So Evan Bayh, the Senate's poster boy for bipartisanship, is, in the immortal words of the Jackson 5, "goin' back to Indiana." The senator explains, "There is too much partisanship and not enough progress [in Congress]--too much narrow ideology and not enough practical problem-solving." Bayh is correct--there isn't enough practical problem-solving in Congress. But his brand of bipartisanship should not be mourned. In fact, the country would be better off with a lot less bipartisanship, in any form, right now.
Liberal bloggers are fuming and calling him a traitor and a phony.
Obviously, Evan Bayh’s never been my favorite Senator. And the more one learns about both the manner of his departure, and the thinking behind it, the clearer it is why. Simply put: He’s an immoral person who conducts his affairs in public life with a callous disregard for the impact of his decisions on human welfare. He’s sad he’s not going to be president? He doesn’t like liberal activists? He finds senate life annoying? Well, boo-hoo. We all shed a tear.
Meanwhile, conservatives are reveling in all of this.
Evan Bayh's announcement that he will not be running for reelection in November is but one of many warnings to the liberal left that Americans do not want the liberal left agenda enacted, just as they don't want the country run from the far right..
Independents, Moderates and Centrists are by far the largest voting blocs in comparison to liberals and conservatives, yet the lesson does not seem to be getting through to the far left liberal Democrats as the party as a whole continues to try to push through their agenda
Most of the same folks reveling are also ready for a fight in Arizona.
Early polls suggest Arizona Sen. John McCain leads former Rep. J.D. Hayworth by a healthy margin in the GOP primary. Among conservative radio talk show hosts, however, McCain is losing by a landslide.
As McCain gears up for a vigorous challenge from the former six-term House Republican, national conservative talkers are picking up where they left off in the 2008 presidential campaign, blasting McCain as insufficiently conservative and unloading on him with all the bombast they can muster.
So, let's look at the score here. The same progressives that claim the Republicans are too far right now say that Bayh was nothing more than a conservative with no place in the Democratic Party. The same conservatives that see the Democratic Party as having no place for anyone but progressives are now ready to unload on John McCain because he's nothing but a RINO.
In fact, McCain and Bayh are similar to each other. They worry more about getting things done than ideology. That's what makes ideologues hate them. It's also amusing to see how ideologues love one while hating the other.
I suppose you can put it on a number of things. For one thing, weak economies tend to lead to civil unrest.
ReplyDeleteBut mainly, I think that people are just plain done with "centrism." Bi-partisanship is all fine and wonderful, but really, what exactly do the two parties agree on anymore? Bailouts and raising their own pay. When it comes to everything else, nobody can even agree to the same set of facts.
People like you are done with centrism. you never wanted it. In fact, it's independents that are growing in numbers and that's because, at least in part, the hypocrisy of a situation like this.
ReplyDeleteDon't confuse being Independent with being Centrist.
ReplyDeleteTrue but they also aren't partisans. So, they aren't looking for parties to ram agendas through. Independents want bipartisanship.
ReplyDelete