Tue, Apr 17, 2001 page8

• Cross-party alliances are possible

  • By Wang Chien-chuang 王健壯
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  Is it a feasible political arrangement for the president to take extreme positions while the legislature follows a middle path? The US White House and Senate recently demonstrated an answer to this question.

  The Democrats and Republicans currently occupy 50 seats each in the US Senate. If both parties were to adopt extreme positions, no bills at all could be passed. But within one short week, the 100 senators twice performed the difficult stunt of forming cross-party alliances on two highly partisan bills, handing successive defeats to the White House.

  The first bill was the campaign finance reform plan. Political contributions to campaigns have long been seen as a cancer in US politics. Take the so-called "soft money" donated to political parties as an example. In last year's elections, the total value of these donations rose to a terrifying total of US$500 million. The corrosive influence of relying on contributions from big business during an election and then being in business' grasp after taking office has become more and more prevalent.

  After losing to George W. Bush in the Republican Party's primaries, Senator John McCain vowed to enact a law to reform campaign practices. He joined forces with a senator from the Democratic party, Russell Feingold, to propose a reform plan and in the end it passed by 59 votes to 41.

  Bush had openly opposed this plan in the past, but 12 of the 50 Republican senators went against him. Among the 50 Democratic senators, there were 47 who supported the "enemy" party's McCain. The other three are Democrats who see eye to eye politically with Bush.

  The second bill is a tax reduction plan. Such a plan was one of Bush's campaign promises. It is also the bill most in accord with the spirit of the Republican party since Bush's inauguration. The tax reduction plan for the next 10 years that he presented to the Congress amounted to US$1.6 trillion, but the Senate ultimately cut it down to to US$1.2 trillion, by a vote of 65 to 35. At the same time, the senators attached and passed a retroactive plan proposed by the Democrats to first reduce taxes by US$85 billion this year.

  Reducing taxes has always been a highly partisan policy issue. Bush travelled to every corner of the country, visiting over 20 states, and doing his utmost to lobby for his plan. But among the 50 Republican, 16 votes still got away in the end and only one Democrat voted in the White House's favor.

  Although Bush afterwards disingenuously declared victory, a Democratic senator said mockingly, "if he thinks this counts as a victory, we hope for more such victories in the future."

  Anthony Giddens, who advocates the political theory of "the third way," once pointed out that in modern politics "the third way" is not only possible but also necessary.

  After the tax cut plan passed, Democratic Senator John Breaux, who played a leading role in the cross-party alliance that backed the plan, stated that a cross-party faction is not only a theoretical possibility but something that has been realized. He also said it was a necessity. If Congress disregards actual conditions, nothing at all can be accomplished.

  Former president Bill Clinton was in office for eight years, during which time he claimed to take a middle path. Clinton also said he was in harmony with Britain's Prime Minister Tony Blair and Germany's Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder. Although Bush also said he would follow a middle path when he first took office, his actions put him farther and farther to the right. There is even a sense of rushing to the right. As a result, not only is he gradually distancing himself from Blair and other world leaders, even his own comrades in Congress hold opposing views.

  Furthermore, moderate Republican and conservative Democratic members of Congress have formed a shifting cross-party alliance. They consider themselves to be the middle faction and don't follow the old fundamentalist road. Their relations with the White House are those of allies one moment and enemies the next. There is no so-called "party loyalty" to speak of.

  In Taiwan, after the year-end legislative elections, the ratio of ruling and opposition party legislators will undoubtedly be even closer than it is at present. But even in the two-party US Con-gress, cross-party alliances are a necessity.

  In Taiwan's legislature, with many parties occupying a roughly equal share of the seats, there will be chaos if each party simply follows its own path. The ruling and opposition parties would do well to take a lesson from US politics as soon as possible, so they don't find themselves at a loss later on.

  Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.

  Translated by Ethan Harkness
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