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Have some thoughts about bipartisanship I've been sitting on for a while and want to share now. Specifically, why I soured on it five years ago but will probably be leaning more into it moving forward. Short thread...
I started my career pushing moderate policy at bipartisan orgs, because I believed nobody has a monopoly on good ideas, everyone should have a seat at the table in our democracy, and we can get the best outcomes by working together.
That changed in 2016, when the GOP proved it had no commitment to the small-c conservative principles it professed. They backed a corrupt, incompetent, racist populist who tried to destroy our democracy - then used his power to blow up our budget and pack our courts.
Fuck that!
Fuck that!
My policy views didn't change, but my politics did. I went from wanting to work with the GOP to wanting to beat them bad. I got involved in the DNC elections, helped flip Virginia blue, and started a project at a progressive think tank to challenge Republicans' fiscal hypocrisy.
The hope was that we could make Trump the albatross Republicans deserved to have around their necks, beat them up and down the ballot, then use our new majority to dismantle all the lousy policies they sold their souls for - and prevent them from ever doing this again.
But y'know what? It didn't work out. Trump scored some very impressive gains even as we ultimately beat him, and Republicans held their own downballot. I thought they deserved to pay a steep penalty for what they did over the last four years, but the American people disagreed.
No matter how much I wish we could, we're not gonna land a knockout blow anytime soon. So I'm back to thinking we should at least *try* to work together. Not because I idealize bipartisanship anymore, but because it really is our only viable path to enacting any real change.
The good news here is that we just elected the perfect president to give this a shot. Maybe bipartisan progress really is impossible and Mitch McConnell will kill everything. But if there's one person who can bridge our divisions, it's Joe Biden - let's give him a chance. /End
