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Obama must push bipartisanship; Lindsey Commesso; Beaver County Times; February 7, 2010.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“In response to Friday’s letter to the editor ‘Bipartisanship got Obama very little:’
“When Barack Obama got elected president, he did make an effort to reintroduce bipartisanship to politics, and for good reason: It’s one of the principles that our government is founded upon.”
[RWC] Just as Mr. Cox in his subject letter, Ms. Commesso provides no examples of Mr. Obama’s alleged “effort to reintroduce bipartisanship to politics.”
“As President Obama himself has said, this country benefits from debate on both sides of the political spectrum.”
[RWC] Mr. Obama said, “But I don’t want the folks who created the mess to do a lot of talking. I want them to get out of the way so we can clean up the mess. I don’t mind cleaning up after them, but don’t do a lot of talking.” - August 7, 2009, during a campaign speech for the Democrat candidate in the Virginia gubernatorial race. That doesn’t sound like someone who believes “this country benefits from debate on both sides of the political spectrum.”
“It’s unfortunate that so many people in both parties are vehemently opposed to working together for the greater good. More unfortunate is the hatred and name-calling that is parried back and forth.”
[RWC] This is to be expected when people are at opposite ends of the economic, political, and social spectrum. For example, lefties believe in a government-run healthcare monopoly and conservatives believe government has no role in providing healthcare.
“According to Cox, Obama needs to stand against ‘his sworn Republican enemies.’ There is no need for this deep-rooted hatred of a party or ideology. Just because Republicans and Democrats may disagree on how to approach things, this is not a good reason to portray either side as evil, obnoxious or ignorant.”
[RWC] Ms. Commesso is correct. As I’ve noted before, while I disagree with lefties like Mr. Cox, I don’t hate them. Unfortunately, there are too many folks like Mr. Cox who hate people simply because they have different political positions.
“We need to stop resorting to elementary school tactics of name-calling and get down to resolving our nation’s issues together.
“Although I tend to disagree with his politics, I applaud the president for his bipartisanship efforts.”
[RWC] Again, what are the examples of “[Mr. Obama’s] bipartisanship efforts?”
© 2004-2010 Robert W. Cox, all rights reserved.