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Defining ‘Bipartisan’ in a New Era

Posted on Jan 22, 2009

By Joe Conason

On the eve of Barack Obama’s ascension to power, at candlelit dinners across Washington sponsored by the Presidential Inaugural Committee, the designated theme was bipartisanship. From the speeches delivered to the choice of honorees, which included Sen. John McCain, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and the incoming vice president, Joe Biden, the new administration expressed its fond wish for a return to the respect and civility of a bygone era. As Biden said when he addressed the guests at Union Station, following a warm introduction by retiring Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel—and as Obama reiterated when he appeared a few minutes later—they hope to end long decades of partisan bickering and bitterness. Recalling the words of the late Senate Majority Leader Mike Mansfield, who supervised his political education as a freshman senator, Biden said that although it is always easy to find what is bad in a political adversary, “our job here is to find the good in them,” and to seek common ground.

But when Obama delivered his stunningly eloquent and inspiring address at midday on Jan. 20, he provided a powerful hint of what bipartisan, a term hollowed out by habitual and insincere misuse, means to him now.

“On this day,” he said, “we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord. On this day, we come to proclaim an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics. We remain a young nation, but in the words of Scripture, the time has come to set aside childish things.”

Such childish things, which he did not stoop to mention, as the scare tactics that typified the campaign against him only a few months ago. With that pithy phrase he dismissed the style of attack politics, employed by a generation of Republican strategists, that began 20 years ago with the frightening image of a black criminal named Willie Horton and was finally repudiated forever with the election of America’s first black president.

However bipartisan his intentions, Obama’s speech did not shrink from delineating the differences between himself and the former president, who has at last departed the capital. Among several direct rebukes to his predecessor and the reigning ideology of the Republican right, the new chief executive promised, “We will restore science to its rightful place.” He went on to vow that under his guidance, the nation would return to the values of the Constitution “once more,” without resorting to the “false choice” between liberty and security so often imposed by the regime of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney.

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That was not the only false choice rejected by Obama. While paying tribute to the productivity and creativity of the market, he refused to indulge the worship of the “invisible hand” so dear to Republican ideologues. The current economic crisis, he said, “has reminded us that without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control—and that a nation cannot prosper long when it favors only the prosperous. The success of our economy has always depended not just on the size of our gross domestic product, but on the reach of our prosperity; on our ability to extend opportunity to every willing heart—not out of charity, but because it is the surest route to our common good.” With those words he enunciated the most fundamental beliefs of his party, and pledged that they will guide his administration.

This speech was neither a programmatic list nor a call to compromise. Obama laid out the challenges that face the country and explained in broad strokes how he intends to address them—with bold action, necessary expenditure and a summoning of citizens to service. What he invited the nation to do, regardless of party, was to return to the basic American principles that made us strong and great over the past century and that were violated, discarded and mocked by those in power over the past eight years—and through the inordinate and unwholesome influence of the far right for much longer.

He will reach out to bring the Republicans back toward the center, where he hopes that good will and patriotic emotion can bring us together to lift us out of the ditch into which their ideology drove us. But now the center will be found in a different place—and bipartisanship again describes a consensus led by liberal Democrats. “The ground has shifted,” he warned those who will oppose his ambitious agenda. He has earned the assumption that he means it.

Joe Conason writes for The New York Observer.

TAGS: biden bipartisan bush conason constitution democrats economy election mccain obama politics republicans senate

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By cyrena, January 25 at 9:38 pm #

Dihey says..

