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What’s wrong with American Politics? The Congress

By Brendon O'Connor - posted Tuesday, 19 October 2010


The Democrats, and Obama in particular, look strategically naïve in comparison. Like many recent presidents Obama promised when elected to be more co-operative and bipartisan. This approach may have been in keeping with Obama’s temperament but it did not suit the times. Getting Republican co-operation (or seeking to get it) slowed the pace of reform and led to watered down or compromised legislation.

Also bipartisanship is often a byword for pork barrelling as each opposition vote comes with a price.

Given the unpopularity of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the financial crisis, bipartisanship should have been the last thing on the mind of the Obama administration. Creating a stark contrast would have been more strategically sensible and would have better served the progressive policy agenda Obama campaigned on. This is the type of change people who campaigned enthusiastically for Obama believed in.

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Of course there would have been impediments to this bold approach: Obama would have been attacked by the big polluters as an un-American greenie and Filibusters would have been threatened in the Senate. However, in 2009 and 2010 there was a chance his administration and the Democrats in Congress could have stared down these challenges: the tragedy is that after the November mid-term elections this possibility will be lost.

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First published on ABC's Unleashed on October 11, 2010.



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About the Author

Brendon O'Connor is an Associate Professor in the US Studies Centre at the University of Sydney and is the 2008 Australia Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington DC. He is the editor of seven books on anti-Americanism and has also published articles and books on American welfare policy, presidential politics, US foreign policy, and Australian-American relations.

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Creative Commons LicenseThis work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

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