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A plea for balance – Daily Montanan [1]

['More From Author', 'November', 'Russell Rowland']

Date: 2023-11-21  

A friend of mine who is a former Democratic legislator attended a recent event hosted by the Mansfield Center, and one of his former colleagues, a Republican, stood up and told the crowd of more than 100 people that he was embarrassed about the direction his party is taking, and wondered whether anyone had any thoughts about what can be done about it.

Thankfully, there are signs that this man is not alone in his concerns.

With the next election cycle just a year away, there are clear indications that the pendulum swing that was inevitable in America’s political landscape is underway. I have always been a big believer that part of what makes the two-party system valuable is that no one party ever seems to be able to sustain power for so long that they throw the whole country out of whack. Because let’s face it, if everyone thought like I do about the role of government, we would never be able to have a balanced budget. I’m a hot-blooded believer in paying more taxes if it means we will be able to fund programs that help lift the needy just a little closer to being able to survive.

For the most recent episode of my radio show, “56 Counties,” I read a lot about the New Deal, and the effectiveness of Roosevelt’s programs at bringing the country out of the worst depression we’ve ever seen. These programs worked, but I also know that it’s idealistic and naïve to believe that every problem should be solved by the government. Which is why it has always been beneficial to our system that we have these two conflicting schools of thought working with and against each other. The Democratic Party has always leaned more toward creating programs to help those in need, while the Republican Party has generally shown more of a tendency to be careful about spending too much. The balance is important.

A few years ago, MSU-Billings hosted a discussion between Republican Alan Simpson, former senator from Wyoming, and Democrat Max Baucus, our own long-time senator and former ambassador to Japan. Now people can say all they want about Simpson being something of a RINO (Republican in Name Only), but he couldn’t have won as many elections as he did in Wyoming if his policies were purely Democratic.

The most striking thing about this discussion was how vehemently they both agreed that the current system is broken in large part because the two parties don’t sit down and work together like they did when they were in the Senate. They talked about how there used to be a dining hall in the Senate building where senators would eat lunch, and how this was often where important policy issues got hashed out, mainly because these people took the time to get to know each other and realize they weren’t as far apart as they thought they were.

There is little argument that this kind of bipartisanship doesn’t exist anymore. What is often disputed is who is to blame. And when you look at the facts, I don’t think there’s that much to dispute. From the time Newt Gingrich laid out an aggressive plan of impeding whatever programs Democrats proposed, the Republican Party has become more and more bold, and also much louder about showing almost no interest in working together with Democrats. The longer this had continued, the more it has filtered into the election process as well, with the increased focus on gerrymandering and voter restriction policies that are clearly designed to help Republicans win elections. They have stopped pretending to want fair elections. They are obsessed with winning, and once they win, they are obsessed with making it difficult for Democrats to accomplish anything.

The thing that even other Republicans finally seem to recognize is that the more power this particular brand of the Republican party has gained, the less is getting accomplished. Because they are so focused on impeding the progress of others that they don’t even think about creating anything useful or productive. Perhaps the best poster boy for this whole approach is Congressman Jim Jordan, who very nearly became Speaker of the House. Jordan has built a career out of serving as a bulldog, pursuing such baseless pursuits like Hillary’s emails and whatever phantom legal issues he can dig up about the Biden family. Perhaps the most alarming fact that came up during Jordan’s pursuit of the Speakership was that, during his 16 years in Congress, Jordan has never introduced a single bill. That fact alone makes you wonder why his constituents continue to elect him.

It’s not a theory or an opinion anymore that it’s one party that has created this divide. More and more Republican Congressman have voiced their concern about the direction the fringe element of their party is taking them. Many have decided to get out because they’re so tired of the games.

So it seems more important than ever that we present alternatives. In Montana, we have had some fabulous candidates for major offices in recent years that didn’t have a chance simply because they had a “D” next to their names. Meanwhile, people like Matt Rosendale, Ryan Zinke and Steve Daines trot out the usual Republican narrative while voting against every bill that would help Montana veterans, farmers and mental health programs. These people are shamelessly championing the interests of corporate Montana, as evidenced with the recent property tax increase that battered the average Montanan while giving huge breaks to the higher tax bracket.

Montana has always had a history of pragmatic, common-sense voters. Until recently, we have been about as purple as any state in the country. Even our current Democratic Senator has shown that there are compromises one has to make to succeed in Montana politics. Tester has drawn the ire of some of the more extreme factions of the Democratic Party, but there’s no question he would not still be serving if he had ever adopted certain policies that people wish he would.

Let’s find more of that balance that has served us so well.

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