Katrina vanden Heuvel: Bloomberg's Bipartisan BS

[marmar]

from The Nation:



BLOOMBERG'S BIPARTISAN BS...Texas populist maverick Jim Hightower gets it just right when he describes centrism in American politics. There's nothing in the middle of the road, he quips, except some yellow stripes and dead armadilloes. But that's not what the pundits and commentators who long for the bipartisan days of yore-- and flock eagerly to any politician who looks "centrist" --believe. That's why we're about to see lots of fawning coverage of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg's attempt to form a "government of national unity." David Broder in Sunday's Washington Post leads the pack with his report that Bloomberg has scheduled a meeting next week with a dozen leading Democrats and Republicans, including former Senators San Nunn, David Boren, Gary Hart. Senator Chuck Hagel, former New Jersey Governor Christie Todd Whitman, Clinton Defense Secretary William Cohen and former GOP congressman Jim Leach also say they'll attend.

Boren, who's hosting the meeting at the University of Oklahoma, says that if "we don't see a refocusing of the campaign on a bipartisan approach, I would feel I would want to encourage an independent candidacy." The nation, he argues, needs a "government of national unity" to overcome its partisan divisions. That's crap. What this nation needs now --as we live through a second Gilded Age--is more partisanship. Intelligent, honest and passionate partisanship that addresses how America is drifting apart along class lines. A partisanship that fights for universal health care and a living wage and labor rights as a countervailing force to unprecedented corporate power. A partisanship that contests the unbridled militarism depleting our strength and spirit.

As NYT columnist Paul Krugman has argued effectively, "the real source of today's partisanship is a Republican move to the right on economic issues." Today's GOP has overseen the shredding of our already frayed social contract, and currently obsesses about giving the super-rich more tax breaks. There may be some smart people gathering next week in Oklahoma. But they don't get it if they think you can have national unity with one party waging class war politics. UPDATED: By the way, responding to some of the posts: I am all for TRANSPARTISANSHIP. And I'm all for busting open our duopoly --but that's going to take some hard and unsexy electoral reform work...What Bloomberg & Co. are up to is different. The concept of national unity/bipartisanship is not about building a genuine independent politics....It's of the mindset that politics stops at the water's edge -- which took us into Iraq, into Vietnam, into the Cold War....I am also for staying true to principles while, at same time, trying to engage people, where they work, live, worship, watch or play sports, etc....to build a politics of opportunity, justice and fairness and dignity.Katrina vanden Heuvel


Posted by Katrina vanden Heuvel at 12/30/2007 @ 5:21pm

http://www.thenation.com/blogs/campaignmatters?bid=45&pid=264110

[rodeodance]

1. yes, she is right. we need to be leary of this so called Unity government proposal. Be scared.

[rodeodance]

2. and a REC

[rodeodance]

3. Krugman - GOP candidates veer to ultra-right

Forum Name Editorials & Other Articles
Topic subject Krugman - GOP candidates veer to ultra-right
Topic URL http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x329010#329010
329010, Krugman - GOP candidates veer to ultra-right
Posted by TOJ on Mon Dec-31-07 08:40 AM

"To see the extent to which Republican politicians still cower before the power of movement conservatism, consider the sad case of John McCain.

Mr. McCain’s lingering reputation as a maverick straight talker comes largely from his opposition to the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003, which he said at the time were too big and too skewed to the rich. Those objections would seem to have even more force now, with America facing the costs of an expensive war — which Mr. McCain fervently supports — and with income inequality reaching new heights.

But Mr. McCain now says that he supports making the Bush tax cuts permanent. Not only that: he’s become a convert to crude supply-side economics, claiming that cutting taxes actually increases revenues. That’s an assertion even Bush administration officials concede is false.

Oh, and what about his earlier opposition to tax cuts? Mr. McCain now says he opposed the Bush tax cuts only because they weren’t offset by spending cuts.

"

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/31/opinion/31krugman.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

[TwilightGardener]

5. What? McCain, flip-flopping? Noooooooo! Can't be! He's a Straight Talker!

[gaiilonfong]

4. As usual katrina is a lone brilliant voice among the losers

She is brilliant and a real progressive with amazing writing skills.

[IndyOp]

6. Nothing in the middle of the road except some yellow stripes and dead armadilloes

:rofl:

I love Hightower! :applause: