Common Sense Ways to End Partisan Gridlock in Washington

The political situation in Washington, D.C. has become untenable; Republicans attempt to block any and all legislation from the Obama administration. Democrats are sometimes only marginally better in their handling of their agenda and have basically squandered their majority and subsequent will of the people that swept them into office in the first place.


The reasons we are in this mess are many. Some of the reasons below are strictly my own opinion and should not be confused with in-depth political analysis.

• The Republicans have adopted a political "Slash and Burn" philosophy of just say no, no to anything and everything. Even if a Democratic proposal contains most if not may previous Republican Proposals they still vote no. Republicans in the Senate have insisted on a 60 vote super majority to pass anything, virtually guaranteeing next to nothing gets done.

• The Republicans have also decided to use political surrogates when its politically too risky to attack a particular proposal directly themselves. Interesting how the Tea Party movement, Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Conservative bloggers always seem to provide the political cover they need just when they need it.

• Another sad development within the Republican party is the purge of most moderate Republicans. This purge has created the all or nothing, no compromise conservative party that I have described above.

• The Liberal wing of The Democratic party is also somewhat involved in a take no prisoner no compromise position as well in both the House and Senate. However, at this point they still seem to be more willing to compromise (at least with a lot of arm twisting) then their Conservative Republican counterparts.

• The Republicans have mastered the half truth, deceptive and all out lie message strategy. When something is repeated enough times evidently in American politics it becomes the truth. How many times have you heard about President Obama's Socialist agenda, big government power grab, leftist agenda, ultra-liberal, freedom and liberty destroying politics? Seriously there are actually people in this country who believe that nonsense. Most of these Republican strategies and snappy one liner talking points are geared toward the emotional responses of individuals and groups gullible to such manipulation. Thomas Jefferson once said "Democracy is founded on a well educated population" He is proven right everyday. Sadly there are very few Republican politicians who standup and publicly disavow these blatant falsehoods as they believe to be more politically advantageous to remain silent.

• Special interest groups on both sides of the aisle (the House & Senate) has become a rampant problem and the recent Supreme Court ruling is going to make it considerable worse before it gets better. I predict the 2010 mid terms are going to be the nastiest bunch of lies we have ever heard in any election cycle in modern times.

• Some very, very small minorities in conservative America have somehow become the dominate voice in American Politics. Sadly these groups are being manipulated and fueled by other forces with agendas that are not their own. The truly shocking thing is how these very small minority groups are somehow portraying themselves as the American Majority. Of course these falsehoods are being reinforced by conservative media outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh.


So how does the Obama administration rise above the noise and get the job done? President Obama and the Democrats were elected by a landslide victory because of his proposals he made while running for office in 2008. How is it possible that by attempting to carry out these same policies he was elected to carry out he been vilified and out maneuvered?

MESSAGE, MESSAGE, MESSAGE. President Obama is learning that the truth is not enough, ignoring the outrageous claims will not make them go away, they just fester and spread. He is realizing that he personally has to respond to these half truths and lies with the same rapid reaction force that he employed during his campaign. Essentially, in Obama we trust, others in the party not so much. President Obama's personal popularity rating still remain high and he is starting to capitalize on this to get his message across.

The "State of the Union" speech was a great start. The President quickly pivoted to the televised speech and Q&A session at the Republican House members retreat in Baltimore on Friday, January 29, 2010. (If you haven’t seen this yet, I strongly urge you to watch it on cspan.org or youtube.com. This is much watch TV.) This was President Obama at his best deflecting and defusing Republican nonsense all while being civil and with a sense of humor. President did not use a teleprompter or use notes; he demonstrated a through knowledge of the issues and urged honest bipartisan support. He demonstrated exactly why he was elected and made his positions and policies clear and concise. I thought the most interesting part was when the Republican leader of the House hand President Obama a 30 page booklet of Republican proposals. 30 pages that's evidently all they have, 30 pages in a little booklet.

President Obama no needs to do the same televised speech and Q&A session with the Democratic membership as well.

The Republican Q&A session did have one very interesting moment. A Republican congressman (sorry don't remember who) talked to President Obama about a new "constitutional" line item veto. President Obama stated that any President would be interested in that and that he would be happy to discuss it in more detail. This is an outstanding idea on several levels. It gives the President the ability to remove waste from bills one line item a time but also provides political cover for Congressman and Senators should their items be vetoed.

Next order of business, the "filibuster" it is insane to require a 60 vote super majority to pass anything in the Senate. This is a built in guarantee that nothing gets done.

I am not advocating that one party run rough shod over the other just because they have a majority in both houses. Everyone seems to forget that the founding fathers had to make major compromises just to pass the U.S. Constitution. ideological purity by either party is not possible if anything substantial is to be done. The minority party, in this case the Republicans are supposedly, and I stress supposedly protecting the rights and wishes of the minority. I say supposedly because they don't act like it.

The Majority party has an obligation to take into consideration the wishes of the minority, as well as the majority. I don't advocate bastardizing the wishes of the people and create something that is so wishy-washy that a bill is worthless. I mean both sides have an obligation to their constituents to create something that has at least some elements that both sides can live with. After all we are all Americans with remarkably similar goals and interests. Historically, there is roughly 80% of any legislation that both sides can agree on with only 20% of any issue being in dispute. I am not so naive that I think this could happen overnight or even in the near future. With this political climate the Republicans will remain obstructionist, The Democrats will attempt to ram their agenda down the Republicans throats. I believe the Democrats are still trying to get even for being virtually shut out by the Republicans for 12 years of the past Republican majority.

So politicians in Washington here's a novel concept. Members of both parties or no party  have "Rights" as guaranteed in the U.S. Constitution. If you always keep that in mind, maybe, just maybe, we can have a honest and civil political discussion. Then we can actually get something done.

My personal belief is President Obama needs to continue to stress his desire change to change the way Washington does business, as he was elected to do. Can he do it in one term or even two? most likely not, but he can lay the foundation for lasting change. President Obamas stance and actions on Lobbyists, transparency in Government, etc. are slowly starting to pay off. The best way to lead is to honestly communicate and lead by example. That is the way to win elections, and create effective change in Washington D.C.

Regards,

Tom