Senators Lamar Alexander and Tim Kaine demonstrate true bipartisan harmony as they practice for an appearance with the Buck Mountain Band to perform as “The Amateurs” at the 17th Annual Bristol Rhythm and Roots Reunion, which occurred yesterday.
It is only 15 seconds.
Enjoy!
Diane Ravitch's blog 
It’s a nice change form Trumpets and Dog Whistles …
but I fear they’re bound to be drowned out …
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Don’t forget harm-onicas
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Which, are quite different from harmonicas, of course.
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I’m pretty sure monica has suffered enough …
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Alexander has excellent technique.
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Lamar has been playing the piano for many years. Not sure about Tim.
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I get that you’re talking about music, but I’ve about had it with bipartisan harmony. That tune hurts my ears, not to mention my wallet, my employment, my home, my children, my…. Personally, I’d like to hear the sound of pistols at 40 paces.
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Like!
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Triple like
She save me a comment
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I don’t know, Dienne. Isn’t that what we have been hearing for the last several years? I really would like to see a Congress that doesn’t look like a bunch of two years olds who haven’t learned to play together. People will never all think alike. As teachers we have been fighting hard against such standardization. I want my politicians to be able to talk to those with whom they disagree and come up with compromises. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be active in trying to drive policy. The main problem from where I sit has been we have all been too complacent while the right has been engineering a quiet coup. Conservatives have worked very hard in every corner of every state to slowly change the fabric of local and state politics. They have taken tiny chunks of policy and made their assertions sound reasonable. Few have connected the dots and seen the larger game plan. So now we have to do the same and change the narrative and call out bad policy and what it has done to the majority of Americans. To do that we need politicians who can identify where we have gone off track and work to right the process. I don’t see anyone who is ideologically pure out there. I don’t even know what that means. It is going to take people who can build consensus or as least agree to collaborate as well as bargain.
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It would be beautiful to have a Congress that would work together for the benefit of the American people. But that’s not what happens. When they do work together, it’s for their benefit and the benefit of their rich donors and the rest of us get royally screwed. Given that reality, yes, I prefer a Congress that squabbles like two year olds and doesn’t get anything done. With rare exceptions, the only times we’ve had bipartisan harmony in, well, most of my lifetime, it has been very painful for the rest of us – NCLB, RttT, Iraq, Patriot Act, you name it.
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” I want my politicians to be able to talk to those with whom they disagree and come up with compromises. ”
I am not proposing a utopian la la land where everybody sings kum ba yah. As I said people will never think alike, but they can negotiate compromises and do so in many less volatile situations than the ones you chose to highlight. Your dissent is essential but can make you as disruptive as some of the policies you decry when it is only expressed as cynicism. The world isn’t black and white. There isn’t always an obvious right and wrong. Sound bites and slogans can be very compelling and persuasive, but I sure hope that our legislators probe at least some issues with a bit more deliberation and willingness to listen to counterarguments.
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Yes, but, for the past couple decades “compromise” has invariably meant we the people get screwed. Honestly, most of their “disagreement” is for show. Neither party really wants to do anything that costs their wealthy donors one extra dime. In fact, there are very obvious right answers (universal single payer and fully funded real public schools, as a couple of examples), but neither party is interested because there’s nothing good in it for their real base. So instead Congress haggles and squabbles like two year olds so we can come up with “compromises” like ESSA and every other education bill. The only “compromise” is about how specifically the billionaires and corporations are going to profit off us.
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It may be obvious to you that single payer healthcare and fully funded public education is the federal government’s job, but there are lots of people who don’t agree for what they feel are legitimate reasons.
I happen to like the idea of single payer health care, although I am not a fan of the bureaucracy it might very well entail. While the advantages of single payer are obvious, I had a cousin who had to move to Ontario from Nova Scotia to get the medical care she needed. Six months wait to see a specialist to deal with a recurrence of her cancer! Her care in Ontario was superb, but they carefully chose where they lived to get the best access. She died there but had all the support and care she needed. She would have been dead and probably very painfully before she even saw a specialist in Nova Scotia. The guy in Wyoming with limited access to medical care is still probably going to have limited access and a whoIe lot more hoops to jump through. I totally understand why it was so difficult to craft the ACA. If we managed to keep it, it will take many more iterations before it works for the majority of people and is philosophically agreeable to a clear majority as well.
I don’t want the federal government directly responsible for fully funding public schools because then they will feel the right to stick their two cents in even more than they already do, and the strength of the voice of the local constituents is diluted. Schooling controlled from Washington is not likely to be very responsive to local needs.
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“…although I am not a fan of the bureaucracy it might very well entail.”
Right, because dealing with private insurance never involves a moment of bureaucracy. Face palm
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I am too old. What the heck is a face palm?
“Right, because dealing with private insurance never involves a moment of bureaucracy.”
H-m-m-m. Did I say that? As one who has been lucky enough to be able to get private insurance, I would be lying if I did. As one who has had to pay sky high rates on the individual market, who would I be kidding? I was only trying to illustrate that there are people and reasons, however flimsy you or I might find them, for not being a fan of government control of medical care. I cannot get my head around ordinary people objecting to public education, but I am with them when it comes to limiting the federal government’s role. Again, there are as many opinions out there as people. No one is going to get everything they want, and if that is the way they think government should operate, then they are doomed to disappointment. I have ways I want this country to move, and, I suspect, it will, but I am pretty sure I will never see it, and I am even more sure that at some point in the future someone else will be fighting the same fight. I can only hope that we will be further down the road to a mature understanding of public good.
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BTW, perhaps some people do disagree that public schools should be fully funded, but I don’t want to meet those people.
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