November 1, 2006

Redirecting Our Country: A Task for the Coming Week

 

Midterm elections are less than a week away. Differences between Republicans and Democrats in the vicinity of 1% in a number of races will cause very small shifts in voter preferences or turnout here and there to have a major impact on the future of this country. Democrats need to make the most of these last days.

 

Republicans take every opportunity to point out the local nature of legislative elections. Can you blame them? Tip O’Neill was never quoted so often by Republicans during his many years in Congress, as he has recently with his line about all politics ultimately being local. This was truer than people generally thought at the time. It is less true these days.

 

Our executive branch is out of control, abroad and at home. We are in a military quagmire with no reasonable exit by the people that put us into it. The death count for U.S. military just passed 100 for this week, as I write this piece. Companies led by friends of those running the country run our energy and other policies, while the poor and middle class pay the bill with wage cuts, high gas prices and eventually inflation, as the huge and growing debt becomes due. A large part of our cherished justice system has gone under wraps, behind semantic discussions of what constitutes torture, and which part of our Constitution applies to people suspected of certain crimes.

 

The creators of our governing structure, in their wisdom, were driven by an almost obsessive desire to protect us from the excesses of any government, even our own. They instituted a system of checks and balances to ensure that no part of our government goes off on its own, especially the executive branch, with its hands directly on the levers of the large machine.

 

Our principal protection from excesses of the Executive Branch is the Congress. This Congress has been singularly ineffective in using its power. The President felt almost no need to use his veto, while perhaps altering legislation by signing statements that go unchallenged.

 

Much of Congress’s abdication has been the structural reality of one party’s dominance – of the presidency, both legislative branches, and arguably the Supreme Court, though even the conservative Supreme Court has blocked some of the administration’s excesses. In any case, the last six years has presented the best argument in history for divided government. Monopoly has clearly been an important factor, though it has occurred before without such catastrophic results.

 

The bottom line is that we need a reversal of majorities in both legislative branches to bring the system back into balance. We also need leaders who are outsiders, or people who think and act like outsiders, without the baggage and organizational culture of this embarrassing period. The Jews were made to wander in the Sinai Desert for 40 years, until a new generation of leaders would be ready to be in charge, unaffected by the “personal and organizational culture” of slavery.

 

Is it still possible to have an effect on these crucial and very close elections? If so, what can still be done, aside from purely local factors? I believe the answer is a definite “yes” to the first question. The answer to the second is giving people a positive reason to put the Democrats back in power.

 

The skills it takes to remain a factor as a lowly minority are different than those required to lead the country in a new direction. Now, in the last week of the campaign, having made clear the many shortcomings of the gang in power, it is time to project a sense of leadership, and at least the beginning of a new positive vision for the country. Inspiring would be terrific, but I’ll settle for compelling.

 

A few Democratic political figures project this kind of vision, and separation from the political yuk of the past period. Duval Patrick, Democratic candidate for governor in Massachusetts, talks about retaking the initiative to make the state all it can be. I believe this quality also largely explains Sen. Barack Obama’s (D-Ill.) enormous current appeal. Mercifully, other candidates and incumbents around the country reflect this quality to varying degrees.  Many could move more in this direction, even in the last week. 

 

In this last crucial week, we need the kind of national leadership and voice in this campaign that will demonstrate the kind of leadership and direction that can take this country to a new, badly needed promised land.

 

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