The Republican leadership navigated the Sunday morning talk shows yesterday, bemoaning the failure of the President to reach out his first term. Then they groaned today that his Inaugural address didn't do the same.
The laughable thing about all of this is that this is the same group, by and large who plotted on the eve of Obama's first address to oppose literally everything he did, or even agreed with them on.
Now they want to play wounded?
It's like the little kid on the play ground, following around the big kid, badgering him, poking at him, insulting him, irritating him, and generally just being a pest. After about half an hour the big slugs the little kid, and the little kid cries, "What did I do?"
Of course the nation, and the government needs honest discourse. We need our two parties to be able to compromise and discuss. But that's impossible when one group, the Republicans, have such a dichotomous view of compromise.
They view compromise is the Democrats doing whatever they want, whenever they want. And if the Democrats don't do that, then they set themselves on making sure that nothing ever gets done. This is not hyperbole.
The House of Representatives led by the obstructionist Republicans, set the record for the least amount of legislation in over a generation. Consider this tidbit form Jenifer Steinhauer of the New York Times,
The 112th Congress is set to enter the Congressional record books as the least productive body in a generation, passing a mere 173 public laws as of last month. That was well below the 906 enacted from January 1947 through December 1948 by the body President Harry S. Truman referred to as the “do-nothing” Congress, and far fewer than even a single session of many prior Congresses.
But it's the Democrats who are to blame for the partisan tone?
The Republican minority in the Senate has invoked filings for cloture in the first four years of Obama's presidency, far and away the most of any single-term in office in US history.
Before he even was elected he reached out the Republicans for advice on policy proposal.
Meanwhile the President has, since the beginning, been trying to reach out to the Republicans. He immediatelymet with the Republican leadership at their annual retreat.
He tried again to reach out when he drafted his health care legislation. Rather than engage in real discourse they accused him of secretly plotting to kill old people with death panels.
They spent years not even accepting he was an American, perpetuating this myth of his Kenyan birth because of no other reason then they knew it riled up their supporters.
They went on talk show after talk show, engaging in diatribes about tyranny, socialism espousing hatred.
What makes this so sad is that we're not talking about Internet trolls, or even partisan hacks who represent the right wing media. We're talking about actual elected officials espousing hatred.
And through it all Obama kept reaching out his hand, and it kept getting bitten.
Within days of his taking office, they started to question, "how long is enough for him to revive the economy." By the time his first 100 days were up, they were already calling his polices a failure.
They blamed him for a budget that was passed before he'd even been elected President, talking about how much "he" had raised the deficit, ignoring that he was responsible for neither bulk of the spending increase, nor for the half billion in reduced revenue because of the contracted economy.
The Republicans refused to work with him offering only diatribes in place of discourse. Rather they just hid behind the myth "the liberals did it to Bush."
Don't compare Internet trolls to elected officials. Don't compare honest criticism with made up accusations of "death panels", "Kenyan births", or comparisons to Hitler.
Don't compare honest critiques with lies and smears. Don't confuse Internet trolls with elected officials.
Now they want to start a dialogue about bipartisanship? After they refused to even watch a movie with the President?
At a minimum, the President and the Democrats won about 51 percent of the vote. At a minimum the Republicans need to give one percent more than the Democrats. Instead their idea of compromise isn't even their way or no way. It's just no way.
If they want a more bipartisan government, it's time they began to act more bipartisan, and acknowledge that those who voted for them aren't the only ones who voted.