Earth Matters: Partisan

In my line of work, you quickly learn you can’t please all the people all the time. In fact, I consider myself extremely lucky if I can please some of the people some of the time. By the same token, if I pleased all the people all the time, I wouldn’t be doing my job. Predictable pap and fluff is easy to write; being a burr under the saddle is more challenging.

“Whose saddle are you a burr under,” asked the guy on the chairlift. He asked what I write about after I told him I work for the newspaper. He probably regretted asking; if he didn’t he soon would.

“Different people,” I told him. “I spent the last eight years causing trouble under George W. Bush’s saddle. That got a lot of people kicking and bucking. It was a regular rodeo back when everyone thought Bush was the coolest thing since sliced bread.”

The guy on the lift grew quiet. All the chatty camaraderie was gone and the air around us chilled. It wasn’t just that we were riding a chairlift at 10,000 ft. in the middle of February. My foray into politics and avowal of, um…my personal predisposition ended our conversation more efficiently than could have a howling gale sweeping down Tower 11 Chutes.

I had stepped in it. Still high on new leadership in the White House, I wasn’t paying attention to my audience. Since things had gone so horribly wrong, since we continue to labor under a collapsing economic “house of cards,” I assumed everyone feels as I do: Among other things, that George Bush accomplished what Osama bin Laden could not. But I had misjudged.

The guy on the chairlift obviously knew better than to get into it with me. His silence suggested he had tried defending his political outlook before, but up against pervasive Obama enthusiasm perhaps knew he had failed. I imagine it would be tough to defend policy that crashed world economies, subverted the American Constitution and embroiled our nation in foreign war.

Having my ski boot lodged so firmly in my mouth, I followed his lead for the rest of the lift ride and kept my opinions to myself. I was by no means chastened, only again reminded that no matter what I think about the state of the world, the economy and politics in general, there will always be someone who disagrees with me. That diversity is healthy…unless someone gets really mad and throws me off the chairlift.

I should have known better; I’ve recognized volatility in diverse political views since I was a kid. My father and I, for example, ended up on completely different sides of the political fence. He was a staunch Republican, and although he insisted he voted for the person not the party, he almost always voted for Republican persons.

I, on the other hand, went through typical phases of political agnosticism and partisanship. My nascent and ill-formed political sensibilities were predictably antithetical to my father’s, and smacked of all the revolutionary and counter-culture trappings youth is heir to. My father was no captain of industry, but fancied himself a player. He felt what is good for industry and corporations, is good for America.

By the time my politics were fully formed, I knew I was a little left of right. Still, I considered myself conservative and independent and did not register to vote as either Republican or Democrat. I remained proudly unaffiliated until the 1990s, when I registered as Democrat so I could vote in primaries and help a friend to the Colorado legislature. I remained a Democrat during the Clinton years, but reinstated my unaffiliated status after Democrats couldn’t find their butts with both hands to defeat George W. Bush.

Somewhere in my emerging comprehension of politics, I came to understand the word “gridlock.” Gridlock happens when politicians exercise partisanship, when one side obstructs everything the other side tries to accomplish. One of the major bogeymen of our democratic system, gridlock usually happens along party lines, ensures that our government accomplishes absolutely nothing, and is a major frustration for Democrats, Republicans and anyone else who looks to our government for leadership and not partisanship.

Given our nightmarish and numerous national crises, I ranked Barack Obama’s hopes for “post-partisan politics” somewhere up there with the Holy Grail and deep powder skiing. I hadn’t previously known you could do politics without partisanship. And as it turns out, even Saint Obama is finding it exceedingly difficult to align Republicans and Democrats without historic baggage, and get them to work together to get the job done. Old, entrenched partisan habits are hard to breach.

Obama tried to “reach across the aisle,” retaining Robert Gates as Defense Secretary and appointing GOP Senator Judd Gregg as Commerce Secretary. Gregg snubbed Obama, citing “irresolvable conflicts” over Obama’s economic stimulus plan. Congress finally approved the $787 billion package with almost no Republican support.

Democrats claim the economic stimulus package will help ninety-five percent of Americans by saving or creating 3.5 million jobs, and providing billions in unemployment benefits, food stamps, medical care and job retraining. Tens of billions will go to states to aid schools and local governments. More than $48 billion will finance transportation projects, infrastructure improvements and development such as mass transit and high speed rail.

Still indulging old partisan ways, Republicans characterized the bill as the wrong prescription for the flailing and failing national economy. House Republican leader John Boehner threw the thousand page bill on the floor in disgust and said, “The bill that was about jobs, jobs, jobs has turned into a bill that’s about spending, spending, spending.” I’m no economist, but if I’m not mistaken most of the spending is to create jobs. The Republicans got their tax cuts—most of them—and Democrats got their spending—most of it.

I have no idea whether or not the economic stimulus package will actually serve to resurrect the American economy. I have a sneaking suspicion it will take more than just money. But since the previous Republican administration helped get us into this mess, I say we give the new guys a chance to help get us out of it.

I’m sure circumstance defines that as purely partisan thinking. But if we can’t please all the people, it would sure be great to please ninety-five percent of them.