Schumer and Coburn make it a date
New York’s senior Democratic Senator, Chuck Schumer, announced over the weekend that he will sit side-by-side with conservative Republican Tom Coburn during the State of the State address.
It’s a break from the image we’ve seen in recent years, with the two parties camped on opposite sides of the aisle; and it’s a huge break from the “You lie!” tone of last year’s speech.
“We hope that many others will follow us,” Mr. Schumer said, appearing with Mr. Coburn on “Meet the Press” on NBC.
“Now, that’s symbolic, but maybe it just sets a tone and everything gets a little bit more civil.”
According to the New York Times, Coburn echoed Schumer’s more conciliatory tone:
“Some of the problems in our country is we talk past each other, not to each other,” he said.
“And Chuck and I have been able to work on multiple bills because we sit down, one on one, and work things out. And what we need to do is have more of that, not less of it.”
These are baby steps, to be sure, but in politics symbols and symbolic gestures matter.
Lawmakers on both sides of the ideological spectrum need to not just meet regularly one-on-one; they need to do so more often in public, so that their voting blocs can see them talking, arguing and debating, not hating and dismissing.
I’d love to see monthly town-hall style meetings hosted by leaders and top thinkers within both parties. Let’s hear not from pundits and bomb-throwers and bloviators, but from people who actually have to legislate and govern.
I think we would find that in the real world — away from the liberal blogs and AM talk radio — the people wrestling with America’s real-world problems have far more in common than most voters think.
Tags: politics
Hear! Hear!
why just sit next to each other? Why not sit on each other’s lap? Or maybe, do lapdances?
This is so ridiculous in light of the dems passed legislation and shut out the republicans!!!
Great. I’m glad that some have signed on to this idea. I’d like to see them mixed all the time. If we want have our representatives sit in groups, do it by state, not party.
Isn’t it the State of the Union, though?
oa, All the more reason to sit together instead of divided by party.
It’s difficult not to be cynical about this. Symbolism is meaningful only if there’s something underneath it. If there were some substantive issues on which there would be cooperation associated with this symbolic gesture, then one might assign some meaning to it. We seem to have reached the sorry state where a feel-good gesture is big news and a substitute for legislating.
Bill G hit the crux of the issue. Was Chucky going to sit with Jim Demint? Are both sides going to put their differences aside and work for the good of the country. Will Obama retract his “back of the bus” and “enemies” statements? Nope, feel good, look good, sound bites, business as usual.
“State of the State”
Brian, I think you mean “State of the Union”.
I think that people are always surprised to see how well politicians on both sides of the isle get along when they see how the interact at the State of the Union.
Politicians only get along when it’s to their mutual benefit. Lets call a spade a spade and and least start with the realization.
But it sends a message that these are just men and women up there doing a job, they all sit down and deal with each other when it needs to happen and many of them genuinely like each other. Look at Orrin Hatch and Ted Kennedy they worked together to give us true health insurance reform in the SCHIP that actually does provide health insurance for children. Things like that; I think it is good that they show the public that they are not locked in some stupid death struggle, which is not true anyway but actually can get along.