Canned Heat – "Let's Work Together" (1970)

Together we’ll stand, divided we’ll fall

Come on now, people, let’s get on the ball

And work together

There’s been a lot of hand-wringing in recent years about the demise of bipartisanship in Congress.  

They say that neither Democrats or Republicans are willing to cross the aisle and work with members of the other party. 

But to paraphrase Mark Twain, it appears that reports of the death of bipartisanship are greatly exaggerated. 

Earlier this month, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) introduced House Resolution 1100, which would have directed the House Committee on Ethics to disclose publicly all investigative materials concerning alleged sexual harassment, unwelcome sexual advances, or sexual assaults by members of Congress.

Rep. Nancy Mace

When the roll was called on Mace’s proposal, 182 Democrats joined with 175 Republicans to vote it down – proving beyond the shadow of a doubt that bipartisanship is alive and kicking in the House of Representatives.

It did my heart good to see the overwhelming majority of congressional Democrats and Republicans joining hands to make sure that the Ethics Committee’s reports concerning sexual misconduct by House members were kept hidden from the prying eyes of the American public.  

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The ranking Republican and Democratic members of that committee issued a joint statement explaining their opposition to the Mace resolution.

“Victims may be retraumatized by public disclosures of interim work product, excerpts of interview transcripts, and certain exhibits,” the two Ethics Committee leaders said.  “And witnesses, who often only speak to the Committee confidentially or on condition of future anonymity, could fear retaliation if their cooperation is made public.”

Given that the Mace proposal clearly states that documents relating to sexual misconduct should be released only after all personally identifiable information relating to victims and witnesses was redacted, that objection doesn’t seem to hold water.

But let’s not nitpick here.  Instead, let’s celebrate that a Democrat and Republican are making a bogus argument together.  That’s what I call bipartisanship!

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Click here to listen to “Let’s Work Together,” which was released on Canned Heat’s Future Blues album in August 1970 – just a month before the death of the group’s frontman, Alan “Blind Owl” Wilson.  (Like his contemporaries Jimi Hendrix, Janis Joplin, and Jim Morrison, Wilson was 27 when he died.)

Click here to buy “Let’s Work Together” from Amazon.