On Sunday, the mayor will join Democratic and Republican elder statesmen in what the conveners are billing as an effort to pressure the major party candidates to renounce partisan gridlock.One person close to the mayor, who spoke on condition of anonymity so as not to be seen discussing internal strategy, stressed that Mr. Bloomberg would run only if he believed he could win.
“He’s not going to do it to influence the debate,” the person said.
Judging from the response from the liberal blogosphere, this is making liberals absolutely crazy. Oh, they fume, so now Republicans want to talk about bipartisanship, screw them. Uh, maybe that’s precisely what Bloomberg is talking about. Enough with this stupid the-other-side-is-always-wrong crap. The country needs results, it needs change, we do not need more train wrecks in D.C. with both sides howling that the other is responsible for all the problems.
You better believe that what Bloomberg is doing is resonating with the general public. The major parties ignore his message at their peril.
Washington Note says we need serious new direction, not fuzzy do-nothing bipartisanship, and hopes that is what Bloomberg means.
What the Republican and Democratic party members need to realize is that both of their party apparatuses have been taken over by a combination of ideological and utopian zealots as well as a policy-blind secretariat that passively follows the ideologues. The pragmatists and realists in both parties — particularly in foreign policy but also in other spheres as well — have been in decline.
I don’t believe that bipartisanship solves the challenges ahead. New policies might help restore some balance and the beginnings of a positive direction. But what is needed now are rebels.
I completely agree. We need real change.
Glenn Greenwald has said it best so far:
“Clearly, this is just exactly what our country desperately needs, what it is missing most — a neoconservative, combat-avoiding, Bush-supporting, Middle-East-warmonger who sees U.S. and Israeli interests as indistinguishable and inextricably linked, with a fetish for ever-increasing government control and surveillance, and a background as a Wall St. billionaire. We just haven’t had enough of those in our political culture. Our political system, more than anything, is missing the influence of people like that. That’s why it’s broken: not enough of those.”
Yeah, what Glenn Greenwald said.