"bipartisanship" is a scam!

[basquebromance]

it’s no surprise that so many of the worst things that have happened in the last twenty years have been bipartisan. The invasion of Iraq was deeply bipartisan. Joe Biden, Chuck Schumer, Hillary Clinton, Harry Reid, and a long list of other prominent Democrats voted for it. The Patriot Act was almost unanimously bipartisan. (Russ Feingold was the only senator who voted against it.) The beginning of the forever war in Afghanistan was so bipartisan that there wasn’t a single “no” vote in the Senate.

your default reaction to hearing that some new bill is bipartisan should be to worry about how the two parties of capital are ganging up to screw the rest of us this time.

Centrists are cheering the new bipartisan infrastructure bill even though it slashes a range of vital spending programs contained in the original. We don’t need continued fetishization of bipartisanship...we need measures that actually aid the working-class majority

Biden ignores the ‘shiny objects’ and nears a bipartisan win

“Maybe professional politicians are actually good at politics.”

www.politico.com

Joe Manchin pledges to block Biden's infrastructure bill if Republicans aren't included

"I am not going to get on a bill that cuts them out completely before we start trying."

www.axios.com

"The original bill had $387 billion for “housing, schools, and buildings.” The bipartisan version has $0. The original infrastructure bill had $400 billion for “home- and community-based care.” The bipartisan version has $0. Even “clean energy tax credits,” an absurdly inadequate response to the climate crisis, plummeted from $363 billion to $0. "

The gap between the bills is a catastrophe in human terms. What it has going for it is . . . bipartisanship.

whatever happens, it’s worth taking a moment to consider the absurdity of hundreds of billions of dollars of desperately needed aid being gutted from the infrastructure bill ...and a chorus of politicians and media figures telling us that this is an important Biden victory because the bill is now “bipartisan.”

 

[Gabe Lackmann]

"The original bill had $387 billion for “housing, schools, and buildings.”

Because why would you need infrastructure funding in an infrastructure bill? Fucking politicians are just absolutely worthless, if not evil. I also guarantee there are provisions for foreign aid in there as well. I am positive that some part of our tax dollars is going to other nations in an infrastructure bill.

 

[basquebromance]

Sinema is dumb as a rock. she gives me the yips!

 

[basquebromance]

 

[whitehall]

Democrats are never truly "bipartisan" if they can make some political points by pretending they were against a vote they are on the record as supporting. Iraq was an example of democracy in action and later on with a a little bit of partisan posturing and support from the media, democrats turned their vote around. Democrats never have a bad day as long as the media has their back. Contrast the overwhelming bipartisan support for Iraq with Bill Clinton's illegal bombing campaign on Yugoslavia that had no congressional input. Thanks to the media, everybody loves Clinton's little war in Yugoslavia and hates Bush's war in Iraq.

 

[basquebromance]

There are many words and phrases you should be wary of in politics. Some that come to mind: "For the children," "for the common good," and "temporary measures" all come to mind.

But there is perhaps no greater red flag than the promise of "bipartisanship." This is typically just a signal that the two major parties have agreed to take your money or your rights