Only political change will reduce bipartisan bickering

-- Philip Fuehrer

Oklahoma City, the Twin Towers, and the South Asian Tsunami all have two things in common: each was a massive tragedy replete with gruesome images and human misery; each also spurred a wave of bipartisan cooperation— sprinkling explosives with identification markers, an impromptu performance of “God Bless America” on the Capitol steps, and aid packages sent to ravaged areas.

Collaboration, however, is not a natural state in either the nation’s Capitol or in today’s American politics. On both sides of the aisle, from supporters to strategists to the politicians themselves, there is nothing better than denigrating your opponent and the enemy political party.

Conservative Grover Norquist, called the “Field Marshall of the Bush Plan” by The Nation in 2001, once stated that bipartisan cooperation is “a form of date rape.” And, we can all think of a dandy or two that has fallen from the lips of a Falwell, Limbaugh or O’Reilly.

Certainly the “party of tolerance,” the Democratic Party, is not in any danger of being declared the patron saint of statesmanship either. You have the college instructor from Fort Lewis College, Colorado, who physically kicked a student because he was wearing a Republican Party t-shirt. Then there is the left’s poster child, Michael Moore, who apologized for calling President Bush a deserter only to continue by saying, “What I meant to say is that George W. Bush is a deserter, an election thief, a drunk driver, a WMD liar, and a functional illiterate. And he poops his pants.”

Let’s not limit ourselves to supporters and strategists. Politicians themselves provide plenty of proof that bipartisanship is a rare commodity. While castigating a Bush administration official, U.S. House Representative Corrine Brown, a black Democrat from Florida, said that, to her, all white men “look alike to me.” Not to be left out, U.S. Representative Cass Ballenger (R-N.C.) called a fellow House member from Georgia “a b----.” And we certainly cannot forget when our esteemed Vice President Dick Cheney said to Vermont Senator Patrick Leahy, “Go f--- yourself.”

Of course, the entire Congress is not so colossally disrespectful. Indeed, former U.S. Representative and White House Chief of Staff Leon Panetta hosts an annual banquet to award those who work in a bipartisan fashion. Unfortunately, in an all-too-real comment last fall, Mr. Panetta joked that after five years of giving out awards he is “worried that I’m going to start running out of people to give it to.”

At home, though, we can see the best possible solution—electing centrist and other third party legislators. Rochester state Senator Sheila Kiscaden, the only Independence Party member in the Minnesota legislature, recently hosted a conference for her fellow legislators titled “Beyond Bickering and Gridlock: Your Role in Changing the Legislature.” It was a clear attempt to try and instill a sense of cooperation and camaraderie into the process. But, in yet another example of the lack of desire for such cooperation from our current batch of politicians, barely a third of the legislators took the time to attend.

We can honestly debate whether or not trickle-down economics works, but with the current partisan attitudes prevalent in American politics, you can forget about trickle-down collaboration.

Philip Fuehrer has been active in third-party politics since 1996. He can be reached for comment at Philip.Fuehrer@metrostate.edu.

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