Happy New Year! Welcome to Election Season! As the caucus/primary season begins, it might be useful to get a taste of what is at stake. First, as part of Talking Point Memo's end of the year lowlights awards, John Dean had this to say:
Best Scandal – General Interest
President George W. Bush – While the nomination is for his “general politicization” of the federal government, one must read the subtext of that term. Bush’s politics have done for good government what war does for peace, what famine does for hunger, what Alzheimer’s does for memory, what Lee Harvey Oswald did for Dallas – you get the idea. This president has done more to damage our system of government, and weaken us around the world, than any of his predecessors. Bush is America’s worst president ever, only equaled by the abetting of his partner, Dick Cheney.
The Republican (helped by "centrist" conservative Democrats) candidates with any shot of winning basically want more of the same, even "maverick" sorts scared to seriously and consistently criticize him. The best option to in some small but significant way to help guide us to a new path is thus in the hands -- for better of worse -- of the Democrats. This includes helping us with progressive policies that seemed obvious over sixty years ago, as this Republican loyalist noted in 1942 (from The Lost Promise of Civil Rights by Risa L. Goluboff on how civil rights moved from economic rights to Brown):
We cannot go back to a past which countenanced a widely-exploited labor, a great depressed agriculture, an irresponsible Wall Street; to a past which knew no old-age pensions, no unemployment insurance, no maximum hours and minimum wages.
But, now unions are on the decline, corporate power supreme, Social Security seriously spoken as a failed program that warrants replacement, the promise of health care that Truman thought clear still up in the air and agriculture not in the best of conditions either. It might be a good time for some other pithy two word slogan with "deal" or "society" in the title. Sandy Levinson thinks we need constitutional changes, but Mark Graber (following his entry) notes:
Abortion aside, the leading candidates for the presidency are not proposing any policy strongly opposed by clear popular majorities. The bipartisan movement is about how power may be maintained to the right of the center, but perhaps not as far to the right of center as is presently the case.
One of the central problems with the American polity concerns why conservative Democrats abandon the party so quickly, while more moderate Republicans make little effort to stem the rightward tide of their party until the Republican ship is clearly sinking. If I thought the problem was rooted in some constitutional provision or set of practices, I would join Sandy in a minute. My suspicion (and merely a suspicion) is that the problems lie elsewhere in the political culture, that a constitutional reform movement spearheaded by persons who find Hillary Clinton’s policies intolerably liberal is likely to produce a constitution so structured that in practice Joe Lieberman will be the most liberal alternative to the next scion of the Bush family.
And, if you want change, the best shot is to get a somewhat more progressive leaning candidate in power. I personally think -- putting aside the fact it is not bloody likely to occur -- constitutional change is not necessary to reform the system. "Change" also occurs without formal amendment, did so repeatedly in our history. Two other things. One, no "clear majority" opposes legalized abortion. A clear majority supports it, even if they might be uncomfortable about the whole thing. Two, some in the blog universe think Ron Paul is the way. Recent references underline the problems with the guy, someone who caucuses with Republicans.
But, this goes beyond Bush, or any one candidate. I'm not a big believer in those who think bad things are necessary in that they make us stronger. Or, that this is "why" they occur. I will leave the teleology aside, and just say that it is useful to make the proverbial lemonade from the lemons. The depths we have fallen into should provide some incentive to underline the importance of the alternatives. No candidate, by any means, is a perfect representative of where we should go. But, it's time to chose the best one by the judgment of the voters.
I pledge allegiance ... to the republic for which it stands.