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I think Pow Wow wrote the coda for this column yesterday. I think it's worth reprising (link at sig), and thinking about. It's not an easy read. Pow Wow, as his/her wont, nests ideas within each other, and there can be multiples of these in a single sentence. For me, it reads like a "Calc III" textbook. The benefit is Pow Wow's attempt to drill beneath the surface of the bipartisanship we see. And, it is suggestive as to why breaking its stranglehold will be difficult.
Barely two weeks out from the election, I'm dismayed to have to remind myself that the most compelling reason I had for voting for Obama was my sense that he would be reluctant to bomb Iran. I felt John McCain would not be reluctant at all. Any liberal or progressive thing Obama could accomplish would be a bonus.
Again, and again, I remind myself that the way out of this bipartisan dead end lies with Congress, not the president. As Glenn reminded his readers just days ago, The Democrats of 2002 and 2007 haven't gone anywhere. I admit to some slim hope that Obama might be arm twisting behind the scenes as speculated by IF Stone's granddaughter, aimai (who has a good post up today at If I Ran the Zoo), but that hope is likely unfounded.
If there is one agenda item going into Obama's first term that I could select above all others it would be torture, and an accountability for the same. I'd even place it ahead of the economy - although it's unlikely our legislators, or most of the American public, would see it my way.
The call for bipartisanship is, IMHO, nothing more than shorthand-speak for sweep the unfortunate and nasty under the rug and move on with the previously agreed upon elite program. The only impediment to the elite program is the elites over-medicated the patient (the average consumer), who is now on life support (the economy) and can no longer be bled for their pleasure (transfer of wealth and risk) without dying altogether. If the host dies, the parasites can, then, only cannibalize each other (H/T Chris at Inside-Out the Beltway for the general idea), and comity among the elites would argue against invoking that option.
