The Media Must Stop Romanticizing Divided Government

Much of the potential of the Obama administration was lost due to the obstruction of the Republican controlled Senate which under Mitch "the Grim Reaper" McConnell.  As things sit at the moment over 400 bills passed by the House of Representatives remain tabled and dead in the Senate.  Yet some of the talking heads bloviate about the merits of "divided government" and/or credit the public with deciding they want such a stalemate.  Truth be told, the GOP has held the Senate because of the structural defect of the constitution which gives small rural states two senators. If the Senate makeup was based on proportional representation based on population, the GOP might never again hold control.  Sadly, unless the Democrats win the run off elections in Georgia, much of the good the Biden/Harris administration might do will be dead on arrival.  A column in the Washington Post looks at the problem and notes that much of the media needs to get its head out of its ass. Here are column excerpts:

With Joe Biden now president-elect, and partisan control of the Senate hanging in the balance, pundits are already romanticizing “divided government” — a Democratic president alongside a Republican-controlled legislative chamber.

It sounds “inherently moderate,” wax some commentators; it’s “a good moment because in order to get something done, people are going to have to cooperate and compromise,” claim others. In this telling, “divided government” is, paradoxically, just what the country needs to heal our divisions.

It’s a nice thought.

Unfortunately, a single man stands in the way of this fantasy. And it’s not the guy in the White House. It’s the current Senate majority leader, Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) — to whom Senate custom gives nearly unilateral power to block most initiatives from ever getting a vote, compromises or efforts toward common ground be damned. Over and over, McConnell has already exercised this power.

Democrats and Republicans already agree on oodles of issues. Or at least the exhausted middle majority of Americans, and the middle chunk legislators, do. Or most Democrats, plus some peeled-off Republicans. Or vice versa.

You get the idea. There are indeed obvious solutions to be had, and clinched by the middle 50 votes within the Senate, if only lawmakers had the courage to cooperate. . . . . Large majorities of voters in both parties support these immigrants, known as “dreamers,” and a bipartisan agreement giving them a path to citizenship almost materialized two years ago. (Until Trump blew up the efforts, of course.)

Or there are pocketbook issues important to American families.

In an interview Sunday, Republican Sen. Mitt Romney (Utah) spoke about his desire to work with the president-elect and Democrats on an expansion of the child tax credit. Romney already co-sponsors, alongside Democratic Sen. Michael F. Bennet (Colo.), a bill to make this credit fully refundable and thus available to the poorest households. Other Republicans and conservatives have supported variants of the idea, partly because it can help “traditional” families, with one nonworking parent (usually mom); and nearly every sitting Democratic senator co-sponsors related legislation.

Again, an easy win-win.

Voters seem to like the idea of divided government on the premise that it incentivizes such shared victories. This is part of the pitch Republicans are making about the two U.S. Senate seats in Georgia facing runoff elections, which will decide which party ultimately controls the upper chamber next year: If Republicans hold the seats, the GOP argues, they can not only check Democrats’ most radical impulses but also deliver the moderate outcomes, forced through mutually beneficial cooperation, that voters crave.

But if past is prologue, such promised cooperation is likely to be a con. At least if McConnell continues running the show, as he almost certainly would if those Georgia seats remain Republican.

Recall that back in the day, Barack Obama also ran on a platform of healing our divides and bringing political harmony to a polarized Washington. Republicans, led by McConnell, refuted this promise simply by obstructing nearly every Obama initiative on offer, regardless of public support.

Any opportunities for finding common ground — and for Biden to prove his political healing powers — will be blocked if McConnell again prevents such legislation from even getting a vote. Which he is likely to do, at least if he still believes his top priority is to make a Democratic occupant of the White House a “one-term president.”

The nation needs the Democrats to win both of the Georgia senate seats.  Failing that, one can only hope that McConnell - a man I believe is as evil as Trump - is forced to retire due to health issues.  He is a threat to democracy.