“When you give a burglar the key to your house, which Senator Obama did when he approved “FISA wiretap without a court order”, you must not be surprised to come home and find that your house was ransacked.”

~~~~

So, ya think that’s what did it, huh dihey. Senator Obama, (who became such in 2005) gave them the key right? They weren’t doing any of this stuff before Senator Obama (alone of course) ‘approved “FISA wiretap without a court order”.

You’re *SUCH* a sad sack dihey. All that hate must really be heavy to carry around, and that record you keep playing is truly broken.

Poor thing.

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By troublesum, January 23 at 10:34 pm #

The best part of Obama’s speech was when he said it was a mistake to give up freedom for safety and compared the dangers faced by the founders with what we face today. I don’t think he is going to compromise on that. To right wingers bipartisanship means everyone becomes a republican. They don’t believe in compromise. They want the kind of bipartisanship we’ve had for that past thirty years in which democrats always cave to republican pressure. That’s their idea of bipartisanship and we’ve had plenty of it. Read the reports of the Bush advisors reaction to Obama’s speech in today’s papers. “We were nice to you during the transition and you criticized us in the speech.” Bipartisanship means no criticism. It hurts their feelings. They must always be loved. There is only one point of view and it is their’s. Be bipartisan and agree with them. Don’t cause trouble by standing up for your own point of view.

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By dihey, January 22 at 8:16 pm #

After listening to Olberman’s program last night I began to wonder whether we will now enter the era of “bipartisan wiretap and gutting of the Fourth Amendment of our Constitution”. Unlike Olberman I was not “shocked” when I learned that groups of journalists had been specially targeted for sophisticated wiretapping. When you give a burglar the key to your house, which Senator Obama did when he approved “FISA wiretap without a court order”, you must not be surprised to come home and find that your house was ransacked.

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By Folktruther, January 22 at 4:07 pm #

What Obama means by ‘bipartisan’ is to induce progressives to support the continuence of Bushite policies. This will be done under a Progressive rhetoric. Both Bush and Obama states, for example, that America doesn’t torture, but since no one believes it, this morning he abolished it anyway.

Not. He fake abolished it. He resticted the CIA to following the Military Handbook, which a number of truthers have illustrated permits torture. The Geneva Conventions do not, and are the statutory law of the US, but these were not mentioned.

He abolished the CIA camps but not the military prison camps. The rendition program and sends captives to be tortured by US client-states was not mentioned.

But its good enough for fake Civil Libertarians while the US can bipartisanly continue the War on Terrorism, and the torture that is a vital part of it. Including the torture of Americans.

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By coloradokarl, January 22 at 2:27 pm #

Partisanship comes from Brain-dead politicians hired by a machine to push a corporate agenda. Free thinkers can bend and flow, observe and learn from others. Doing what’s right for ones constitutes of course that includes homespun companies and corporations. Far too often this is not the case as money rules the world of politics and the all too consuming re-election cycle. When the Quality of political thought improves to a the point of realization that a Job well done gets re-elected we can achieve a competent Government.

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By cyrena, January 22 at 2:24 pm #

Bravo Joe ConasBravo Joe Conason!! A great piece, (as we’ve come to expect).

I’ve just signed a ‘thank you’ letter to Obama being circulated by the ACLU, (of which I am a proud member ) thanking him for his “First Day Action” on the suspension of the trials at Guantanamo.

Hopefully this will lead to a repeal of the MCA, and all of the other shit perpetrated by the Dick Bush Fascist Regime that forced us to live in their CREATED ‘state of exception’.

So yes indeed…a return to the rule of law and the core principles on which this structure was built. It’s like sweet music to my ears!!

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By eileen fleming, January 22 at 10:46 am #

Mt first email/FAX and snail mail letter to Obama Administration accompanied by a copy of my “MEMOIRS in Occupied Territory” with HOPE to not just shift the ground; but shake it, agitate it and change it!

“My aim is to agitate & disturb people. I’m not selling bread, I’m selling yeast.”
Unamuno

Dear President Obama and Vice President Biden,

“HOPE has two children. The first is ANGER at the way things are. The second is COURAGE to DO SOMETHING about it.”-St. Augustine

As a person of Hope for Change I encourage you to focus on the ways to broker true security for Israel; through justice for Palestinians.

Justice requires and End to the Occupation and equal human rights for all.

The way to achieve it is through a self-determined, democratic and contiguous Palestinian State in the West Bank and Gaza.

Jerusalem can indeed become a shining city on a hill when it is shared and also becomes the International Capital of the World.

My hope for change is that security, peace and reconciliation in the Holy Land, and the entire Middle East will not lie in militarism and nuclear weapons, but in Justice and Mercy which equates to Equal Human Rights for all.

As we begin the 9th year of The UN’s Decade of Creating a Culture of NONVIOLENCE for all the Children of the World, may the US become the change to make that real!

My hope is that in 2009, The Wall will fall and that Change must begin when walls fall in hearts and minds.

Vanunu’s Message to Hillary Clinton re: The Apartheid Wall:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Omq-QG7isA&eurl=http://www.wearewideawake.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1168&Itemid=214

Just weeks after his FREEDOM OF SPEECH TRIAL began the whistle blower of Israel’s underground WMD Facility sent this message to Senator Clinton and USA Christians re: The Apartheid Wall and The Bombs. Excerpted from “30 Minutes with Vanunu” freely streaming @ WeAreWideAwake

“You shall know the truth and the truth will set you free.”-John 8:32

Eileen Fleming, Founder WAWA:
http://www.wearewideawake.org/
Author “Keep Hope Alive”
“Memoirs of a Nice Irish American ‘Girl’s’ Life in Occupied Territory”
Producer “30 Minutes With Vanunu”

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