A salute

Stanley - Thursday

I have been watching 'the world's greatest deliberative body', as the U.S. Senate likes to call itself, with some interest since the change in government. I was mildly encouraged by the fact that some Republicans thought that President Trump had behaved in a manner unbefitting a president and voted to remove him from office. Not enough, in my opinion, but at least some. I hoped that the chaos of January 6 and Biden's promise of a more bipartisan approach to government would result in the Senate being more functional than during the previous four years.

The Senate in action

Of course, I was wrong. Despite over 60% of Americans approving of Biden's COVID relief bill, every Democrat voted for it and every Republican voted against it. 

From my perspective, there were two interesting outcomes. 

The less interesting of the two (because it was predictable) was that Republicans immediately accused Democrats in general and Biden in particular for jettisoning bipartisanship. They shed many a crocodile tear for what could have been. However, from what I read and heard, bipartisanship for a Republican senator means some Democrats should go over to the right, while no Republicans head left. One would think members of this august body would understand the meaning of BI in BIpartisan. Probably a vain hope.

More interesting was the presence of a viable third party for the first time I can remember. It could be called the Joe Manchin party. In a senate equally split between the two main parties, the conservative Democrat was able to wield substantial influence on the final bill. The mere possibility that he would abstain or vote against the bill forced the Democrats to water down what they proposed. Even though I preferred the original bill, I liked the fact that negotiation had taken place - not between Democrats and Republicans, but between the Democrats themselves.

Joe Manchin of West Virginia

I don't believe for a nanosecond that all Republicans were against the bill, even though they voted against it. Similarly, I'm sure there were Democrats who thought the original bill went too far in some places, but would have voted for it had they been asked to.

More negotiations took place because of Manchin than would have taken place if all the remaining senators remained wedded to their parties.

I am a strong believer in a political system that has more than two parties. In the United States, a third party that worked to balance the budget while providing support to the most needy in the country would attract enough support to influence policy out of proportion to its size. Both Democrats and Republicans would have to woo this party in order to pass any legislation. 

Since spending time in Denmark, I have become an admirer of the Radikale Venstre party or Danish Social Liberal Party. (Radikale Venstre means Radical Left, literally translated.) 

I like it because it doesn't really want to win enough seats to be asked to form a government. It prefers to sit in the middle of the political spectrum (despite its name) so it can influence policy by choosing to lean left or right as it deems fit. Co-operation is a primary belief of the party. So even though it is small (just under 9% of the vote in 2019), it offered to side with the Social Democrats to form a government only if they would make changes to the previous government's strict immigration policies. 

Sofie Carsten Nielsen - leader of the Radikale Venstre party

The politics of a multi-party state are fascinating, and I highly recommend the very entertaining Borgen television series for an authentic look at how the Danish parliament works.

Birgitte Nyborg wins a shocking victory!

I am not optimistic that a third party of any clout will emerge in the United States. The system is rigged in favour of a two-party system, and a third party would dilute the power of the financial supporters and PACs. Now, we couldn't allow that to happen, could we?

So, in the absence of a third party, I salute Joe Manchin, even though he's too conservative for my liking.