Good Faith

by digby

From Think Progress:

In an interview with the conservative online publication Newsmax, former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said the GOP must broaden its appeal to avoid becoming “the old white-guy party,” and recommended that Republicans create a “shadow government” to work on its own agenda. Claiming this is still a “center-right country,” Bush urged Republicans not to move towards a “Democratic-lite” agenda.

This isn’t surprising. The Republicans obviously see American politics as more of a parliamentary system than the bipartisan, consensus system of the Democrats. They are preparing for taking over as soon as they get the chance. In Britain, that’s exactly what the “shadow government” is designed to do:

The UK shadow cabinet is the front bench of the official parliamentary opposition party. It seeks to present itself as an alternative government for the next general election. It grew out of the practice that developed in the late nineteenth century of the ex-cabinet continuing to meet after election defeat in order to lead the opposition against the new cabinet. Since the 1950s it has become a key dimension of the formalized process of parliamentary adversarial politics. A Labour shadow cabinet would be based on members elected by the parliamentary Labour Party, whilst a Conservative shadow cabinet is appointed by the party leader.

There’s nothing inherently wrong with such a practice. It can work out very well, giving people a clear idea of the differences between the two parties. But if only one side sees the system as being fundamentally a partisan activity and the other side doesn’t they end up working at cross purposes.