships Trump and his hosts, perhaps this is one of those moments when we must use the tools available to advance in legislation that benefits the country, from infrastructure to immigration reform.

The country and the voters will appreciate it.