Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That Is Destroying America

By Cal Thomas and Bob Beckel

Inspired by their popular USA Today column, conservative Cal Thomas and liberal Bob Beckel unmask the hypocrisy of the issues, organizations, and individuals that have created and deepened the partisan divide at the center of American politics, and make a strategic case for why this bickering must stop. Thomas and Beckel explain how bipartisanship and consensus politics are not only good for the day-to-day democratic process but also essential for our nation's future well-being. Entertaining and informative, funny and healing, Common Ground is a must-read for all concerned citizens.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Open Road Integrated Media
• Release date: Oct 13, 2009
• ISBN: 9780061866043

Cal Thomas

Cal Thomas is one of the most widely syndicated columnists in America. His fifty-year journalism career includes anchoring and reporting for KPRC-TV in Houston, NBC News in Washington, Fox News Channel and other outlets. For ten years he co-wrote the Common Ground column for USA Today with his colleague, Bob Beckel. A native of Washington, D.C. and graduate of American University, Thomas is married to Christie Jean ("CJ"). The couple live in Key Largo, Florida. Visit calthomas.com.

Book preview

PART I

Where We Are

1

THE PEOPLE VS. THE POLARIZATION OF AMERICAN POLITICS

Politics—I don’t know why, but they seem to have a tendency to separate us, to keep us from one another, while nature is always and ever making efforts to bring us together.

—Sean O’Casey

VOTERS WILL TOLERATE POLARIZATION AND EXTREME PARTISANSHIP to a point, especially if it doesn’t affect them directly. But by 2006, polarization was paralyzing government. It came at a time when the country was deeply divided over the war in Iraq, and facing a myriad of problems at home. After years of gridlock and extreme partisanship, the public had had enough; polarization ceased to be an insider’s game, and voters rebelled in a rare wave election.

Wave elections are ones in which the outcome significantly alters the political balance of power. By the fall of 2006, politicians (particularly incumbents) finally caught up with the extent of the voters’ anger. Republican incumbents, realizing that their party’s strategy of maximizing the base, which had worked in 2002 and 2004, would not work in 2006, tried to persuade voters that they were not partisan extremists. Partisans, yes; extremists, no.

Challengers in congressional races across the country attacked incumbents as members of a do-nothing Congress, and they put the blame squarely on polarization. Not to be outdone, even some incumbents who had engaged in the most outrageous polarizing preached the wisdom of seeking common ground solutions. To enhance this message, candidates reached out to the two most exciting and sought-after politicians in the country at the time, Senators John McCain (R-AZ) and Barack Obama (D-IL). Neither was on the ballot, but both made the evils of polarization a central ingredient of their message. Both are running for president in 2008, and there is no sign that their message will change.

The reelection of Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman in 2006 as an independent provided one of the first campaign tests specifically aimed at polarization…and polarization lost. Paradoxically, polarization had forced Lieberman to run as an independent because the Democratic Party denied him the party nomination. For partisans, it wasn’t enough that Lieberman had been loyal to their Democratic Party and most of its issues for three decades, or that he had been the party’s vice-presidential nominee in 2000. That he differed with them on one issue—Iraq—was enough for the polarizers to dump

Reviews for Common Ground

[dalecogdell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

If you are tired of the political gridlock that is strangulating our country then this book is a breath of fresh air just waiting for you. Common sense prevails and triumphs! It gives hope that political opposites can work together. Not too many books like this.