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Can Republicans and Obama work together?

by Jon Henke | November 12, 2008 at 10:52 PM
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At Culture11, I've written a piece on how Republicans and Democrats can and should work together.  A little.  While they still can.

Rather than giving advice to President Obama on the policies he should offer, I would advise Congressional Republicans to take Obama up on some of his offers … and quickly, lest the opportunity slip away. ...

For a very brief period after President Obama takes office, there will be an alignment of political interests.

  • Republicans philosophically support federal transparency and responsible budgeting — at least, they are supposed to; theory and practice have diverged in recent years.

  • Democrats have marketed themselves as supporters of transparency and responsible budgeting — at least, they claim to; theory and practice will diverge in coming years.

But remember, Democrats aren't cleaning up the problems.  They're just putting new pigs in the mud. The time for idealism and cooperation is short.

However, there will only be a very brief window to do that. Whatever Senator Obama has claimed, President Obama will have very different interests. The new Democratic administration and Congress will act according to their own incentives, just as Republicans did in the past.

The election of Obama did not empower people. It empowered politicians. [...]

Hope and Change got people on board the Democratic bus. Political convenience will throw them under it.

There's a lot more to it.  Read the rest at Culture11.

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Thank You

Submitted by lexluthor on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 05:33.

 I've been sick and tired of seeing this fighting going on, and I hoping - hoping! - that at least for a little while our government can get some bipartisan things done.

Big differences, bigger problems

Submitted by johnson springs on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 07:54.

Despite the differences in approach, philosophy, etc. given the epic scope of the problems the nation faces in terms of fiscal deficit, current account deficit, healthcare costs whose growth is a huge drag on the economy, negative job growth for going on 10 months, I would dearly love to see our national leadership pull together to solve these problems. For if these problems are not solved soon big differences of political/economics theory are going to seem very trivial.

Transparency is a great place to start. Let's all see the sausage being made.

a great place for ALL the netroots

Submitted by RisingTide on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 10:11.

democrat and republican to come together.

I figure we the people have a good shot of getting Obama and company to pay attention -- who footed the bill to get them elected?? ;-) That, imho, is what the rightroots ought to be working on.

Money first, then volunteers. And Primary someone. Who is your Lieberman??

Can Republicans and Obama work together?

Submitted by adam d. on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 12:53.

I agree with this completely.  A timely piece in wsj shows exactly what issue to pursue and how:

http://mobile2.wsj.com/device/article.php?mid=3&CALL_URL=http://www.wsj....

If Obama's agenda and approach on Iran can ever work, it's now or never.  We need to strengthen him to get this done.  European govt's need to understand that their permissive attitude about commercial ties to Iran are not tolerable at this stage, and we'll have to unite to get that message to them with clarity.

Then if the effort fails, at least the attempt will have been a sincere one and Obama can mull his options with that knowledge. 

Can the GOP and Dem's work together - not a chance!

Submitted by Claude Hopper on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 15:06.

 

 

Our country is a tribal nation, with the following begger tribes relying on the government to front their begging: labor unions, university academics, university towns, teachers unions, state and local public employees unions, NGO's relying on Federal grants, trial lawers and large corporations.

These groups need the government front man so they are not embarrased to be seen on the street begging from passer-bys. Their main front door is the Dems.

The opposite tribe is the private sector economy, the bulk of which consists of a disorganized conglomeration of small businesses.  They are busy trying to make ends meet and have less time to snuggle with the political class. But they are the ones being asked (forced) to support the beggars and they have no defense. Their traditional front man was the GOP, which is now kaput.

increased transparency with bipartisan support seems very

Submitted by mnmod on Thu, 11/13/2008 - 22:24.

doable, if some leaders want to pursue this goal.  It fits nicely with cutting back on the worst pork barrel spending, if the biggest most questionable projects are easy to track on line.  Conservatives so often talk about cutting spending but rarely if ever, offer significant reductions.  This was highlighted perfectly when Mccain campaigned on cutting pork barrel spending , $16 Billion if all is eliminated, at the same time congress is passing the $700 billion bailout.  In normal times, rather than current financial crisis, I think dems would  do a good job on paygo.  Maybe we can get back to that in a few years when the economy is in better shape.