Biden-Buttigieg dream of uniting Congress runs into DC skeptics

WASHINGTON Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg are selling voters on their ability to unite Democrats and Republicans around their agenda. But current and former members of Congress have a message for them: Dream on. Biden frequently tells voters that if President Donald Trump is defeated, Republicans will have an "epiphany" and work with Democrats. Buttigieg, in a 30-second spot appearing in South Carolina, vows to "unify the American people" around pocketbook issues, gun violence and immigration. But the two moderate Democrats may be walking into the same trap that stymied President Barack Obama: a belief that they can overcome intense tribalism and get Republicans to work with them. Biden and Buttigieg are campaigning on ideas that mirror Obama's second-term agenda, from raising the minimum wage to regulating gun ownership to bolstering the Affordable Care Act. All have broad national support but have been blocked by Republicans.

"For Republicans specifically, most of these proposals are dead in the water," said David Jolly, a Republican congressman who represented a Florida district from 2014 to 2017 and has since left the party. He said the prospect of cross-party cooperation around such goals is "unrealistic where today's politics lie," even if it's visionary in a way that speaks to voters' aspirations. Jolly said that even if Democrats win big in 2020, the way congressional districts are drawn would hinder cooperation because each party is predominantly responsive to its core base. "Between gerrymandering, closed primaries and big money going through leadership, you create hyperpartisan behavior," he said.

..."The degree of impossibility of cooperation got worse with Trump," said Barney Frank, a former Democratic congressman from Massachusetts who retired in 2013 after 40 years. "It's not a mistake for Democrats to be open to cooperation it's a mistake to assume it's going to come. I think Obama was too naive about that...He said he was going to govern in a post-partisan manner. I said he gave me post-partisan depression when he said that." Frank said he sees "very little" hope that Republicans would cooperate on even the more modest proposals that have been advanced in the Democratic race unless they face a landslide defeat that causes them to change. He recalled Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell's pledge in 2010 that his "single most important" priority was to block Obama's reelection.

...Dan Pfeiffer, a former senior adviser to Obama, said there is "a contradiction between what may be the most appealing general election message and what is the best governing strategy."

"A lot of voters want to believe that the country can be less divided than it is now and are interested in a candidate that will at least try," Pfeiffer said. "The danger of that message is that if you win, your success will be graded on whether you can get Mitch McConnell to cooperate with you, which will not happen under any circumstances."

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