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Bipartisanship gets the boot

Can’t we all just get along?!”

• Rodney King

With the city of Los Angeles engulfed in flames following a controversial verdict that found four policemen not guilty of assault charges against a black man, it was the victim who called for peace.

“Can’t we all just get along,” pleaded Rodney King as the city he called home burned to the ground.

In the political arena, King’s desire to bring peace between two opposing parties is lauded as bipartisanship. Or at least it used to.

As voters and Americans, we expect a certain level of rancor between our politicians. But we should also expect them to be willing to set aside differences and work together on most things.

But do we?

And if we do, and our politicians meet that expectation, do we reward it, or punish it?

The Lugar Center, in conjunction with the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University released a report this week ranking the bipartisanship of federal lawmakers, an annual effort by this group which publishes its results online. The more likely a lawmaker was to sponsor a bill with a member of the other party, or strike out and vote against their party the higher the ranking. The more they act like a robot, don’t vote their own mind and do whatever is requested by party bosses while refusing to work on anything with the “other party,” the lower the score.

Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar ranked the highest on the list from Minnesota’s delegation at 10th in the Senate. Another Democrat, Dean Phillips, ranked 13th out of 435 members of the House.

The most interesting aspect of the list this year though isn’t necessarily what’s there, but what isn’t.

For each of the last two years, Minnesota and specifically southwest Minnesota, was represented on this list in the top 10 as Collin Peterson was ranked 8th in 2020 and 6th in 2019.

And what happened to that farmer at the last election?

Booted to the curb by Michelle Fishbach, who not so surprisingly, apparently is giving the voters exactly what they want as she’s ranked 271st in the House. Only two of Minnesota’s most renowned political extremists, Democrat Ilhan Ohmar (340th) and the late Republican Jim Hagedorn (356th), had a lower ranking.

It was also noted by the Lugar Center Policy Director one other more general absence indicating a disturbing trend.

“The new 2021 Bipartisan Index scores offer strong quantitative evidence that bipartisanship at the individual member level plummeted last year,” Dan Diller stated in a news release, with a preface referencing the Jan. 6 attacks on the Capital.

Politics was always and will always be a game and unfortunately, it’s one that has devolved into a death-match with the appropriate survival of the fittest component. And right now, with apologies to Mr. King, it clearly pays to not get along.

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