Senator John Kerry spoke Tuesday at the Center for American Progress. He calls on the Senate and all Americans to knock off the partisanship and get to work keeping America economically and culturally strong in a world filled with competitors who will be happy to take our place at the top.
The full speech is worth reading. I'll highlight three points:
1. "[E]xceptionalism for America has never been an automatic fact—a birthright on autopilot—but an inheritance of opportunity to be renewed and revitalized by each generation." As Senator Kerry says, we don't make America exceptional just by saying it over and over. We have to do exceptional things.
2. Senator Kerry demonstrates the partisan gridlock that keeps us from doing exceptional things by pointing to all the Republican ideas Republicans now block for political gain:
On issue after issue, enduring consensus has been frayed or shredded by lust for power cloaked in partisan games. Health care's individual mandate? Guess what—it started as a Republican idea—a pro-business idea—because rising insurance costs leave big holes in profits. Cap and trade? Guess again—another Republican idea based on market principles and, with bipartisanship, successfully implemented by President George Herbert Walker Bush, now denounced as ideological heresy. And energy independence? For forty years, every President since Richard Nixon has recognized that foreign oil imports are America's Achilles heel. But whenever we've had a chance to act, we've been blocked by entrenched influence and the siren call of short-term interest instead of achieving long-term success [Senator John Kerry, speech to Center for American Progress, printed in the Washington Post, 2011.01.11].
3. Senator Kerry recognizes there are times when one may justify gridlock with the valid exercise of the filibuster. But he laments that "the extraordinary measure of a filibuster has become an ordinary expedient":
Consider this: in the entire 19th century, including the struggle against slavery, fewer than two dozen filibusters were mounted. Between 1933 and the coming of World War II, it was attempted only twice. During the Eisenhower administration, twice. During John Kennedy's presidency, four times—and then eight during Lyndon Johnson's push for civil rights and voting rights bills. By the time Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan occupied the White House, there were about 20 filibusters a year.
But in the 110th Congress of 2007-2008, there were a record 112 cloture votes. And in the 111th Congress, there were 136, one of which even delayed a vote to authorize funding for the Army, Navy, Air Force and Marine Corps during a time of war. That's not how the Founders intended the Senate to work—and that's not how our country can afford the Senate not to work [Kerry, 2011].
Senator Kerry's speech suggests that toning down our language isn't about eschewing metaphors of rifles and war. It's about engaging in political discourse that, as the President said last night in Tucson, heals rather than wounds. It's about conducting active dialogue that builds policies and solutions, not just voter anger and political advantage. Only such constructive dialogue will accomplish the work of American democracy.