Politics 102: Change

Nothing will make you feel old quicker than hearing yourself snort at the hot young “movement” candidate, which is what I did the other night listening to Barack Obama. He is a fabulous orator. He epitomizes progress and unity. And yet, when he says he’ll reach across the aisle to the Republicans to heal the bitter partisanship of American politics, it’s the right thing to say — for him, especially — but I hope he’s ready for the pitched warfare that’s coming if any Democrat wins. Jimmy Carter was going to heal the divide. Bill Clinton too. And Jack Kennedy, for that matter, whose administration was stalled (which is why he was campaigning in Texas) when he was killed. But the other side lives for the divide. It needs the divide. Without it, there’s no way that 1 percent of Americans could maintain their control over 40 percent of the nation’s wealth.

The times I recall when presidents got the changes they wanted came when they drew lines in the sand: (1) Reagan, with his tax cuts and military spending — and Democrats went along; (2) Bush, with his tax cuts and military spending — and war — and Democrats went along; and 3) Clinton, with his tax increase — “calming” the bond markets — which passed without a single Republican vote. On the other hand, whenver a Democratic president has proposed anything real complicated, ambitious or progressive, like health-care reform, say, or an energy policy that didn’t pay off the oil industry, it went down in flames — with the “other side” throwing the the gasoline. The only exception: LBJ’s civil rights agenda after the assassination.

This entry was posted from Bob Geary on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008 at 11:02 am and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.