"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape"

[kurth]

Backing the Bush brigade
It was commendable that Bill Clinton took a firm stand in a TV interview, but he has nothing to gain through bipartisanship.
Melissa McEwan

The progressive blogosphere has been abuzz with talk about the former president Bill Clinton's interview on rightwing Fox News. The host, Chris Wallace, tried to smear Clinton with the same rubbish hawked in the recently aired ABC docudrama Path to 9/11 and Clinton came out swinging. (Fox later advertised the piece as Clinton Gets Crazed.) It was commendable of Clinton to take a firm stand, but Arianna Huffington makes a good point about what he could learn from the experience:

"he bipartisan love-in he's been engaged in over the last several years has resulted in jack-squat. After providing President Bush cover for his disastrous handling of Katrina, after trying to get himself adopted by George Bush Sr, after giving Laura Bush the keynote slot at his Global Initiative Conference, after going along with Rupert Murdoch's fundraiser for Hillary - after all that, he got exactly nothing. All of Bill Clinton's tireless 'bipartisanship' has been of no benefit to him, of no benefit to the country, and has only benefited George Bush and the right wing."

Spot on. For those of us who aren't thrilled, by way of sincere understatement, with watching movement conservatives turn America into a pro-torture, anti-law, theocratic backwater while ushering in a new Gilded Age, Clinton's willingness to legitimise their politics is both inexplicable and infuriating. His insistent belief that bipartisanship will eventually lead to some undefined positive destination seems uncharacteristically naive, considering his deserved reputation as a skilful politician. After all, one of the architects of the movement to which he now grants tacit approval through such manoeuvres once said: "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."

These aren't people acting in good faith, but taking advantage of any cover Clinton is willing to give them while they undermine basic American principles. Albert Einstein defined insanity as "doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results". Clinton might not have been crazed when he stood up to the odious Chris Wallace, but he might just be crazy if he continues to hope that bipartisanship with the Bush brigade will ever yield the results for which he hopes.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/melissa_mcewan/2006/09/no_love_at_clintons_lovein.html

[Vexatious Ape]

1. I love that line,

"bipartisanship is another name for date rape"

[Fierce]

2. I hate that line,

"Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."

I hate analogies that use rape imagery.

[BootinUp]

3. Eating your own is another name for

stupidity. The "progressive" movement does not help by shrinking the appeal of the Democratic party.

[originalpckelly]

4. No it isn't. Bipartisanship is what democracy is about...

Since 1994 this nation has witnessed a sick and degraded form of democracy, the tyranny of the majority type. It is wrong because the concerns of all parties, including minorities, has been excluded, even when a minority makes up 49% of America.

Bi-Partisanship does not mean giving up what we believe in, it does not mean degrading our constitution, but it does mean that at the end of the bargaining process the concerns of all parties should be addressed. That does mean we have to compromise, because we have been on the side of people who do not compromise.

IT DOES NOT MEAN BEING SPINELESS

like so many people in Congress have been over the past five years.

We should be strong and have pride in our beliefs,

but to get what we want we should encourage compromise.

That does not mean the Republicans can make outrageous demands

because if they do we can simply ignore them.

To see that article makes sad and almost hopeless for the fate of America, because there was a time in our nation when things were less confrontational. We are all Americans and we should all work together not against each other. What is the future of a nation so divided, other than a civil war?

[xchrom]

5. corporatism changed all that.

treating taxes like an endless gold mine for corporations -- or an economy to be shipped over seas.

the republick party and some democrats have abandoned working for the people.

plus you have a significant rise in irrationality in the body of ''values'' voters -- that was NEVER present in american politics in the past.

anyway -- political parity, fear of modernity, corporatism -- have warped american politics -- you're not talking about fiscal conservatism mixed with mild isolationism vs social progressivism mixed with internationalism any more.