Opposition Governing September 30, 2009

This recent post by Andrew Sullivan articulated what I guess has frustrated me of late. It seems like the Republican party has re-fashioned itself into an opposition party whose sole principle is opposition. Perhaps this will just take a bit of time to adjust being in the minority in the government, but as far as I can tell, the most important issues for the Right are the President’s birth certificate and how many czars he has. Now, I’m conflating “the Right” and “Republicans,” which is likely not fair nor accurate, but I also don’t see elected Republican representatives telling me anything different: telling me that they have a different vision for health care reform (which, I’d assume, everyone agrees we need to have) or for international relations (outside of abolishing the UN, or, as Mike Huckabee suggested, cutting it loose from New York City), outside of just hating the vision that the President or Democrats have. It seems very short-sighted, awfully counter-productive, and ultimately detrimental to not only their party but to the health of our democracy. This kind of politics where the opposition merely opposes without offering a positive agenda of their own coupled with a media that only reports on the back and forth instead of the actually issues truly results in a negative outlook for our democracy.

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