Ending DC's culture of hyper-partisanship

Why as a staunch Democrat I am supporting Republican Charlie Crist for the Senate in Florida

It goes without saying that America finds itself at one of the worst ideological standstills in Washington DC in all of its history.

The temperaments on both sides of the aisle are unwilling to as much as be in the same room with each other, much less come to a compromise on much needed legislation.

The most unfortunate thing about this situation is that this transcends party lines. This atmosphere of unrelenting divisiveness has come to split both the democratic and republican parties in a way that is unprecedented. The right wing is having problems between strict conservatives, libertarians, and moderate socially liberal republicans.

In DC, we've gone way past being able to blame Congress' inability to get anything done on partisan wrangling between republicans and democrats, it is now a reality that those most at fault are moderate democrats running for the hills from being seen as too liberal and progressive democrats seeing moderates as nothing but mutinous party poopers.

The new consensus in Washington DC is to snub everybody within arms reach. Indiana Senator Evan Bayh wasted no time attacking congressional democrats after he announced his retirement, and progressive congressmen and think tanks wasted no time slamming Bayh for being ineffective and too centrist.

The ends to the means politicians in Washington are using is to make the other side fail. As it has been said many times the past two years by many from both sides, this attitude is self destructing, for if Democrats fail at governing the country, then America as a whole fails. Republicans would have a likely impossible duty to repair massive deficits and the national debt if their attempts to ruin any possibility of success from Obama and Democrat's economic policies yield any fruit.

It's not difficult to see how impossibly difficult it would be to actually end up eliminating the debt, eliminating the budget deficits, and be able to create jobs if a Republican Congress' answer to everything is freezing spending and cutting programs. Those responses would kill jobs, worsen the crisis in the short and long term, and possibly lead to an eventual collapse of the American labor market.

This is where we have the deep divisions between common sense Republicans and militant conservatives hell bent on destroying the Obama administration and thus destroying America with it.

I am proud to say that as a staunch Democrat with a few conservative leanings that for the first time ever, I will be supporting a Republican for the U.S. Congress. I will be backing Charlie Crist for the Senate in the Florida election.

My hope is that with donating my time and perhaps even some funds to elect him and put candidates who put the American people above partisan bickering in Washington, we can one day return to the days when Senators of the opposing party would visit each other for holidays or simply to have a beer; something Evan Bayh relishes in his op-ed in the NYT.

My biggest hope is that we can have compromise again, compromises that used to be brokered by Senators who were much less militant about their positions like Ted Kennedy, John McCain, Orin Hatch, and Robert Byrd. Neither Democrats or Republicans can escape from this charge. Washington DC isn't working for America because neither is willing to compromise with themselves, let alone with the opposing party.

Charlie Crist is unapologetic about his support of Obama's stimulus bill. He's valiantly reiterated the undeniable facts that his state benefited from the 87,000 jobs that were created or saved from stimulus funds, a large portion of those jobs being educators and police and firemen. The starkest contrast between him and other Republicans is his focus on the people and not the prevailing sentiment that all Republicans should do is block anything Obama tries to do. He also railed against those who disrespect President Obama but as early as a few years ago called those who went against George W Bush as being unpatriotic or even guilty of treason.

“And you know, I was raised to respect the Presidency”

A return to a day and age where the purpose of the U.S. Congress is to get things done for the American people is what we so desperately need. Saying you're doing the people's work by blocking critical legislation and not offering a counter plan or your hand in reaching a compromise is clearly nothing but obstructionism.

By not actually extending the hand and reverting to steamrolling using a large majority has left Democrats in the dust by in essence egging on this sentiment that Republicans block everything they do.

This is why we need Republicans like Charlie Crist and perhaps even people like Scott Brown (if the voting trend persists) to come into Washington DC, come into the Senate's chambers and offer his hand with no predetermined cynicism and paranoia. This atmosphere in Washington needs to change, we need to help the President to fulfill his promise of change by bringing agents of change that will actually work to that end. Militant Democrats and Republicans aren't going to be the answer. Who will be the answer are those that are truly principled and have respect for the American people.

We need to end this repeating cycle of the President constantly saying he's reaching out across the aisle and then have us find out that he didn't as much as call a single Republican to get their support. Something worth noting was that Obama easily won Olympia Snowe (R-MA) by giving her a quick call on the jobs bill. The Senate had a filibuster proof majority with her on board using a trigger public option and threw it back at her face for the sake of steamrolling. We need to hold the President accountable and force him to work to actually include ideas from both sides of the aisle. America needs and wants tort reform, America needs and wants spending restraints where it can be done, America needs and wants tax breaks that will actually help them get through the week.

Let's end this RIGHT NOW! This is why for the first time ever, I will be putting my efforts as an individual American to elect a Republican, Florida governor Charlie Crist for the U.S. Senate, and I urge all those who seek to repair Washington DC to do the same.

HC Senate Vote Imminent : Quick Thoughts before the Vote

UPDATE: As of after a few minutes after midnight CST tonight, the Senate health care bill has officially PASSED the U.S. Senate.

The Senate vote which will likely be the most crucial vote in this whole thing is scheduled to happen within less than ten minutes of this post.

It's almost a sure thing that it will pass, but what truly bugs me is how slow we will reap benefits and how that could really be a big problem for dems next year. In future pieces I will go into detail about what this may mean for democrats.

In the meantime, let's forget all that stuff of little relative significance, affordable health care is finally within reach and discriminatory acts by insurers will finally come to an end. We didn't get the most progressive bill, but considering how fragile the dem majorities are in the Senate, it doesn't need to be said that we are blessed to have actually gotten something out of the 'legislative black hole' that is the Senate. People will no longer need to fear dying from cancer or dying from some obscure complication of a treatable disease that wasn't taken care of because they lacked insurance.

I won't go on too long. Any comment I can make now has been repeated and retold in every way possible.

This truly is history. Such an emotional moment of solidarity this is for those whose lifelong cause has been for HC reform. I can just imagine how Vicky Kennedy and her family must feel right now. Most of Ted Kennedy's political life has been to make this moment a reality. Here we finally are.

Maybe one day when we reap the benefits of this bill the people of America will wake up and realize that the system we have is not as broken as they think. We still can make change happen. It might not be all of the change we would like, but we all make compromises in our every day life. That won't cease to happen in politics or in our daily lives.

Don't let your desire to 'get back' at republicans and desire to get the most progressive bill blind you from the real accomplishments of this bill. We can't deny that doing nothing is unacceptable and trying to lie to ourselves that having pushed a public option or a single payer system might have worked under some oppressive undertaking of reconciliation puts too much weight behind an option that could've been political suicide for the democratic party.

Let's remember the work that has been done to get here.

It is not for naught.

We have come through victorious, so let us take up our cross and walk. We have much work left to do to restore these blessed United States of America.

We did it, guys.