Americans watch as the two major political parties continue to engage in political gamesmanship as the nation faces major national concerns. There is some political acrobatics being played by the Democrats, but it is largely the Republican Party which continues to avoid wanting to participate in the governing of the country.
Here are a few examples:
The U.S. Senate could not muster sufficient votes to bring to the floor for the bi-partisan infrastructure plan because the Republicans blocked the vote “to consider”. To be clear there are differences in how the two parties seek to address infrastructure. For example, Democrats want more money for mass transit and Republicans want more for highways. Unless the bill itself is brought to the Floor for debate, neither party’s concerns can or will be addressed. The result could result in no bipartisan infrastructure bill.
The Congress—ultimately the Senate--could not agree to establish a special committee to investigate the January 6 Capitol riot. Speaker Nancy Pelosi decided to establish a bipartisan special committee in the House to investigate the events. Her decision was sabotaged when House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy nominated two Members who clearly intended to undermine any constructive proceedings of the Committee.
Senator Ted Cruz has singlehandedly held up the President Biden’s nominates to fill key positions in the State Department as well as ambassadorial appointments. While a procedure does exist for circumventing Cruz’s hold on the nominations, each one would require almost 30 hours of what would amount to dilatory debate before a final vote could be held on a single nominee. A Republican Senator does not have the ability to totally block a nomination, but he can make a mockery out of the entire process as he knows the nominations will be confirmed.
There continue to be Members of Congress who will not join the campaign to convince anti-vaxxers to take the shot. Instead of showing courageous leadership, Republican Members gloated that President Biden had missed his July 4th vaccination target to have 70% of Americans vaccinated with at least one shot. It is not even clear how they will spin the clear uptick of the Delta strand of Covid-19 largely in areas where the level of unvaccinated is highest.
The decline in collegiality has been intensifying over the past fifty years, but especially in the 21st Century. Compared to Lyndon Johnson when he was Senate Majority Leader or even when he was President, Joe Biden is a much milder political operator. Johnson and even many of the other Senate Leaders from both parties whom then Senator Biden encountered in his 36 years in Congress, frequently waged bitter fights with the opposition. These debates were largely substantive. Civil rights confrontations in Congress were extraordinarily angry and, in a few instances, devolved into long filibusters, but conflict resolution and compromised prevailed. Matters were brought up, debated, and voted on. Nominations had full blown hearings.
In 1987, the full Senate considered and rejected President Ronald Reagan’s nomination of Robert Bork to the Supreme Court. In 2016, after the death of Justice Anthony Scalia, the then Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell refused even to consider the nomination to the High Court of Merrick Garland during Obama’s final ten months in office.
The contrast was even more stark if one recalls that McConnell had no problem rushing through a replacement after the passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg during the waning weeks of the Trump Administration. Looking to the future, Senator McConnell even has indicated that should he regain the Senate leadership in 2023, he would once again not consider any Supreme Court nominees made by President Biden’s during his final year in office.
In 1991, President George H.W. Bush received the congressional votes after lengthy debate in both chambers to launch “Operation Desert Storm”. This occurred despite the fact that both the House and the Senate were controlled by Democrats.
President Biden appears to not want to eliminate the filibuster—and probably would not have the votes to do so--and has been remarkably patient in trying to negotiate with the Republicans. Biden knows that in the current toxic environment, if the Democrats were to lose control of Congress in the 2022 election, the current legislative stalemate would be nothing compared to the obstructive action which they might face in the next Congress. The challenge for the Administration is huge. It is also an opportunity to see if there will be any emerging true legislative stalwarts among the Republicans.
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