It’s funny that every time the Republican Party has any sort of power in government, there’s a clamoring for so-called bipartisan action from the media elite.
Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist, appeared on the Fox Business Network’s Nov. 12 “Imus in the Morning” program and offered his synopsis of the new political landscape post-midterm election.
“[I] think that Newt Gingrich and Bob Dole were different from, you know Mitch McConnell and John Boehner,” Friedman said. “You know, I think that the level of partisanship was – even with Gingrich – was one notch down. And I’m afraid that – you know, what basically Clinton succeeded in doing was persuading them to work on a bipartisan set of policies, particularly welfare reform.”
But according to Friedman, after two years of complete Democratic control of the Congress and the White House, he charges Republican leaders will prevent progress on the issues of the day, suggesting it the burden is on government to achieve American exceptionalism.
“The conclusion that I think the current Republican leadership drew from that experience was that basically two out of three voters rewarded the president for that bipartisan achievement and one out of three, at max, Republicans,” Freidman said. “And therefore they think they are better off not doing something, as McConnell said – just working for Obama's defeat.”
And with this new divide in government Friedman admitted he had doubts about the future of the United States and that he intentionally hyped the Chinese to influence policy and politics.
“I was just in China a couple of months ago,” Friedman said. “And my Chinese friends always you know say to me, ‘Friedman, you know you really exaggerate us. You really exaggerate our strengths and what not.’ I say, ‘You know what baby – you bet I do because you’re my Sputnik. You’re that thing I want my country to see rising so we get up off of our behinds and do what we need to do because you know what I’m really afraid of? I say to them, ‘You exaggerate us. You still think we're that America that Winston Churchill spoke about – the country that will invariably do the right thing after it has exhausted all the other possibilities. Well, you know Don [Imus] we don't have time anymore to exhaust all the other possibilities.’”
He painted an even bleaker picture, claiming that it was up to congressional Republicans, even before they have been formally given control of the Congress, to achieve “solutions” or we’d be under the control of China and South Korea.
“We don't have time for Republicans to say, ‘Well let’s just spend the next two years to trying to defeat President Obama, you know. And then, we’ll get our chance at bat.’ And Democrats say ‘We'll spend two years trying to defeat you,’” Freidman continued. “And by the time we wake up, Don – this country has really shrunken. And South Korea and China aren't just keeping us at bay. They're telling us what to do.”