Balance the government
Oct 7th, 2006 by Jordan
Bipartisan governments work, says William A. Niskanen in his essay “Give divided government a chance,” a part of the “Time For Us To Go” series by Washington Monthly magazine
Boy is he right. But the thing is, I don’t want the Democrats to become the new Republicans. I’d love to see a Democrat majority for no more than four years, going like this: democrats winning congress this November, then winning the presidency. And in a perfect world? A majority senate / minority house and then switching back and forth every two years after that. If the world was perfect, of course.
William’s article is right, though — our government system works best when no one necessarily has a majority. When Congress and the Executive branch are beholden to eachother. When there is accountability, and no one has a blank check. 9/11 gave the republicans an advantage as they were already seen as the “homeland defense”-type people. But now it’s clear that they’re no better at democrats when given every opportunity to do something.
So please, everyone: let’s get back to balance and moderation. We’re not a partisan country, so why should we have a partisan government? Republicans and democrats alike have valuable viewpoints and modes of governing which are good for America. They both need to share power equally to move us in a direction that we’ll all be happy with.