What’s wrong with American Politics? The Congress

The Democrats, and Obama in particular, look strategically naïve in comparison. Like many recent presidents Obama promised when elected to be more co-operative and bipartisan. This approach may have been in keeping with Obama’s temperament but it did not suit the times. Getting Republican co-operation (or seeking to get it) slowed the pace of reform and led to watered down or compromised legislation.

Also bipartisanship is often a byword for pork barrelling as each opposition vote comes with a price.

Given the unpopularity of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial crisis, bipartisanship should have been the last thing on the mind of the Obama administration. Creating a stark contrast would have been more strategically sensible and would have better served the progressive policy agenda Obama campaigned on. This is the type of change people who campaigned enthusiastically for Obama believed in.

Of course there would have been impediments to this bold approach: Obama would have been attacked by the big polluters as an un-American greenie and Filibusters would have been threatened in the Senate. However, in 2009 and 2010 there was a chance his administration and the Democrats in Congress could have stared down these challenges: the tragedy is that after the November mid-term elections this possibility will be lost.