Washington dinner parties used to be a lot of fun. If the gathering was stuffed with Democrats, everyone could enjoy deploring the depredations of the GOP.
If it was a Republican crowd, guests tittered at Democratic expense. And in a mixed group, there’d be jovial trans-aisle ribbing, with admittedly the occasional irate flare-up.
But now? It’s a weird time; an uneasy, earnest time. And the good-natured partisanship that used to enliven Washington gatherings seems to have vanished.
In a mixed group, it’s become hard to know where to find points of conversational commonality apart from the painfully dull, such as number of children, schools attended, and the neighborhoods in which people live.
Partly this is because all the old fascinating topics have been obviated. The election is over. The One has won. A bellicose Russia and the war in Gaza do not enliven supper.
And house prices are – well, never mind. Everyone used to love telling real estate stories. Now no one can bear to talk about the subject.
And suddenly missing is the friendly raillery that used to begin at the cocktail hour. In a mixed group the other night, I remarked that I was looking forward to Tuesday because I was eager for the seas to recede and for the healing to begin. It was disconcerting to see the blank faces.
“You know,” I said fatally, “remember how on the campaign trail Obama predicted…” And I trailed off.
Even in a room half-filled with conservatives, it was obvious that it has become in bad taste to deliver a light jab at the sainted president-elect.
In Washington, even in a room filled with card-carrying Republicans, there are likely some who voted the Democratic ticket. That was less true in 1996, 2000, or 2004.
Furthermore, in any room filled with conservatives there’s another elephant. Friends who used gleefully to agree on all things Clintonian, for instance, turn away frostily at even the mention of Sarah Palin.
Gatherings become awkward. Republicans who can’t abide the Alaska governor are baffled by the enthusiasm of those who persist in liking her, who are in turn amazed by the vehemence of those who detest her.
Thus post-mortems of the 2008 election, which ought to make great conversation, tend to founder almost immediately.
Meanwhile, the great Age of Obama love-in has begun, and it’s as if the GOP has stuffed a cork in its own mouth.
Hilary Clinton, once a fantastically polarizing figure, strolled into her Senate confirmation hearings on Tuesday to an adulating bipartisan crowd.
“Her qualifications for this post are remarkable,” gushed Sen. Richard Lugar, R-IN, of a woman whose husband has been raking in hundreds of millions of dollars from foreign princelings and potentates. The activities of Mrs. Clinton’s husband should “not be a barrier to Senator Clinton’s service,” Senator Lugar went on.
So much for any prospect of partisan grilling for our incoming Secretary of State. Is that now in bad taste, too?
Indeed, amiability reigned on Capitol Hill this week, as Obama’s cabinet nominees – Arne Duncan for Education Secretary, Shaun Donovan for Housing and Urban Development, Hilda Solis for Labor Secretary — endured the prolonged cuddling that seems to have replaced the old cruelty of partisan questioning.
Members of Congress are perhaps only trying to give the public what it thinks it wants. In a Harris Poll last year, 89% of Americans said it was important that the next president reduce political partisanship and hostility in Washington.
Reducing hostility is laudable – surely we can disagree without being disagreeable, as one’s grandmother might say – but partisanship is overwhelmingly a healthy thing.
To thrive, democracies need it (to survive, one-party states suppress it).
Partisanship means that I am arguing for my ideas and my worldview in the hope of persuading you. It means you are trying just as vigorously to bring me around to your way of thinking.
This clashing of ideas and tactics is creative and productive. It also makes for lively discussion and much more fun at the dinner table.
Examiner columnist Meghan Cox Gurdon is a former foreign correspondent and a regular contributor to the books pages of The Wall Street Journal. Her Examiner column appears on Thursdays.
