Divided We Stand

What to expect from the long-awaited, much-anticipated return of gridlock.

From the February 2007 issue

(Page 3 of 4)

If you’re a committed libertarian—which I’m not—the next couple of years won’t bring much comfort. From a libertarian point of view, the Democrats want to meddle in labor markets by raising the minimum wage, meddle in pharmaceutical markets to drive down drug prices, and meddle in international trade by obstructing liberalization. They want to spend even more than Republicans on Medicare and the military. They are dug in against private Social Security accounts. They will try to raise taxes. They do want to reduce the U.S. footprint in Iraq, but few of them are committed noninterventionists; many would move U.S. forces from Iraq to Darfur.

Especially disheartening for libertarians is that neither party speaks for an agenda that would keep Washington out of both the bedroom and the boardroom.

On the other hand, if you’re only libertarianish—which I am—the next couple of years bring the prospect of blessed relief. Divided government is back, and with it the check on ideological excess and political machine building that has been lacking for four wretched years. Both parties do better when each is watched and checked by the other. The Bush administration is going to have to deliver better results, which I hope will mean rediscovering pragmatism and flexibility. Democrats are going to have to govern, which I hope will mean rediscovering their brains. The result will be to improve the governing capacity of both parties, a welcome change after four years of bipartisan institutional decline.

Some predict “gridlock,” but I’m not so sure. Because neither party will want to go to the voters in 2008 bereft of accomplishments, I wouldn’t be surprised if the 110th Congress produced some important and pretty good legislation: immigration reform perhaps, or maybe tax reform. If the Democrats manage to restore a pay-as-you-go budget rule with teeth, the additional fiscal discipline would by itself be a sharp turn for the better.

So there is reason to hope that the gainers will include the Democrats, the Republicans, and the public. Oh, and President Bush. To govern in a two-party town, he will have to move to the center, which will raise his popularity (see, e.g.: Schwarzenegger, Gov. Arnold) and curtail his tendency toward self-defeating excess (see, e.g.: torture memo, infamous). Not everything in Washington will be better in the next two years than in the last four, but there is only one direction to go, and it’s up.

Jonathan Rauch is a columnist for National Journal, a correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, and a writer in residence at the Brookings Institution.

Carolyn Lochhead

Six years of nearly uninterrupted one-party rule delivered war, corruption, and the biggest expansion in federal spending since Lyndon Johnson. It’s hard to imagine how Democrats could beat that record.

As one ex-Republican voter from rural Missouri put it, “I used to be one of those that thought gridlock was awful—you know, if we just had a Congress that would support the president, we would finally get something done. Now I realize that I don’t like it that way.”

Gridlock is great for containing each party’s worst impulses. Untethered, Newt Gingrich and Bill Clinton might have done some serious damage. But Gingrich was busy storming off Air Force One, and Clinton was occupied with ordering pizza for late-night budget fights, so the 1990s brought peace and prosperity.

“There’s no question, if we’re holding down spending, a Democratic president and a Republican House and Senate is the proper combination,” the late Milton Friedman told me last year. Whether a Democratic Congress and Bush White House will work as well remains to be seen.

Republicans, if we are to believe them, want to get back to their Goldwater roots. Democrats, if we are to believe them, want bipartisanship. That’s unlikely to last—unless Bush goes along. His record on vetoing bills (one) is unmatched since Thomas Jefferson.

Democrats are pushing populism: no on trade, yes on government negotiation of drug prices. They’re all about alternative fuels and global warming. Lots of Republicans agree. But Democrats also want to cut GOP subsidies for the oil industry and balance the budget. Some are already sounding hesitant on rolling back tax cuts, observing record revenues and a booming stock market.

“War is a friend of the state,” Friedman noted. Who knows? Democrats might even help Bush out of Iraq.

Carolyn Lochhead is the Washington correspondent for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Andrew P. Napolitano

Comments

nfl jerseys|11.6.10 @ 3:29AM|#

syf

Sheepskin Boots Sale|11.25.10 @ 9:08AM|#

SSF

UggBoots On Sale|11.25.10 @ 9:11AM|#

GFDG

Jordan Shoes|8.12.11 @ 10:31PM|#

so perfect.

قبلة الوداع|8.17.11 @ 9:03PM|#

thank u

http://www.iraq-7b.com

دليل|10.7.11 @ 8:26AM|#

zxsdfasfzasf