By Jack Parkos | United States

Amidst the 2016 general election and the 2018 midterms, the word “bipartisan” was thrown around quite a bit. This occurred as people called for unity of Democrats and Republicans during times of heated political discourse. Many people voted for candidates who they deemed more likely to “reach across the aisle”. People assume that bipartisanship will lead to the better. But this is not the case, especially if one has liberty in mind.

Many poor bills, military conflicts, and terrible actions have come from Democrats and Republicans working together. Nobody seems to be concerned that these bills are bad, rather they are happy that enemies are becoming friends. But does working together make something inherently good? Two rivals coming together to work on something may seem good-but it indeed depends on what is being done. The so-called “moderates” in politics will just be happy a bill is bipartisan, not caring if it violates the constitution or our liberties.

As stated before many horrid policies have hurt the nation in the people’s liberties but have thus been labeled as a “victory” somehow. According to this logic, harming people is okay as long as the initiator is being open-minded to working with others. This is absurd logic. Tyranny is tyranny, no matter who it’s from. Now, one may argue these bills have been for the better. This is not the case, these bills were not in the name of liberty. These policies have been authoritarian in nature and harmed the country.

The Creation of the United Nations

Prior to the 1950s, the Republican party was one of isolationism. Senator Arthur Vandenberg changed the party from isolationism to internationalism. Internationalism was a position held by the democratic party, especially with Woodrow Wilson’s globalism in the 1910s. Nonetheless, Vandenberg encouraged bipartisan support for the Truman Doctrine, NATO, and many more internationalist policies. What has been the result of such action? The United States no longer has a party of isolationists. Neither Democrats nor Republicans support this. Both believe in global institutions, war, and interventionism. This has been horrid for the nation. When Trump even spoke of leaving NATO and the UN, both parties thought him crazy. But this is what the Founders supported. They never would have wanted the U.S. under control of an international “super government” and quite frankly, we shouldn’t.

No Child Left Behind

The creation of Common Core was done with bipartisan support. This bill has been awful for children and puts education under central authority. No Child Left Behind is awful for parents, teachers, and students. Both parties support such disaster.

The War on Poverty

The War on Poverty was a series of programs set to fight poverty. Though initiated by Democratic President Lyndon B. Johnson, it gained bipartisan support. One would think the GOP would oppose expanding welfare programs, but this was not the case. Republicans did, in fact, support many programs in the War on Poverty. This has resulted in a massive welfare state and-as Thomas Sowell puts it “changed welfare from an emergency rescue to a way of life”.

Middle Eastern Intervention

Following on the idea of internationalism, the constant warfare in the Middle East gained bi-partisan support. While having strong neoconservative support, many Democrats also supported the bloody wars. Remember “peaceful” Obama? He dropped over 26,000 bombs a year in the Middle East during his presidency. He only continued the awful wars Bush started. Many other Democrats have also become hawkish on foreign policy. Hillary Clinton especially was especially a hawk. Many people thought her opponent Trump was a crazy war fanatic and that she was for peace, yet a look into her time as Secretary of State would show otherwise. There really aren’t many true pro-peace politicians anymore.

Conclusion

Both parties have supported bloody wars and both parties supported disastrous economic programs. It is time to stop assuming bills to be good because it’s bi-partisan. It is time to stop assuming it is good when both parties work together. People say we need more bipartisanship in this country, maybe we need more partisanship. Maybe Republicans need to start actually supporting small government and free markets, and go back to isolationism. One must wonder if, had Republicans been more partisan, would we be better off and with more liberty?

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