For those of you who think this will be about polling and political campaigns, sorry to disappoint. It is about a much more serious problem with respect to the use of poll results by the media and by our elected officials in ways that has too often led to poor governing and the bad consequences that subsequently result.
I’m sure you’ve all heard that, according to the polls, the majority of Americans want the Republicans and Democrats to work together … they want bipartisanship … they just want us all to get along.
When Republicans are in the minority, like now, this is their favorite mantra.
When Democrats want an excuse to take it slow and play it safe, you will hear how compromise is ALWAYS the best way and how if both sides of an issue are mad at you, then you MUST BE doing the right thing. Simplistic, mindless talking points that are wrong and wrong.
It is true that the majority of Americans answer “yes” to every polling question that asks whether they would like the two parties to work together (i.e., bipartisanship). Unfortunately, every single polling firm fails to then ask an essential and highly applicable follow-up question.
Something along the lines of:
If you HAD TO CHOOSE, would you prefer (A) the two major political parties try to work together but ultimately fail to fix the problems your family faces or (B) one of the two political parties, in the absence of significant support from the other, works in ways that ultimately fix the problems your family faces?
I could be wrong, but I believe the majority of people care more about results than about processes and would answer B. In fact, Republicans are clearly much less enamored with bipartisanship (despite their recent rhetoric) than Democrats, and I would argue that the Democratic Party’s obsession with pursuing bipartisanship at all costs has been a significant handicap – bringing our plastic knife to a gun fight if you will.
What defines Progressives is our understanding that it is the impact of governing on people’s lives that matters, not just words or good intentions, and that the Democratic Party’s forty year chasing after bipartisanship regardless of our repeated failures has been a mistake, both practical and political.
Miraculously, our new president, who clearly did not get it in the past, now appears to. Additionally, Biden was wise enough to explicitly define “unity” as all people of good heart and good faith coming together to make things better and points out that this is not necessarily the same thing as “bipartisanship”. It also seems that others in the Democratic Party leadership are coming around and that the growing Democratic mantra may be the long-time progressive attitude “Let’s Just Get S**t Done”.
Dear Democratic Party: Thanks for finally starting to listen. Keep it up. More taking back of our language and more fighting for real progress, please!