Don’t just Boot Bush – Reboot

It’s pretty clear that the American people want to boot Bush & Co. out of the Whitehouse. Barack Obama’s message of change absolutely resonated in Iowa, stunning the country with an astounding win. Even on the Republican side, the insurgent who criticized the President’s “bunker mentality” beat the corporate Bush-apologist in Iowa. Change has been the recurring theme of this campaign so far. However, I think we need more than change. We need to not just boot out Bush: we need to reboot the system.

Let’s face it. If any of the Democrats are elected, change will come. There is little doubt that Barack Obama, John Edwards or Hillary Clinton would change some of the Bush policies. Let’s be honest here. If you read the position papers of all three Democrats, you will find that most of the differences in position are tinkering around the edges. The core messages are the same. Healthcare is broken and needs to be fixed. The environment is in crisis and must be healed. Education is weak and has to be supported.

We also need to restore America’s standing in the world. The pictures of Abu Ghraib still circulate on the internet as inspiration for would-be terrorists. The Bush Administration has held prisoners without trial, based on secret evidence, while Bush hides behind a veil of “state secrets” and executive privilege. It is shameful.

One difference between Barack Obama and his Democratic rivals is his ability to not just change the reputation of America in the world, but to reset it, to give us a fresh start, to reboot the political system. The election of Barack Obama as president does more than continue the conversation with different players and an altered message. It completely changes the context of the conversation.

There are times when a system doesn’t just need to close the old programs and open new ones. Until we completely reset the system, there are programs that can continue to run in the background unnoticed. We need to reboot with Obama.

Karl Rove’s Poison Pill

Tonight when Karl Rove makes his New Year’s resolution, I’m betting it has something to do with helping Hillary Clinton win the Democratic nomination. Rove’s suggestion of her inevitability has been picked up like a mantra by the GOP, Rove’s surrogates and even many in the media. Rove knows there is only one way for the Republicans to win the Whitehouse in 2008 and that is to divide the country.

Let’s face it. This country is roughly 1/3 conservative, 1/3 liberal and 1/3 moderate. It’s the middle 1/3 who choose a president. A Clinton nomination would be so polarizing; there is no way that the moderate middle will cross over to vote for her. Of course, the Republicans could also nominate a polarizing person, increasing the likelihood of a third-way political party led by Bloomberg and company.

As an independent voter in Iowa I’ve got a ringside seat to the fight for the presidency and I have to tell you it’s pretty ugly. I have supported Republican candidates in the past – before they decided that torture is a moral right; habeas corpus is an inconvenient legal technicality; and that they have the right to declare anyone they choose to be an enemy combatant. At the same time, as a moderate voter, I can’t see myself supporting Hillary Clinton for president.

So, now the choice for the Democratic Party is clear:

• There’s a divisive Hillary Clinton nomination.
  
• There is battlin’ John Edwards. I think he’s an amazingly good man. I supported him early on, but he’s run a take-no-prisoners campaign, and that’s not what it takes to unite the country. Sorry, John.
  
• And there’s the one candidate who stands for uniting red states and blue states – Barack Obama. Obama is the middle way. He is the one who can win my vote.
  

It's STILL the Economy, Stupid

From my kitchen table I watch the snow sticking to our porch screen, whiting out my usual view of the woods behind our house. I am waiting for the snow to stop so I can plow the driveway. It is mid-January in Cedar Rapids, Iowa and this is the first snow of any consequence, so plowing the driveway really isn’t such a burden. On some years by this time I was worried I was going to wear my snow blower out, but not this year.

My name is Tony. You can picture me as a middle-aged man, with a middle-management job, a mid-range income, and unfortunately middle-age spread, sitting at his kitchen table in the Midwest. I’m not an economist or a political pundit, just your average guy with a driveway full of snow. That’s my caveat for what is to follow. I’m going to give you the view from my seat at the kitchen table. Your view might be very different.

I started my political life as a Reagan Republican. I loved his "city set on a hill" vision of America. Keep in mind that when President Reagan took office, the biggest problem facing the nation was "stagflation," the wicked combination of a stagnant economy and uncontrolled inflation. Reagan's theory was to ignore the problem of inflation while stimulating the economy. President Reagan loved the phrase "a rising tide raises all boats." This began an economic boom that continued, with sustained attention and adjustments, for many years through several administrations.

On the other hand, if I could describe George W. Bush’s fiscal policies in a simple phrase it would be “a rising tide raises all yachts.” He has siphoned the tidewater from the open ocean of the economy and walled it up behind a dam of privilege where only the powerful benefit. But just like New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina, that levee will eventually come crashing down, revealing all that has been hidden, in all of its repugnant splendor. The only choice we have is, do we want to wait until it all crashes on us at once, or do we want to begin a controlled reduction of the pressure from the imbalance in the economy?

From here in Middle America there is a belief that there must be a middle way, not of soft-headed socialism or hard hearted capitalism, but of people-powered progressivism. I still believe that stimulating the general economy while rolling the extra tax revenue into social programs is the best way to resolve the disparity of wealth. If we can grow the economy in a way that the impact is felt at every financial stratum, we will provide hope for all the people of America, not just the privileged few. If we want to create hope where there is currently despair, wealth has to be circulated into the economy, not horded at the top. The purpose of wealth is to help others achieve some level of wealth. Obviously that’s not what we’ve been doing for the last six years.

Of course, as I’m writing this, I’m typing on my new laptop, sitting at my lovely kitchen table in middle-America, which is quite the seat of privilege. So, I could be wrong. Right now, instead of looking for a third way, I’ve got to go plow my driveway. I’ll see all of you in the living rooms and meeting rooms of Iowa as we try to work this way out together.