Sunday, September 16, 2012
Politics New Republican trend of bipartisanship not visible in Arkansas
Posted by Max Brantley on Sun, Sep 16, 2012 at 7:04 AM
The Republican quest for bipartisanship — at least nominally — is not hard to explain. A New York Times/CBS News poll conducted last week and released this weekend showed that 44 percent of Americans see Republicans at fault for gridlock in Washington, compared with 29 percent who blame President Obama and the Democrats. Nineteen percent said both were to blame. That imbalance has persisted at almost exactly those proportions since last year.Democrats have noted Republicans’ efforts to present themselves as agreeable, and say they will try to beat them back.
You need only look at the record — from goose-step vote after vote at the state and national level to pledges of fealty to the Kochs and Grover Norquist to extremist state and federal platforms — to understand that believing this newfound compromising spirit is to believe Lucy will let Charlie Brown kick the football. Notes the Times:
With less than two months until Election Day, some House races may turn on whether the incumbent Republicans can shake the Tea Party label that Democrats are eager to press to them like flypaper.
Arkansas, being typically the last to join trends, is still in Tea Party thrall in many precincts. The old and poor will soon pay for that. Elsewhere, more voters are beginning to understand the challenge the Republican Romney/Ryan ticket represent to popular Medicare and to less popular, but still vital to working class elderly, Medicaid.
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