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Episode 215: "Bipartisanship" as High-Minded Rhetorical Cover for Pushing Rightwing Policies

Added 2025-01-15 16:06:43 +0000 UTC

"Clinton seeks common ground with Republicans," reported the Associated Press in 1994. "Obama hosts dinner, urges bipartisanship," announced the AP again, in 2009. "Resist Trump? On Immigration, Top Democrats See Room for Compromise," stated The New York Times in late 2024.

For decades, we’ve heard Democratic policymakers extol the virtues of working with Republicans. Through a series of stock terms, e.g. bipartisanship, finding common ground, reaching across the aisle, compromising, they tout their willingness to set aside their political differences with Republicans in order to stop quibbling, quit stalling, work pragmatically, and—the holiest of the holies—Get Things Done.

This all might sound well and good; surely an active government is better than an idle, incapacitated one. But which things, exactly, are getting done? Why is it that the act of making decisions or passing legislation is deemed more important to elected officials than the actual content of those decisions and legislation? And how does an incurious, largely compliant media contribute to the harms of a Democratic party that, in its embrace of Republican ideology under the seeming noble banner of "bipartisanship" continues to move further to the right on key issues?

On this episode, we dissect the popular appeal for bipartisanship, examine how folksy calls for “Washington” to “work together” more often than not serve to promote war, austerity, anti-LBGTQ policies and crackdown on vulnerable migrants, and show how this seemingly high minded formulation serves to push Republicans further right and launder the Democrats’ increasingly conservative political agenda.

Our guest is journalist and author Malaika Jabali.

Guest

Malaika Jabali is a journalist and author whose writing has appeared in The Guardian, Teen Vogue, The Nation, The New Republic, Jacobin, The Intercept, and ESSENCE, where she previously served as Senior News and Politics Editor. Her debut book, It’s Not You, It’s Capitalism: Why It’s Time to Break Up and How to Move On, was published by Hachette/Algonquin in 2023.

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Show Notes

Brain-Dead Bipartisanship Is Getting Us Nowhere

Chris Lehmann | December 20, 2024 | The Nation

Time for Democrats to Get Out of the Bipartisanship Business

Jason Linkins | November 25, 2024 | The New Republic

The #Resistance Heroes Working to Give Trump New Powers to Crush Dissent

Adam Johnson | November 18, 2024 | The Column

Once Again, the Democratic Leadership Has Failed Us All

Nathan J. Robinson | November 6, 2024 | Current Affairs

In Milwaukee, Many Black Voters Aren’t On Board With Either Party

Malaika Jabali | July 23, 2024 | The Nation

The Left Is Losing Because We’re Not Confrontational Enough

Jordan Bollag | May 20, 2022 | Current Affairs

You Don’t Actually Need to Reach Across the Aisle, Mr. Biden

John Lawrence | April 28, 2021 | The New York Times

Joe Biden represents a failed white liberalism

Malaika Jabali | June 28, 2019 | The Guardian

There’s Nothing Virtuous About Finding Common Ground

Tayari Jones | October 25, 2018 | TIME

The Curse of Bipartisanship

Luke Savage | January 19, 2018 | Current Affairs

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Transcript

For a full transcript of this episode, go here. You can also find transcripts of past episodes, live shows, Beg-a-Thons, Interviews and News Briefs here.

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