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Monday, January 17, 2011

Bipartisanship, the Big Myth

"It has been a source of great pain to me to have met with so many among [my] opponents who had not the liberality to distinguish between political and social opposition; who transferred at once to the person, the hatred they bore to his political opinions." — Thomas Jefferson

When President Obama gives his State of the Union address next Tuesday (January 25, 2011) the Republicans and Democrats will sit together in the Capitol. They decided to take this action in the name of bipartisanship and civility. Isn’t this just so Kumbaya — something the lefty folk singer Pete Seeger would love?

Once again we have another example of the Republicans being hoodwinked by the Democrats and the left-wing media, and the left-wing taking control of the narrative. The Republicans in their magnanimity after the November elections and the recent shooting at the Tucson Safeway store think this will give them an air of civility and bipartisanship — how foolish they are. Did Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reed promote civility and bipartisanship during the 110th and 111th Congress? Did President Obama promote bipartisanship during the first two years of his administration? Remarks like; “John the election is over” and “they [the Republicans] can ride in the back of the bus” sound like civility and bipartisanship? The Answer is No!

This Republic has never been a bipartisan nation — it was designed that way. From the very beginning with the Federalists vs. the Anti Federalists to the animosity between Thomas Jefferson and John Adams this nation has been eschewed bipartisanship. Bipartisanship did not exist during the run up to the Civil War. It did not exist in the Wilson, Roosevelt or Johnson administration and it certainly did not exist in the 111th Congress.

The losers of any election always call for bipartisanship. This is their ploy to retain a seat at the table. When the Democrats were in control of the 110th and 111th Congress the media called the Republicans vile names and the party of no. Now that the Republicans control the House by a large margin the media and Democrats are calling for civility and bipartisanship, in other words they want the Republicans to make nice with them — and the Republicans are falling for their ploy. This is like the school bully, who consistently beat on the 97-pound weakling and then wanting to make up when the weakling finished his Charles Atlas course.  Bullies always act this way and the last two Congresses were composed of left-wing bullies.

If bipartisanship is so important why don’t we just have one political party? Then If this were to happen we would have a dictatorship with no dissenting voices — elections would be based on popularity and good looks rather than ideas and principals. The voters in last November’s election rejected the ideas and principals of the Democrats and they don’t like. They want to keep the narrative in their camp and the Republicans are going to let them. Mark my words, in the days to come every time the Democrats don’t get their way they will raise the clarion of raw partisanship of the majority. This is why the citizens threw out the Democrats — they did not want them getting their way anymore.

At the time of the founding of the Republic newspapers were blatantly partisan and they let you know it. The papers were tied to political parties — that’s why they carried the name Democrat or Republican on their mastheads. In order to increase circulation and revenue newspapers began using names like Observer, Times or Independent, but their partisanship still showed on the editorial pages and even in the slant they gave news stories.

This conditioned carried over to the broadcast media and was the reason for the so called “Fairness Doctrine.” The purpose of the Fairness Doctrine, enforced by the Federal Communications Commission, was to force broadcast radio and TV stations to present a balanced view of in their news and opinion programs. The FCC’s reasoning for this was that these broadcast stations used the public airways for the transmission of their programs.

The Fairness Doctrine did not work well as a TV station could have a left-wing program in the prime 6:00 pm news slot and then runs an opposing viewpoint in the 11:30 pm slot. Also, the doctrine did not work at all with National Public Radio and TV — they have always been a left leaning outlet.

With the advent and growth of cable and listener supported radio (XM and Cirrus) the Fairness Doctrine did not apply. During the Reagan administration the Fairness Doctrine was done away with. Reagan believed all points of view should be aired (like newspapers) and the consumers of the media would make their choices. This led to incredible rise of conservative talk radio. The public choose to listen to the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity and other conservative talkers rather to the voices on the left. This drove the left-wing media crazy. Yes, they control the print media (which is failing due to the internet) but they came in a dismal second to the conservative shows. On any given day Rush Limbaugh has ten times the listeners as the New York Times has readers and at least double the listeners of CBS, NBC or ABC news and talk shows. Fox News dominates the cable news industry.

While conservatives believe they are losing the battle (ops— contest) of news and opinion dissemination, in fact they are not and the left-wing media knows. This is evidenced by the quick and massive reaction by conservatives to the accusations by the left that they were somehow responsible for the Tucson shooting. The left has lost power so they are screaming louder. This is the way they work — I’ll talk louder so you can understand me. Conservatives have to realize their message is resonating with the American electorate and remember the old adage; if you wrestle with a skunk you will come away stinking like the skunk.

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