#1436 The Long Legacy of Making Deals with the Devil (Bipartisanship)
Best of the Left - Leftist Perspectives on Progressive Politics, News, Culture, Economics and Democracy
Jay Tomlinson
4.5 • 3.4K Ratings
🗓️ 21 August 2021
⏱️ 59 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Air Date 8/21/2021
Today we take a look at the history of bipartisanship and appeasement in the US dating back to before the Civil War and tracking it all the way up to the current negotiations over the infrastructure bill.
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SHOW NOTES
Ch. 1: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 1 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21
Joe Biden ran for president promising to “revive” the spirit of bipartisanship, put an end to factional battles, and bring Americans together after an era of painful division.
Biden often speaks about bipartisanship as a cherished value that he would restore to Washington, but Ocasio-Cortez is dubious.
Ch. 3: The Unnatural Endurance of Bipartisanship Part 2 - The Politics of Everything - Air Date 3-4-21
Ch. 4: Exhaustion of Bipartisanship - In The Thick - Air Date 6-25-21
Maria and Julio discuss remarks from President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris at the 38th annual NALEO Conference, and they get into the vice president’s visit to El Paso and the US-Mexico border.
Sam and Emma host Ari Rabin-Havt, the former Legislative Director and Chief Policy Advisor to Senator Bernie Sanders, to discuss the prospects of the Senate bipartisan infrastructure bill.
Ch. 6: Manchin Capitol Riots Made Me MORE Bipartisan - The Young Turks - Air Date 4-9-21
In a recent interview, Senator Joe Manchin claimed that the Capitol Riots changed him, and made him double down on bipartisanship.
Ch. 7: Why Appeasement Won't Work This Time Around - On the Media - Air Date 1-8-21
White southerners called it “redemption.” To Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, founder and executive director of the African American Policy Forum, it was a catastrophe of appeasement and an object lesson in the politics of reconciliation.
Ch. 8: Keri Leigh Merritt on the New Lost Cause - CounterSpin - Air Date 1-15-21
Historians are shaking their heads as media talk about January 6 as "unprecedented"; while shocking and dispiriting, it has layers and layers of precedent that need to be learned and engaged, if we are ever to actually have a racial reckoning.
MEMBERS-ONLY BONUS CLIP(S)
Ch. 9: Frances Lee on why bipartisanship is irrational - Vox Conversations - Air Date 1-21-19
For most of American history, American politics has been under one-party rule. For decades, that party was the Republican Party. Then, for decades more, it was the Democratic Party.
Ch. 10: What a More Responsible Republican Party Would Look Like - The Ezra Klein Show - Air Date 3-2-21
This is the modern G.O.P.: a post-policy party obsessed with symbolic fights and curiously uninterested in the actual work of governing. But does it have to be that way?
FINAL COMMENTS
Ch. 11: Final comments on the merits of taking liars at face value
MUSIC (Blue Dot Sessions):
- Opening Theme: Loving Acoustic Instrumental by John Douglas Orr
- Voicemail Music: Low Key Lost Feeling Electro by Alex Stinnent
- Activism Music: This Fickle World by Theo Bard (https://theobard.bandcamp.com/track/this-fickle-world)
- Closing Music: Upbeat Laid Back Indie Rock by Alex Stinnent
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Welcome to this episode of the award winning a Best of Left podcast in which we shall |
| 0:07.0 | take a look at the history of bipartisanship and appeasement in the US dating back to |
| 0:12.3 | before the Civil War and tracking it all the way up to the current negotiations over |
| 0:16.4 | the infrastructure bill. |
| 0:18.1 | Cups today are from the politics of everything, politics and more from the New Yorker, in |
| 0:24.7 | the thick, the majority report, the young Turks, on the media, counterspin, vox conversations |
| 0:31.0 | and the Ezra Klein show. |
| 0:39.1 | Joe Biden ran for president making one promise that set him apart from his rivals for the democratic |
| 0:43.8 | nomination. |
| 0:44.8 | He and maybe only he would be able to revive an increasingly endangered Washington tradition |
| 0:51.1 | bipartisanship. |
| 0:52.1 | We need to revive the spirit of bipartisanship in his country. |
| 0:55.9 | I know that sounds bizarre and light of where we are. |
| 0:58.7 | The spirit of being able to work with one another. |
| 1:00.7 | When I say that and I said that from the time I announced, I was told that maybe that |
| 1:06.4 | was the way things used to work, Joe. |
| 1:08.6 | You got a lot done before, Joe, but you can't do that anymore. |
| 1:11.4 | Well, I'm here to tell you and say, we can. |
| 1:16.7 | There's been plenty of debate on how realistic Biden's promise was, whether we can. |
| 1:21.2 | There's been a bit less discussion of why we should. |
| 1:23.5 | Is bipartisanship an ideal to strive for, a tool to achieve particular political goals, |
| 1:29.2 | a completely discredited concept? |
... |
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