🧨 The Bipartisan Betrayal
- Dez Lewis
- 3 days ago
- 2 min read
How Both Parties Have Upheld Harmful Systems
“When both sides agree, check your wallet—and your rights.”
In a political landscape dominated by performative outrage and partisan bickering, there’s one thing Democrats and Republicans have consistently agreed on: protecting power. While culture wars rage on cable news, both parties have quietly collaborated on policies that have devastated communities, expanded surveillance, and entrenched inequality. This is the Bipartisan Betrayal—and it’s not ancient history. It’s ongoing.
🧱 Harm in Harmony: A Timeline of Collusion
1994: The Crime Bill Co-authored by then-Senator Joe Biden and supported by 46 Republicans, the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act supercharged mass incarceration. It expanded the death penalty, introduced “three strikes” laws, and funneled billions into prison construction. The result? The U.S. became the world’s incarceration capital.
2001–2003: The War on Terror & The Patriot Act After 9/11, both parties united to pass sweeping surveillance laws and authorize military invasions. The Patriot Act passed 98–1 in the Senate. The Iraq War? Approved with bipartisan votes based on false intelligence. These decisions cost hundreds of thousands of lives and eroded civil liberties.
2008: The Bank Bailouts As the financial system collapsed, Democrats and Republicans rushed to rescue Wall Street with the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP). Billions were handed to the very institutions that caused the crisis—while homeowners and workers were left behind.
2021–2025: Defense Budgets on Autopilot Under both Trump and Biden, military budgets ballooned. In 2021, Democrats joined Republicans to increase the Pentagon’s budget by $24 billion beyond what the White House requested. In 2022, Biden signed the largest defense budget in U.S. history: $768 billion.
🧠 Why This Matters
Bipartisanship is often sold as virtue. But when both parties agree, it’s usually to protect capital, expand control, or avoid accountability. The Bipartisan Betrayal isn’t about gridlock—it’s about complicity.
This isn’t a call for centrism. It’s a call for clarity. Harm doesn’t become justifiable because it’s jointly endorsed. And unity isn’t noble when it’s built on the backs of the vulnerable.
🧷 Never Forget
This post isn’t about cynicism. It’s about memory. About refusing to let polished speeches and party branding erase the real consequences of bipartisan harm.
We remember. We document. We resist.
🧨 Bipartisanship didn’t save us. It sold us out
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