So Tom Friedman Wants Democrats to Govern from the Center

His column is rather bizarre in inisting the Dems get a 1 vote margin to send Republicans a message, but force Democrats to govern from the Center.

This administration has governed from the hard, hard right since day one and completely ignored policy instead focusing on politcs. For six years a horribly irresponsible course has been followed by Republicans, but they shouldn’t lose too bad.

Democrats tried too often to compromise with this administration and it got them screwed. No, it got the country screwed. Suggesting now that Democrats should try and work with one of the most ideologically driven, corrupt and incompetent Administrations ever just boggles the mind. What needs to happen isn’t compromise, but actual real live accountability with the Legislative Branch actually operating as an independent branch of the United States Government.

And it’s bad political science. Compromise doesn’t occur easily when the majority is small, it occurs when one side has a large advantage. We aren’t a parliamentary democracy that can have a unity government. It’s a zero sum game and small majorities mean constant battle over hot button issues and avoidance of issues that require hard choices. It’s not a hard incentive system to understand if one reads the literature from 30 years ago.

I’m center left. I like being around the center on policy, but the remaining two years of the Bush administration isn’t going to produce any policy that solves long term problems. The Administration doesn’t believe in doing so and it’s clearly stated it. The best one can hope for is an independent branch of the government that does it’s job as the dominant branch and at least minimizes any further damage.

One thought on “So Tom Friedman Wants Democrats to Govern from the Center”
  1. Friedman has been losing any sort of believability for years.

    Ya really think if the GOP had a one vote margin they’d govern from the center? Please.

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