5th Avenue: A Primer on Bipartisanship

[Tace]

Hal Cohen -- World News Trust

Feb. 9, 2009 -- Manhattan, liberal bastion that it is, actually makes a good base for a metaphor of our political situation.

We are bounded on the left and right by rivers, the Hudson and East, respectively. We also have a center, Fifth Avenue. So looking at Manhattan with north up top and south on the bottom, the west is left and the east is right. There are 12 numbered avenues that run north to south, and I think it’s ironic that that the avenue acting as center, 5th Ave., is right (east) of center.

Using this Manhattan as a graph west to east, let us plot the various liberals and progressives left (west) of Sixth Avenue (Avenue of the Americas, another irony). We’ll plot the conservatives on the right (east) side of Fourth Avenue (known familiarly as Park). Let’s say that self-described swing voters occupy the land in between. I think we can agree that the largest bloc of voters belong in this midtown.

During the 1970s, Republicans and Democrats roamed that middle ground together. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act were accomplishments of the Nixon Administration. Starting with Ronald Reagan and his 11th Commandment, “Thou Shalt Not Speak Ill of Another Republican,” the party started edging further east. Vice-President Bush correctly derided Reagan’s tax policies as “Voodoo Economics,” and had been Pro-choice on abortion prior to joining the ticket.

As the legend of Reagan grew, the fewer members of the Republican Party maintained contact with Fifth Avenue. It became party dogma that all taxes are bad. That was why then-Vice President Bush uttered the infamous, ultimately broken promise, “Read my lips- No New Taxes!” When a recession helped derail his re-election bid (he received 37.7 percent of the vote, many people saying they voted along the ABB(Anyone But Bush) line), the party blamed his broken tax pledge.c party. For starters, the official name of the party is the Democratic Party. Republican leaders and their conservative radio propagandists call it the Democrat Party because they think its demeaning and funny. This behavior is brought to you by the so-called Daddy (Republican) Party. How far to the left did the Democratic Party move during this time? Not an inch.

As proof of the lack of a westward (leftist) movement in Democratic circles I offer as exhibit A Reagan Democrats. Additionally, there was the rise of the Democratic Leadership Council, the so-called “centrist” pro business wing of the party whose standard-bearer, Bill Clinton, ended “Welfare as we know it.” We have the “Blue Dog Democrats,” twelve of whom just joined every Republican in the House of Representatives in opposing the Economic Stimulus Package. Finally we still have Joe Lieberman, who not only endorsed the Republican candidate for President, he openly campaigned for him.

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