Most weeks DSOT covers various supermajority supported policies, which the American people desire. We use that data to argue that government is not representative and that it should listen to the people more. This week, however, we’re going to focus on an area where the American people have got it wrong, or at least are somewhat misled.
Do you think it is more important for Republicans in Congress to find ways to work together with Biden or more important for them to keep Biden in check?
Find ways to work with Biden: 71%
Keep Biden in check: 25%
A whopping 71% of Americans claim that they want “bipartisanship” they want Republicans to work with Democrats to get Covid relief passed. First it's important to note that people want the Republicans to work with Biden not against him, which is a very specific type of bipartisanship. But does the concept even make sense in our current era? At first glance this seems like it could be a valuable thing, after all who doesn't want government to work together in good faith to pass good policy and help the people? but the reality is that while people might say they want bipartisanship, evidence suggests what they want more are results. Fundamentally, most Americans are not interested in the Byzantine set of bureaucratic systems which govern our institutions, nor the variety of political machinations and maneuvers politicians use in order to obscure what exactly is going on, and to hinder any progress being made. No, the American people are not interested in that incredibly complex system, what they want are results! Americans like Medicare, they don’t care how many Republicans and Democrats voted on the bill.
People want results, they want their government to deliver and listen. Democrats need to take a hard look at popular policy, and the promises they made to get elected, and then get those results. Unfortunately, in this moment, following good policy and getting results is mutually exclusive to bipartisanship. A perfect example is with the current Covid relief bill, in which the already too skinny $1.9 trillion relief bill proposed by the Democrats is now being countered with a bill 1/3 the size by Republicans! The fetishization of bipartisanship cannot stand in the way of the material needs of the American people!!
This period, in which Democrats control 2 branches of government, will ultimately be judged not on how many Republicans they managed to turn over to their side, but by how quickly vaccines and checks were delivered. The Democrats can either realize this and act boldly to deliver for the American people all the popular policies we’ve discussed: $2000 checks, the covid relief of funding, infrastructure investment, a green new deal, universal health care, etc. If they can deliver even some of these things they’ll be extremely popular, but if they continue to seek this mirage known as bipartisanship a mirage which the American people tragically are still under, the lack of material improvement in people’s lives will speak louder than any excuse or campaign rhetoric, and we will all pay the price. So join us every Tuesday as we work to build an economic cudgel to ensure that Joe Biden and the Democrats are forced to follow through on their promises to do right by the people! Don't Shop on Tuesdays!
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