The Differences in the Parties

It seems that partisanship has reached new heights in the last couple of years in Washington. Republicans are complaining that they are not included in the legislative process, that Democrats are just proceeding without them. On the other hand, Republicans are engaging in unprecedented obstruction: refusing to consider judicial appointments, using filibuster at an unprecedented rate, voting in lockstep against everything proposed by Democrats.

What has brought us to this level of contention?

Let's go back a few years to the Bush administration. During that time it seemed to me that Republicans were running government in the most partisan fashion I had ever seen. I expressed the opinion, many times, that I thought George W. Bush should be impeached and incarcerated, and if he were to be hanged for his crimes as well, fine with me. (Note to Secret Service: I am not threatening the man.) I thought Bush was leading the country away from the Constitution, toward Fascism, and away from what this country should stand for. I felt he was un-American, that he really hated this country as it is and was determined to change it to be something the founders never intended. I was concerned that democracy itself was failing.

It is interesting now to hear so many of the same opinions expressed by Republicans about Barack Obama, who is so very different from George W. Bush. How can it be that people see things in such opposite lights? The same people who oppose President Obama so vehemently mostly supported George W., never mind the wars, the torture, the illegal spying, the signing statements, etc. How can it be that we look at the same set of facts and come to polar oppostie conclusions?

I think the answer is relatively simple: one side has to be dead wrong in almost everything they think and do. There is no reconciling the two points of view, no working together, no way to accept the other side. We are too far apart. Someone is wrong -- dishonest, ignorant, delusional, or some combination of the above. There is no other way.

And that is really the story of politics in America for the last ten years. The Republican Party has gone too far; they have long since gone off the deep end, and the only solution now is to disband the party and start something more reasonable.