Just a small reminder from days past 'Bipartisanship Equals Date Rape'

[wroberts189]

You want to play nice with the pubs now ? All this talk of coming together? Have you all forgotten what they did to us? Forcing Dem's into the basement and calling the capital police on them? Changing the rules ..like threatening to take away the filibuster ???? Kicking Dem's out of committee meetings. Holding votes open until they twist enough arms. Do you remember????

Hey I am all for peace and getting along but I am sorry .. the pubs need a taste of their own medicine bad.


http://www.thenation.com/blogs/bivens_outrage?pid=699


'Bipartisanship Equals Date Rape'
posted by Matt Bivens on 05/27/2003 @ 2:01pm


Asked what he hopes students will read in future history books about his Administration, President Bush replied, "I hope they will read that our country and our politicians were able to discuss differences in a civil way; that there was not a lot of anger in the political process; that you and I might disagree, but we can respect each other when we disagree. So I hope I will be able to help change the tone in Washington so people respect each other."

This whole "change the tone" shtick was always hideously cynical, as Michael Tomasky has laid out in the American Prospect. So in a sense it's refreshing to hear it finally, gleefully turned on its head by Grover Norquist, a conservative who has the ear of the Bush Administration and is an old College Republican buddy of Karl Rove, the White House political strategist. Norquist contradicts the President, saying what we already know: Republicans are working to make political discourse uglier, not more civil. "We are trying to change the tones in the state capitals -- and turn them toward bitter nastiness and partisanship," he tells the Denver Post. "Bipartisanship is another name for date rape."

[snappyturtle]

1. I do think the Dems need to keep their its about them and to tread

carefully into the House and Senate. I have enough mistrust of republicans to last the rest of my lifetime and with good reason some of which was stated in the first paragraph of this post. Thanks for posting. K&R

[crikkett]

2. this was in 2003 and you see where it got them: shown the door.

No, we are better than this. Don't think you can get away with behaving like a Republican just because our side won power. Because we won't help you do it.

We need to get to work, to fix problems, not act like children.

[wroberts189]

4. Dude... I will never act like a repub. And yes we are are better.

Get off your high horse and don't you dare forget history. They have never shown any remorse or honesty for anything.


You may think you are dealing with people that can be reasoned with .. but you are dealing with sadistic criminal opportunists . Remember .. they all marched locked step with bushie on all the most worst of votes..

Just look at how the world has reacted ..this is not just about Obama ..it's also about getting rid of bush.

[crikkett]

6. Ethics and respect are not a high horse.

When you're charged with handling a snake you don't act like it's a puppydog, but nor do you run over it twice with your pickup.

[wroberts189]

7. I don't kill animals and don't have a pickup

Why on earth would I run over it?

A matter of fact I love animals ..even big fat ugly snakes and spiders. And I can tell you I trust snakes more then I trust pubs.

Ethics are something you have or do not and respect is something you earn. You want to lecture me on ethics and respect at least understand my position and show me some first .. before you defend these wingnuts that have destroyed so much good in this world. They are guilty of MASS MURDER.

And to be honest .. I don't quite get the point of what your making anyway. The pubs hero Grover said it first ..not me. This is their philosophy ..not mine. I am only reacting to it.

That was a fast reply to an old post... :)

he he ...who on earth is that a picture of? Alice Cooper? Better not let that thing wrap around your neck.

I doubt we have a beef here... What I am saying is we should not play suckers anymore. That's all ... fairness is all I ask. Rules should be equal .. not one side gets to mug you and then you must be nice to them.

Just ask the Dixie Chicks.

How old are you? Do you remember Willie Horton? Can you show me one example of pubs playing fair or telling the truth when it went against them?

Look... already they are blaming Obama for the stock market. Remember Ken Star? Partisan prosecutor .. helped by some Dems who thought pubs would be fair.

[wroberts189]

8. oh and whats with the "we won't help you do it" remark ?

That's part of what I meant by high horse. Before you say that you should look behind you.

[RC]

3. What needs to be done is to arrest the criminals and detain them for their War Crimes trials.

[wroberts189]

5. Thx for the reply ... I cannot wait.

[Political Heretic]

9. I categorically disagree. And I'd like a chance to make my case before I'm booed off stage :)

Okay.... here comes a tough sell.

I agree that in the recent past, "bipartisanship" has been code for capitulation. However, the only way I see to really, truly move America forward in a direction of positive, lasting change, is to change the fundamental principles that a plurality of Americans agree on.

Let me unpack that a little bit - sooner or later we will have another GOP congress and another GOP President? If all we want is merely temporary "change" that will be undone the moment Republicans are again elected, then we can most certainly make no attempt to include them in the change process. We can just continue the cycle.

On the other hand, I see Obama's belief in a post-partisan America as one wherein a leader advocates for his vision, and reaches out to even skeptics in an attempt to persuade them. I see Obama as having a mission of re-framing the language by which we talk about politics and doing this both by persuading and "moving" the people to think and talk about things in a different way, and also through dialoge with even those that disagree.

There are going to be plenty of Republicans that will do nothing but view Obama as "the enemy" and they can get left behind. But there will be others, who will be influenced by Obama's phenomenal gift of calm, cool, convincing diplomacy - of reframing and representing ideas in ways that sidestep the traditional "landmines" and leave "opponents" scratching their heads wondering how they got convinced to get on board. I have hopes that a President Obama will be a pragmatist, and I'm not at all scared by that term. Because I believe his pragamatism is about how to accomplish his vision, not about how to stay elected. That means he will make decisions on when and how to move that vision forward, when and where dramatic steps are needed and possible, and when and where small steps are needed and possible.

No one knows for sure what The Obama Administration's legacy will be. But I have hopes that he will, in the spirit of George Lakoff, do more to reframe the way people think about political issues and through masterful diplomacy create allies in the most unlikely of corners. President Obama may have just as much influence in moving the GOP back to a sensible center, and driving the lunatic fringe back into the fringe as he does continuing to transform and empower the Democratic Party for the twenty first century.

Imagine a day when a presidential election between a Democrat and a Republican was a context between two basically good candidates - with some policy disagreements for sure, and some differing philosophies about how to do the best for the people, but essentially statesman. I'm not sure that we'll get there in four or eight years - but I have some hopes for what we'll see in the future.

Hope...