I'm honestly tired of the talking points that Democrats should always urge for union and bipartisanship, while a large majority of the Republican Party never does that and is morally just bankrupt.
Democrats constantly have reached out to the other side in good faith over the last few years. They're also a much more constructive opposition in congress with a Republican in the White House, while the three Democratic presidents of the last 30 years have faced relentless and fundamental opposition from congressional Republicans (while the number of lesser partisan Republicans constantly declines as they're primaried or forced to retire for being "traitors"). The Republican Party constantly lowers the standards and when Democrats slightly retaliate, they're being slammed by the media as obstructionist and divisive. Give me a break.
I mean the Republicans did not really do obstructionism under Clinton. The Republican House passed quite a bit actually and one of Clinton's arguments in 1996 was that if Dole was elected he would just sign all of this into law .
So I would not say it was obstructionism but the opposition in which Clinton acted a check on the GOP's agenda rather than the other way around. Like just look at the stuff passed then:
- Multiple deregulation bills
- welfare reform
- spending cuts
- line item veto(which SCOTUS sadly struck down)
- CHIP
- different crime bills(there were more than just the 1994 one)
- Capital Gain Tax Cuts
like Clinton and the GOP congress actually got a lot done together
Most of that was pretty right-wing stuff though, like the repeal of Glass Steagall and DOMA. Even a lot of Democrats voted for that. However, the 1990s were the time when hyper partisanship really begun. They also endlessly investigated Clinton and impeached him for purely political reasons.
