The First weeks of the Obama administration have been nothing short of eventful. We've had the closing of Gitmo, The Census control issue, and the 800 billion dollar stimulus package. What we have not seen is any form of a bipartisan effort from Washington. Remember months ago during his campaigning, there were promises of "Change". Part of that "change" was to change the way politics worked in Washington. As a matter of fact, Obama charged most of his opponents (McCain & Clinton) with being Washington insiders. By his he meant that they would usher in no new political practices and would be bound by the abundant cynicism in Washington. To these charges, Clinton appropriately replied, "The sky will open. The lights will come down. Celestial choirs will be singing and everyone will know we should do the right thing and the world will be perfect!" She was of course referring to Obama's "Change".
Well we are now weeks into the new administrations rule and we have seen much of the same. Congressmen voting along party lines, bills being passed with no support from the opposing party, and a ruling party enforcing their agenda through the fine print of a multi-billion dollar package. While no one can dispute the amount of action President Obama has taken through his first few weeks, one can address its cost. Washington is still as divided as ever, President Obama has not floated to the middle as predicted, and we still are seeing a majority in congress dismissing the minority.
To recap the latest partisan effort we'll start with the most recent stimulus bill. This bill was bloated with democratic spending and pork projects including hundreds of millions of dollars for sex education and contraceptives for low income families. We are in a recession, and instead of investing more into infrastructure, our Congress is adding party staples to our recovery bill.
It cannot be disputed that Obama can certainly talk the talk, he swooned millions of voter's with his rhetoric. It is now important that he follow through on his campaign promises and work to achieve cooperation within our government. The President now has to make an effort please the minority in Congress instead of blowing bills by them. Central to this bipartisan effort will be his first address to Congress in which he will set the tone for his term in office. He must make it clear that things will be done differently, even though they haven't been thus far.
As our current financial crisis is nowhere near over, future legislation will allow government many oppurtunities to embrace this new spirit. Should they fail to bury party lines, then this administration will be no more about "change" than the last one and President Obama's promises will simply be the promises of a politician - only words.
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It is true that President Obama has not perfectly fulfilled his promise of changing Congress into a perfect, unified governing group, but then again, he has not entered the presidency in an opportune time. With the recent struggles with the economy, it would be nearly impossible for Obama to magically fuse the Republican and Democratic party with so much money on the line. Republicans and Democrats have such different ideals that they are obviously going to disagree on how to fix the economy. Republicans have always believed in tax cuts and business growth, and Democrats have always believed in social welfare and government spending. Actually, President Obama's stimulus plan has a mix of both of these philosophies, making it odd to think that people are disagreeing over this bill. The bill includes many tax cuts to encourage spending among the middle and lower classes, and it also includes a large amount of money to be spent on infrastructure in order to create more jobs in construction and engineering. What's more to like?
No matter what President Obama promised during his campaign speech, nobody should have expected that he would completely unify the partisan groups that divide Congress today. His plan to close the divide between the two parties has been used by many politicians before him, so this idea is nothing new. However, President Obama was inaugurated at an extremely tough time, and his ability to include both Republican and Democratic ideals in his plan should be commended.
An eventful beginning for the Obama administration may be an understatement. These first couple of weeks have gotten even some right wing Republicans to believe that change is what Obama is committed to bring to the table. However, I disagree with the fact that bipartisanship is the way to achieve this change. Ideally, Obama would want a bipartisan government that would institute the programs that he wants to help make this change happen. The only problem with that is that the government cannot live up to this ideal. The opposing views of the Democrats and Republican are very drastic. This in itself explains why bipartisanship will not work. One partisan group will want something, and the other will naturally oppose it. It would be a wonderful day in American history when the two main groups can work together in running the country, but I do not see this day ever coming. This is why I believe that the only way Obama can completely institute his plan for change would be to surround himself with people who agree with him on every matter. This would eliminate opposition, and would be the only way for his plan to remain the way he wants it to. If he fails, then the American people will look for a different change in four years, but if the change is successful, Obama will be the only one worthy of credit, and would therefore remain in the White House for another four years.
This is a perfect example of why people in our country have lost interest in politics: even in a time of desperate need in this country, people are still not willing to put down their guns and work together to get this country back on track. As Ross said, the new stimulus plan has components in it that one might guess would feed the appetites of both parties. Instead, the Republican party is too stuck in their ways to give the new Democratic president a chance. Instead, lucky for Obama, as Kevin said he has enough Democrats and supporters to be able to accomplish what it is he needs to do. If Obama was not able to get his plans accepted, how would this country have a chance to move forward and regain it's reputation and status as the world's elite?
In all fairness, both Democrats and Republicans are stuck in today's political climate. First off, people think that every Democrat and every Republican fall on the extremes of their respective sides, and since most Americans compromise and fall somewhere in the middle, therefore they have a hard time connecting with a specific party. On the other hand, it is hard for Democrats and Republicans to move towards the middle of the spectrum. You see a few who linger in the middle, but the majority and pressured by their parties and their supporters to hop on the bandwagon and support everything that a "Democrat" or a "Republican" is supposed to support. Due to this, I have a hard time seeing the parties joining, or even compromising, between each other and that is a sad thing to think.
Finally, just one more thing that is on my mind in regards to this bipartisan discussion: I think that the Republicans have little to gain if they were to compromise and support Obama, but they have a whole lot more to lose if they don't. In the eyes of much of the youth of this country, when I think of the past 8 years and the failures we've had politically, I think of the Republican party. When I think of change and a brighter future in the coming years for this country, I think the Democratic party. The Republicans can hurt themselves pretty bad if they decide to continue to resist Obama and his movement. If Obama succeeds without the help of the Republicans, then they look even worse, and the Democrats will gain an immense amount of support in the future at the cost of the Republican Party. But if they can decide to back him up and support Obama during this time, I think that they can salvage their reputation and be brought back into a bright light in the eyes of the American people.
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