CFP
In 2008 the theme was, “We won. and the other party can sit in the back.” But now it’s 2011 and after a punishing election which the majority party lost badly, the new theme is, Bipartisanship. From proposals to have Democrats and Republicans sit together, as if congress were an elementary school assembly instead of the legislative body of the nation, to calls for civility and tamped down rhetoric, there’s a sudden emphasis on everyone getting along and working together.
In 2008 the Democrats had the chance to be good winners, but instead they chose to ram through a unilateral agenda that most of the country opposed. The 2010 elections punished them for their hubris, and now they expect the Republicans to be the good winners that they never were. But such a message would have been far more convincing if they hadn’t tried to wrap it around a madman’s shooting spree, like a gift wrapped brick hurled through a window.