Liberals are always talking about reaching across the aisle. The metaphor imagines that there is an auditorium (or perhaps the congressional chambers) and that all the Republicans are sitting on the right side of the center aisle and all the Democrats are sitting on the left side of the center aisle. The metaphorical “reaching” is really the “two sides” finding common ground that will allow them to make concessions and reach an agreement on how the United States of America should be governed.
On the surface, reaching across the aisle is a good idea. People getting along is good. People having conflicts that might lead to a civil war is bad. (As long as you ignore the details.)
So what is the common ground between the Republicans and Democrats? And what are some concessions they might make to one another? These are questions we might all want to consider before we seriously consider reaching across the aisle.
Let’s admit first, though, that reaching across the aisle automatically excludes the MAGA extremists on the Republican side, and the pro-democracy, anti-genocide extremists that often end up voting Democrat (i.e., “the left”).
Common Ground
Both sides support unquestioning support of Israel no matter how fascistic and genocidal the Israeli government and, apparently, a majority of Israelis might be. Sure, there are people who vote Democrat or Republican that do not support the Israeli government (e.g., some Republicans are antisemitic but really want the Temple in Jerusalem to be rebuilt, and leftists don’t think the Holocaust justifies the Nakba), but nobody is reaching across the aisle to those folks.
Both sides support the existence of homelessness, starvation, and deprivation of medical care within the richest country on Earth. Democrats believe that capitalism is the best possible system, and thus believe poverty is inevitable, whereas Republicans believe someone else suffering is a desirable outcome.
Both sides support the idea of the United States of America and its institutions, such as the Constitution. “Our institutions” is such an empty value as to be comical were it not for the fact that Democrats and Republicans both swoon over this nebulous idea. We’re talking about a Constitution specifically designed to protect the “opulent minority” (rich people) and allow for the institution of slavery. This is not a document to be fetishized, but rather one we should be criticizing and reforming, as FDR intended with his Economic Bill of Rights. Moreover, there is nothing about the Constitution that would prevent the conversion of the USA to a fully fascist government and society despite what liberals like to pretend.
Both sides support increasing the carbon production of our country. Yes, the Biden administration has made great strides in promoting alternative energy, but at the same time it increased US production of fossil fuels such that the US is now the biggest producer in the world. That increased production will produce more CO2 than the CO2 cuts created by the Biden administration’s “green” policies. As always, the goal of liberal governments is to increase GDP and private profits at any cost. Analysis: Biden-Approved Fossil Fuel Projects Undermine IRA Emissions Cuts
Both sides support a militarized police force, criminalization of poverty, and a privatized prison system that holds the highest percentage of the population of any country on Earth.
Making Concessions
In order to really reach across the aisle, the reacher must be willing to make some concessions. The Republicans never talk about reaching — only Democrats espouse this as a good course of action. In fact, when the Democrats take a step to the right, Republicans respond by also moving a step to the right; that’s been going on since the Obama administration. Or maybe since Bill Clinton.
What concessions could the Democrats make to the Republicans?
The Democrats could offer to privatize Social Security. Social Security is universally loved by normal Americans and universally hated by the wealthy. Republicans like to pretend that if we privatized Social Security, the program would do much better financially, so this is something those vultures might like. In fact, they almost did this in 2011-2012, calling it the Grand Bargain. Fortunately, popular opposition shot it down. It was a great example, though, of how the Democratic party elite are willing to lose on purpose to support the wishes of the donor class — as long as they can get away with it.
The Democrats could offer to end gay marriage, substituting the less offensive “domestic partnership” scenario. They could also end or reduce protections for any and all minority groups, basically legalizing discrimination. While Democrats would never legalize genocide within the borders of the USA, they could certainly agree to defund programs meant to investigate and prosecute hate crimes. They could change the emphasis of various executive branch departments; for example, they could focus the FBI on “finding illegal immigrants” and instruct them to ignore hate-based crimes.
(Believe me — I don’t want to give conservatives ideas, but you people keep trying to make deals with them.)
The Democrats could actively support the Christianity-centric (theocratic) view of the USA that Republicans would like to see re-established, including moving funding for public institutions to church-run institutions, like private religious schools.
