Republicans are never going to allow genuine bipartisanship to happen during an Obama presidency.
They've portrayed Barack Obama as a radical, a socialist who pals around with terrorists. They've called him anti-American and elitist. They've intimated that he's a dark-skinned foreigner, some sort of dangerous Other who threatens our way of life.
Bipartisanship is not an option for them come January 20.
That may come as a disappointment to the American public, which longs for an end to the partisan bickering in Washington. But it doesn't have to.
There's a third option, one that not only satisfies the need to end the constant back-and-forth and gridlock, but also guarantees Barack Obama's reelection in 2012 and Democratic majorities for years to come.
Democrats should just ignore them.
Ingore Republicans in Congress. Ignore their silly amendments, ignore their calls for hearings, ignore the speeches they give, and ignore them when they complain about being ignored.
Ignore their right-wing echo chamber. Ignore Rush Limbaugh and Matt Drudge and Fox News and their newspapers and blogs. Ignore it when the mainstream media amplifies them.
Ignore the daily talking points and the noise. Ignore the inevitable anti-Obama conspiracy theories. Ignore the horse race as their contenders jockey for position in 2012.
Ignore them all and just... govern.
If things go well on Tuesday, we'll have a Democrat in the White House and big Democratic majorities in both Houses of Congress. Even if we don't reach the magic number in the Senate, we can probably get 60 votes on major issues when we need them.
That means President Obama can set a bold, progressive agenda and Congress can pass it with little or no fuss.
Republicans can complain all they want. They can yell about raising taxes when we cut taxes for 95 percent of Americans. They can cry "socialism" as we guarantee every man, woman, and child in America health care coverage. They can warn that we're wrecking the economy as we build a new green economy with millions of new jobs, energy independence, and an end to global warming. They can try to rouse fears of a more dangerous world as we finally take our security seriously and rebuild America's reputation.
Let them complain. We'll just govern, and govern well. And come election time -- in 2010, 2012, and beyond -- we'll be rewarded at the ballot box. You really think Americans are going to vote against the president and the Congress who finally gave them health care? You think if we fix our economy and create jobs that a few silly slogans from the far right will matter?
Republicans will be left with nothing but the culture wars of the last century, trying to win on abortion and gay marriage when the rest of us have moved on. They'll be pushed further toward the role of a fringe, regional party, with their candidates vulnerable to third-party spoilers like libertarians and theocrats.
Leave the partisan bickering to them. We may not usher in a new era of bipartisanship, but we can give Americans all they've ever really wanted: a government that stands up for them.
Through its campaign of misinformation, encouragement of prejudices and fears, as well as promotion of wholly incompetent candidates, the RNC chose to battle, not the Democrats, but a far more invincible enemy - information technology.
Both parties have historically been successful pushing misinformation, if not blatant lies, to promote their causes. In fact, both regularly call on advertising experts to help sell their wares. But even the most savvy advertisers know there is a limit to what they can push. With the advent of the internet and expanded broadcasting, it's too easy to vet exaggerated claims.
The RNC's insistence on casting idiots as "true Americans" and the educated as "elitists" only exposed them as charlatans, and the Republican party a wretched gathering of the greedy and the gullible. Watching McCain immediately reminds me of some old low-grade spaghetti western scene where a conniving peddler is pawning off snake old to a gathering of ignorant townsfolk. And invariably, there is the idiot "apprentice" who guises himself - or in this case, herself - as "proof" of the "potion's potent power".
I loved those old movies. But they're fading into history as quickly as the cellulose they were filmed on. And so the Republican party if they don't re-image themselves.
I hope Obama's election will give them back their cojones (and ovaries), so they have the courage to do what America needs. I'm sick of their cowardice.
How will "we" get the 60 votes, if "we" ignore the Republicans in the Senate?
I agree about ignoring the far-right punditocracy, but moderate Republicans in the Senate should not be ignored, unless ya'll want 1994 all over again in 2010. Learn from the mistakes of the past, embrace the center, work with the center right of this country, and marginalize the wingnuts on both sides of the political spectrum.
Isn't that the real change that Obama has been promising? Most Americans are not ideologues, and all they really want from our gov't is to help us to create a better future for our progeny. I believe that Obama understands this, and that's why I voted for him. I didn't vote for the Democratic Presidential candidate, I voted for who I believe would be the best at reuniting the United States of America.
But the previous poster has a good point. The Dems MUST include the more moderate wing of the Republicans, the ones who are not wacky, and treat them with due respect.
If we are to end the partisanship, he has to listen. Yes, there are some die-hard conservatives, and probably not a few bigots, who won't care, who will look for every possible opportunity to trip him up. But there are those who, if he genuinely tries to do right by them, will leave off this vile attack-dog politicking and get to work. We need them, too.
Obama listens. I just hope he doesn't listen to this writer.
People like the Republicans, who have generated strength out of their hatred and their fear-mongering, don't just go away when you ignore them. They'll keep going and keep gathering mental defectives unto themselves and pretty soon they'll be marching down the streets, rousting out people who don't believe the way they do into buses and trains, shipping them off to some prison camp just like their role models did in Germany in the 1930's and 1940's.
Assuming Obama wins next Tuesday, and assuming at the same time that we get an overwhelming majority in both houses of Congress, please remember we don't have anything that approaches a Permanent Democratic Majority -- nor would we want one. Democrats will have their day, as we've had it before and will have it again, but sooner or later the times will change and Republicans will be back in power. When that happens, we need to make sure that things will be safe for it. WE NEED to involve decent Republicans (all three of them) in our law-making process to ensure a safe future for ourselves.
By making itself irrelevant, the Republican Party has probably turned itself into a minority party. It may take years for it to recover and become relevant again. But this irrelevancy is not necessarily a good thing. Our government was designed with a system of checks and balances. Any time that one party has control over both the executive and legislative branches of government, that system of checks and balances is lost.
Is this the United States of America? Or are they spelling it "AmeriKa" now?