Is the style of shrill partisanship now falling out of style in Congress? According to The Christian Science Monitor, among some members, yes:
The freshman Class of 2008 converged on Capitol Hill for orientation this week not just to learn the ways of Washington but also to try to change them.
Their ranks include lawyers, governors, mayors, and former congressional staff, as well as physicians, real estate developers, investment bankers, Internet entrepreneurs, teachers, community organizers, a cosmetics saleswoman, and a former prison guard.
What many have in common is a pledge to voters to renounce bitter partisanship and break the gridlock on Capitol Hill – pledges that, if honored, pose management issues for leadership on both sides of the aisle.
The big word in this story is “if.” But it seems as if prospects for it happening at this point in American political history are better than ever:
For example, incoming Rep. Bobby Bright (D) of Alabama, the outgoing mayor of Montgomery, opposes abortion rights and gun control and supports drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
If elected, he said he would “put party politics in the back seat.” He is backed by the fiscally conservative Blue Dog coalition.
On the Republican side, Jason Chaffetz of Utah – one of only four Republicans to defeat a House Democrat in this campaign cycle – wants to wean his party off big-government conservatism, including rolling back President Bush’s signature No Child Left Behind law.
With congressional approval ratings stuck in single digits, it’s no surprise that newcomers on both sides of the aisle campaigned against Congress and its ways.
But the larger political calculus is driven by the fact that most congressional seats are no longer competitive, thanks to decades of high-tech, partisan redistricting and gerrymandering.
Moreover, the battles for the remaining competitive seats are fought out – often fiercely and at great expense – in the center.
Much will depend on the political dynamics once President Elect Obama takes office. If he picks a cabinet that shows some bipartisanship, it will help. If the way he governs is by seeking solutions versus ideological responses, it will help. The tug against politics aimed at seeking broad coalition building, consensus and defusing partisan anger will continue to be independent political groups plus talk radio, which gets and maintains audiences by pushing emotional hot-button issues and polarization.
Another key: the behavior of the Congressional leadership on both sides.
Still, the conditions seem ripe for a Congress that will lower the partisan rhetoric at least a few notches from the present one. Would this be the beginning of a trend, or merely a detour from 20th-21st politics as usual? But for now, the Monitor notes, these new members will have an influence:
For Speaker Nancy Pelosi, the influx of more conservative Democrats has meant finding ways to accommodate views more conservative than the caucus. In the 110th Congress, she called these moderate or conservative Democrats her “majority makers.”
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.