Ohio Gov. John Kasich took to the airways this Sunday morning and was allowed by CNN's Dana Bash to pretend that both Republicans and Democrats have a problem with intransigence among their ranks. Sorry Governor, but there is no equivalence on the left to the group of extremists that decided to pretend they've never heard of George W. Bush and tried to rebrand themselves as the so-called "tea party" on the left.
Secondly, to repeat the lie we hear told over and over again by the right, that Democrats didn't reach out to the other side of the aisle when they were trying to pass the Mitt Romney and the Heritage Foundation's Republican health care plan, otherwise known as the Affordable Care Act.
Now that his party has shown themselves to be completely incapable of governing, Kasich wants his party to reach out to the other side, and told Bash that effort might "begin to marginalize the extremes."
Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R) got heated during an interview on Sunday, saying it is “pathetic” if Democrats and Republicans can’t work together to successfully pass major legislation like healthcare policy.
“Right now, off the get-go, it's all partisan,” Kasich told CNN’s Dana Bash on "State of the Union," urging that it is “unsustainable” for the two parties to not engage the other side.
“The Democrats did it with ObamaCare, and it's not sustainable and the Republicans tried to do it with just Republicans. It doesn't work like that in our country. We're not at parliamentary system, and whenever you continue to operate like that, what you pass will never be sustainable,” he continued.
Kasich stressed that ObamaCare is “disintegrating,” so something must be done. But Kasich said the GOP healthcare proposal was too severe, saying “the mentally ill, the drug-addicted and chronically ill who will pay the price for politics.”
Kasich said Republicans could reach out to Democrats behind the scenes to work on the issue.
“Frankly if Republicans quietly over time will reach out to Democrats, find a constructive ones and you will begin to marginalize the extremes,” Kasich said.
If Kasich really believes that, maybe he should take a long hard look in the mirror. As Arthur Chu discussed at Salon last year, Kasich is no more reasonable than the other extremists in his party. He's just better at "camouflaging his agenda." Maybe it's hard for Kasich to see from within, but he's worry about extreme polarization is a valid one, but it's not a bipartisan one. Just this month a study was released that concluded that we're more polarized than ever before, but that it occurs mostly on the right.
