Do voters really want bipartisanship?

Most Americans are disgusted with the polarization in Congress and yearn for bipartisanship. Or do they? It appears the GOP party in the House of Representatives is in complete disarray. It took 15 ballot votes and numerous side deals and compromises with fellow GOP House members to eventually get the 217 GOP votes needed to elect McCarthy. Then, the same GOP members who gave McCarthy the job fired him because he compromised with the Democrats to avoid a government shutdown.

Is this partisanship or bipartisanship? Let's see ...

For every one of the original 15 McCarthy ballot votes, all of the House Democrats voted in favor of their own party's nominee. Is that bipartisanship?

Now the Republicans are being criticized for not uniting and unanimously choosing a candidate for speaker of the House. All the Republicans must vote for only one GOP candidate because all of the Democrats are ALWAYS going to vote exclusively for a Democrat. Is that bipartisanship?

Would it be unreasonable if the leaders of both parties met and decided on one or two candidates from either party that would be acceptable? That would be bipartisan.

Why is this obvious partisanship in Congress acceptable? The American people not only accept this behavior from our representatives, we criticize and ridicule any representative who doesn't vote along straight party lines. We are actually enabling and promoting partisanship and over-empowering one or two representatives who threaten to defect if they don't get concessions.

The only time a representative votes with the opposing party and with their conscience is when they are either dying or have decided not to run for reelection.

I ask again, do we really yearn for bipartisanship or actually like it to remain the way it is ...? "We, the People" deserve what we get.

Jerry Philips

Schaumburg