Monday, March 17, 2008

The Sorry Legacy of George Bush

I dare anyone to tell me something overtly positive about the legacy of this President Bush. From assisting in deepening the differences between rich and poor, allowing the nations infrastructure to go to hell and emasculating us in the eyes of the world with his amateur and silly foreign policy, he has weakened and hobbled us as a nation.

A willing disciple of the Republican experiment of redoing the social order with "free market economics" (his own father referred to them as voodoo economics" to his libertarian bend on the reduction of government. Bush has left the house in a mess and pretty much maxed out the credit cards. Any good parent would be practicing tough love and throwing the kid out of the house with the clothes on his back and an i-Pod stuck in his ear. But we don't do that. We let this disaster careen down the highway out of control and racking more destruction as we label him a "lame duck".

From the Republican viewpoint, the rank and file true believers and far right conservatives are sorry to see him go. After all, what I detail above as failure, they see as kind of a progress back to a better time, pre-Franklin Roosevelt to be exact. And while we allow them their beliefs, I question their logic and sense of fairness, might I say, their sense of Christian concern for their fellow man.

This transformation of our political, social and economic atmosphere to a contentious and virulent field of battle. We've lost all control on the system which should at the very least respect the rights of elected officials to express opposition to the majority opinion. It wasn't working that way. Bush in the final look was the apex of a movement that used the politics of the personal to control and intimidate opposition in to silence or at least rendered them ineffective. The amazing breadth of this tactic is that it included opposition within the Republican Party as well as the Democrat's.

One can only hope that the opposition will take control of the White House and congress and use the opportunity to turn this ship around. If they squander the chance for a opportunity fr revenge we are apt to live with a version of the Hatfields and McCoys for long time

Wednesday, March 12, 2008

When It's all Over

The Democratic Party's nomination process, which started as a Calvary charge is now looking like a two horse race to the finish line. The lead is changing, depending on how your counting, and there is no break away winner. All of this is interesting and, as you might believe, the press is eating it up. The problem is that the contest has ceased being about ideas and has spiralled into a contest of personalities and all of the other things we didn't want it to be about. Those other things being the possibility of having our first women president or our first black president. I think on the level of the next winner of American Idol, the country is ready for either possibility , but in the lonely dim environs of the voting booth, the concept may not stand up to with the courage it takes to vote with your head instead of your heart.

Either Obama or Clinton are capable of being President of the United States. Given the standard George Bush has set, almost anyone with a high school diploma could qualify. The question is and, in my mind, will continue to be is who can bring this country together. Pundits and Washington insiders argue that no one can. The distance between the right and left has for to long taken center stage in the conduct of our representatives, at the expense of the vast majority of those of us in the center. The masses of people who may have opinions about the direction of the society on social issues, but recognize that governance is a matter of dialogue and compromise. This inability to get our government to respond has been in the last resort our own fault, because we get the leaders we deserve. Mostly the leadership of the past has been elected by zealous factions of the extremes of both parties and they have dictated the agenda.

I would venture that Obama has changed that situation by providing a new possibility for voters that in fact represents them. His early opposition to the war, his emphasis on issues that affect the middle class such as jobs and health care resonate with the citizens who in the past haven't been motivated to become involved in the process.

There is no doubt that Senator Clinton, also has created a constituency in otherwise disaffected voters, specifically women and Hispanic voters. So here is the problem. What do we do when one of these nominee's is finally declared the parties candidate? Do we coalesce behind the winner or do we split the party and give the failed policies of the Republican Part another four years of opportunity.
PS: Do even think about the joint ticket of Obama-Clinton or Clinton-Obama. They both have a future in politics's no matter how this comes out. For either of them to run as vice-president is political death even if they win.