The Democrats could agree to end their campaign to provide federal funding for child care for working moms while simultaneously providing bigger tax credits for children, thus forcing mothers out of the workforce. If the numbers were right, this could effectively end feminism as we know it in a single generation. Remember, Republicans don’t really care about being frugal — they only care about promoting their culture and preferred power hierarchy.
Democrats could end their campaign to reform gun laws. They could even allow Class 3 weapons (machine guns, suppressors, short-barreled rifles, etc.) to be sold using the instant background check system instead of the months-long and overly complex current process. If this sounds absurd, consider how adding an electronic fingerprint scanner at each FFL (funded by the US taxpayer, of course) would make the current system seem pointless to the average voter.
Democrats could agree to bomb Iran. This is one of those things the Democratic donor class really wants anyway, so it is very appealing.
Democrats could agree to a rigorous law enforcement campaign to destroy antifa, who are obviously doing something illegal by existing (they’re not).
Democrats could agree to truly shutting down the southern US border in violation of US and international law. Yeah, I know I just said it is illegal, but the Refuge Act of 1980 can be repealed and Americans mostly think they are above international law. This would also be morally deplorable, but Americans definitely don’t care about that.
The right to asylum was enshrined in 1948’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights and then again in the Refugee Convention of 1951 and its 1967 Protocol. The United States passed its own federal law in the Refugee Act of 1980, for people who are fleeing persecution on “account of race, religion, nationality, membership in a particular social group, or political opinion.”
ACLU
The Democrats could sign on to a bill allowing US police the right to execute anyone on the spot if they believe they have committed a felony.
Am I being hyperbolic? OK, then you tell me — what exactly should Democrats offer to do for the genocidal, hateful lovers of suffering and domination that are the Republican party? Quite literally, no good can come from Republicans getting even a small part of what they want. If you want to make a deal with the Republicans, why not go straight to the Devil instead?
The Other Aisle
If Democrats really wanted to bring the country together and promote policies that would ultimately be popular with nearly all Americans, they would reach across the other aisle — to the left.
The left knows where to find the funding to help people train for new and more rewarding jobs.
The left knows how to get resources to mothers who wish to stay at home with their children as well as mothers who wish to follow a career path.
The left knows how to fully fund Social Security without increasing your taxes.
The left knows how to make small towns thrive.
The left knows how to leave a survivable planet to our children.
The left knows how to build a world where everyone gets along and thrives — except the rich and bigots.
The left knows how to decrease immigration and make it so we no longer require it for our economy to function.
Problem Solved
Another way of looking at it is that as long as we are unwilling to aggravate a tiny minority of ultra-rich assholes, we will not be able to solve the real problems that most Americans face. America’s two-party system is really a debate between two cabals of powerful shit sacks regarding exactly how the average American’s life should be exploited and controlled. The rest of us are being forced to choose between them, but this is like asking the condemned man how he wants to die, and then giving him two gruesome options; it isn’t a meaningful choice, even though it seems rather important in the moment.
In the non-metaphorical real world, this means giving a person two shitty options, and they are left to determine which option is best for them. You can’t ever have financial security, but you get to choose between screwing over some specific minority groups (e.g., women, Black people) and screwing over everyone equally. You can’t have peace, but you can choose which conflicts and genocides to fund. You can’t have a job where you are respected and do meaningful work, but you can choose to make some other group of people have it worse than you do (or not). One side offers nonsense and suffering, the other side offers nothing but I guess having dystopia painted in your favorite color is worth something.
I realize people are going to read this and say something like, “well, communism is bad because…” That’s fine. Whatever bad features you think communism or socialism has, let’s not do those features. Let’s do the other ones instead. You don’t like how Soviet Russia was anti-Christian? Fine. No problem. We don’t have to do that bit. You think communism steals your toothbrush? Fine. I formally propose that we do communism without toothbrush stealing. Easy peasy. Do you think small businesses are all run by the state under socialism? OK, no problem. Under our version, small businesses will be independent of the state — and the banks and the landlords. They won’t even be taxed. Problem solved.