Dakota Beacon

In the mid-1960s a psychiatrist named Dr. Eric Berne wrote a popular rendition of transactional analysis titled “Games People Play: The Psychology of Human Relationships.” His special area of investigation was the dead serious “games” we play with each other. What Dr. Berne described were not parlor games, but neurotic rituals in which satisfaction is gained by some people at the expense of others.

This holds true with the game of bipartisanship commonly practiced in the political area.

“Bipartisan” is defined as anything consisting of, or supported by, members of two parties, especially the two major political parties. That is the definition.

As practiced, however, bipartisanship is used as a public opinion weapon in the hands of a skilled practitioner. The idea is that bipartisanship will help beat an opponent into submission. Seeking cooperation is one thing. What is actually done is something else. Calls for bipartisanship become a semantics power game.

Words? Just words? Say one thing; do another. Bipartisanship as used by Senator Chuck Schumer and Representative Nancy Pelosi implies that Republicans must compromise their core beliefs to agree with Democrats. Democrats never compromise theirs. There will always be wishy-washy, moderate Never-Trump Republicans in the House and the Senate willing to “reach across the aisle” in an act of bipartisan surrender to join with Democrats. That move is typically in one direction – left.

Here is the classic example of how the game is played. When the Democrats hold a majority of votes and don’t need Republican support, they still called for bipartisanship for appearance sake. In May 2009 Republicans asked President Obama to include them in discussions on health care proposals – what was to become Obamacare. Obama’s response was to send Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel to Capitol Hill to write health care legislation with Democrat leaders behind closed doors shutting out Republicans entirely. In the end Obamacare received zero Republican support even though Democrats attempted to sucker Republicans into adopting an undeniably liberal document.

Calls for bipartisanship shifts public attention away from divisions within the Democrat Party. There is a very good reason for Schumer and Pelosi to call for bipartisanship now. With the Democrat majority in the House mired in resistance to President Trump, calls for bipartisanship give cover to the do-nothing Congress and to the Democrat House impeachment effort.

Schumer’s and Pelosi’s problem isn’t just President Trump. In all fairness, it is the Democrat leadership that is involved in bipartisanship game-playing. There are Blue Dog Democrats who would like to negotiate with the White House on tax overhaul and immigration for the sake of their own re-election.

It may be that the bipartisanship ploy will be the Democrat’s campaign strategy for the 2020 elections. What else do they have to run on? They can’t campaign on fixing drug prices or illegal immigration. They can’t campaign on advancing more government programs for their constituents. What they can campaign on is impeaching Donald Trump with bipartisan support. And, if they cannot peel off enough Republican congressmen and senators like Mitt Romney or Susan Collins to join in the impeachment effort, then Democrats go into the 2020 House and Senate races blaming Republicans for not cooperating in getting rid of Trump, for being hardcore partisans. It’s a risky strategy.

In truth, bipartisanship is a staged propaganda event. The Democrats want bipartisanship. But when it comes to Republican proposals, bipartisanship is out the window before the ink is dry.

Back to the main point. When Democrat leaders call for bipartisanship it makes their obstruction to White House proposals less apparent. They do not care for Republican values much less conservative principles. They call for bipartisanship to give the appearance of magnanimity to the voting public while not compromising an inch. They believe that calls for bipartisanship play well with costal liberals as well as people in fly-over country.

The bottom line can be seen in American attitudes on critical issues. For example, survey after survey reveals that Americans don’t like what they see of Obamacare. Most wish the process would start over with a level playing field, not merely be tweaked in bipartisan meetings. Americans want a secure border and immigration reform without the shell games. Americans want a burdensome tax system reformed without mere cosmetic corrections for the sake of bipartisanship.

Having forced domestic policies on a skeptical American public in highly partisan ways for years, Democrat administrations with the help of mushy Republicans have governed against the will of the people. This gripes fair-minded Americans.

Are Americans in favor of cooperation? Of course.

Do they welcome the bipartisanship game? Take a knee!

Dennis M. Patrick can be contacted at (JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address).