Archive for the ‘unity’ tag
Hating Bipartisanship #
Slate’s Jack Shafer has some — unfairly? — harsh words for citizens and journalists who’ve become fans of the “post-partisanship” of Obama, Bloomberg, and Schwarzenegger.
It sounds heavenly to imagine the banishment of partisanship, gridlock, division, anger, bitterness, pettiness, catcalls, and smears from politics. But once you do that, you’ve basically ended politics, and contrary to Obama, you’ve done nothing noble. We throw dead cats and insults at one another because we have philosophical disagreements that separate us, and all the smooth talk from political pulpits occupied by Obama and Bloomberg can’t change that for long. […]
If you embrace compromise for the sake of compromise and ban division for the sake of political unity, you’re left with parties and candidates that don’t stand for anything. At that point, why should anybody want to vote for a smooth bipartisanist like Barack Obama?
A Unity Government in Kenya? #
The BBC is reporting:
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki says he is ready to form a government of national unity, an official statement said. […]
But opposition leader Raila Odinga says Mr Kibaki must step down as president and that his preferred option remains for new elections to be held.
I have no doubt that this comes after at least some outside pressure. And though it’s clearly not the best outcome (which would be a truly fair election), it could certainly be better than continued violence and ethnic conflict.