Jack Doppelt
Feb. 25, 2021
Let me propose three interlocking stratagems for the Biden administration. They have a common imperative; designed with laser focus on “the people.” Each is a counter-maneuver needed after years of deception from the right.
Biden should start by eliminating the misconception of bipartisan cooperation.
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| CNN story on GOP efforts to undermine Biden |
More than half the GOP members of Congress have become such blindly partisan Trumpers that they’ve frittered away their privilege to negotiate legislation. Taking both the House and Senate into account, there are far more members of the current GOP (Gimme Only Partisans) than of any semblance of the Grand Old Party. The current GOP is easy to define and steer clear of. They are those:
- who voted to not impeach Trump on his 2nd run-through at impeachment (either in the House on Jan. 13 or in the Senate one month later, on Feb. 13). Only 10 GOP House members and 7 Senators didn’t fall in line;
- who voiced opposition to the electoral college certification at some point before or on Jan. 6 when the Capitol was breached;
- who claimed by Dec. 15, after the election was six weeks over, that Biden was not lawfully elected or that the election was stolen from Trump or refused to say, according to the Washington Post, AND
- who clung to the contrived pretext that Trump had a right to appeal his loss, though he racked up a nearly unbroken string of 61 court losses, according to USA Today. He won one in PA.
If you think about it, that’s more than three months of time and latitude to act as a responsible lawmaker from the old Grand Old Party. Yet, of the 261 GOP lawmakers (211 in the House and 50 in the Senate), there are fewer than 30, by my casual count, whom the Biden administration should trust to do anything other than undermine his efforts as president.
That’s a paltry 10%, at most. Looked at from the glass half-full side if you tip the glass, that’s 13 in the House and 14 in the Senate, both chambers in which the Dems have a working majority for most votes without any of them.
That’s fortuitous because accounts from just Tuesday report that “Republican leaders in both chambers are maneuvering to keep all of their members in line against Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan.” Under the headline, “GOP begins new push against Biden’s relief plan as Republican leaders expect no defections in the ranks,” CNN framed its significance as a move that would deny Biden “a bipartisan victory.”
Though Biden has often spoken of his desire for bipartisan cooperation, he should be taken to mean bipartisanship with those Republicans whose partisanship isn’t calcified by party hostility, knee-jerk fears of blind constituent loyalty to Trump, or their own obeisance to Trump.
Better yet, Biden should use this opportunity to reclaim the language with which the GOP wants to hang him. What he should seek is nonpartisanship.
Consider the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) as the model. It produces independent analyses of budgetary and economic issues to support the Congressional budget process. It’s been at it and respected since 1975. That’s through eight presidents. Now into the 9th. The CBO notes proudly on its website that it is “strictly nonpartisan.” Its employees are hired “solely on the basis of professional competence without regard to political affiliation.” About the only periodic criticisms of the CBO in nearly 50 years are that its work can be politically inconvenient. Just the attributes I’d want in a political party.
Nonpartisan is a more accurate, inclusive and dynamic trajectory for Biden and the future. Blue and red are intrinsically divisive. They’ve become cancerously divisive. More prospective voters approaching the last election self-identified as independent than as either Democrats or Republicans. The public is driven to partisan choice by party leaders, closed party primaries, and now partisan bickering and incendiary partisanship.
Biden’s inaugural pledge was to “be a President for all Americans. I will fight as hard for those who did not support me as for those who did.”
From that get-go, the GOP recognized how righteously devious they can be by taking that pledge and blaming Biden for giving up on bipartisanship if he fails to urge "congressional Dems to actually negotiate with GOP,” and instead tries to “force through a leftist agenda.” Those are the tweeted words of GOP Minority Whip John Thune (R-S Dakota).
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| Senator John Thune (@SenJohnThune) Feb. 4, 2021 |
Biden shouldn’t negotiate in good faith with representatives less intent on serving their constituents than on undermining the president and ginning-up the likelihood the Democrats will be vulnerable for the 2022 election. He should ignore them. The GOP members of Congress are the people’s representatives and if they misrepresent their constituents, there’s an intrinsic time lag until the next election before the distortion becomes apparent.
Biden should serve and pay attention to the constituents. They’re his constituents too, as he aptly said in his inaugural address. The people in red states or in red districts don’t get ignored. They don’t have vaccines diverted elsewhere. They don’t get fewer federal dollars. They shouldn’t be targeted for political retribution. They should be served fully and fairly. The GOP representatives whom the people elected will have to figure out how to claim credit for work and service done in good faith by others.
By my count, 11 states have two out of two senators who boast of being card-carrying members of Gimme Only Partisans. The states lay fallow from meaningful and discriminating representation by their Republican senators.
Roll call: Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Iowa, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Dakota, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wyoming. Eleven.
That’s almost ¼ of all the states in the union, and my conservative estimates exclude from those 22 Gimme Only Partisan senators, some Republican senators who may be worth talking with, as Biden did with 10 of them three weeks ago to work out a COVID-19 relief package.
The good news for the millions of people in those 11 states is that for every McConnell or Paul or Graham or Blackburn or Rubio or Lankford or Scott #1 or Scott #2, there are handfuls of public servants who are willing, able and eager to serve the people of their states. I am not referring to challenges in upcoming elections. I’m suggesting that Biden deploy a nonpartisan public service corps to ensure that the people are consulted and served, using town hall meetings to hear and discuss, and communications to report back. The GOP lawmakers are not needed for legislation to pass. Presumably, they will continue to poison the waters rhetorically and through right wing outlets.
All you need to do is listen to Senate GOP Leader Mitch McConnell who told the news media after Tuesday's GOP’s private get-out-the-Biden harpoon lunch that Biden’s $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief plan is "totally partisan,” yet a challenge for the GOP in the face of public support for Biden’s plan for the Gimme Only Partisans’ messaging campaign.
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I will post the next two installments in my three interlocking stratagems for the Biden administration over the next few days. Each focuses on “the people.” The second is on job creation offsets for green economy advances; the third is on the paths to citizenship for immigrants.
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