Republicans Failing To Fill Leadership Void

The Republican candidates will be holding another debate this evening and there is a lot at stake.  With the primary season starting in early January the candidates need to make the most of every opportunity to correct previous flubs and make their best case. 

The pundits will be looking for certain “tells” from each candidate.

Can Mitt Romney put on another strong, steady performance and cement his lead?  Can Rick Perry reverse a string of horrible debate performances and look Presidential?  Can Herman Cain continue his rise in the eyes of pollsters?  And can Michelle Bachman do anything to rekindle the embers of her dying campaign?

We’ll be looking for something slightly different.

We’ll be looking to see if anyone has the courage to say “yes, I believe Barak Obama loves his country”.  We’ll be looking to see if anyone has the spine to call out those who question Mitt Romney’s religious beliefs.  We’ll be looking to see if anyone dares to say that applauding the execution of 234 human beings is just wrong.  And we’ll be looking to see if anyone has the strength to call out those who would boo a US Marine because he is gay.

It is one thing to stand behind a podium and regurgitate the same old talking points that you have practiced for hours on end.  But to stand up to your “supporters” and call them out for egregious behavior is a whole different ballgame.

The lack of political courage demonstrated by these candidates over the past several weeks is embarrassing.  So fearful are they of offending the far right faction of their party that they are unwilling to stand up to even the most reprehensible behavior exhibited by their supporters.

We constantly hear from Republicans that the President has failed to lead.  Well if there is such a void in leadership then why doesn’t someone from their party step in and fill it? 

There is more to being President than wearing a dark suit and a flag pin.  Being President requires leadership and strength of character. And sometimes that means calling out one of your own.   

Washington Debates "Cult Religion" Instead Of Economic Solutions

If you are a rational thinking human being you would expect our leaders in Washington to be working around the clock to fix the economy and create jobs.   You would expect to see a serious discussion and debate on how to pull the country out of the worst economic downturn since the great depression.  Unfortunately you would be sorely disappointed.    Instead of substantive discourse you find yourself inundated with inane politicians questioning the motivation of “Occupy Wall Street” protestors and criticizing Romney’s Mormonism. 

Take this past weekend for example.

Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor expressed his strong disapproval of the “Occupy Wall Street” protestors, referring to them as “a mob pitting American against American.”  Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi wondered where Mr. Cantor was when Tea party protestors spit on black Congressmen and brandished posters depicting the President as Hitler.  Meanwhile Mega-church pastor Robert Jeffress, a Perry supporter, referred to Romney’s Mormonism as a “cult” and expressed his preference that the President of the United States be a “real” Christian.  Perry did not respond to the pastor’s bigotry choosing cowardly silence instead.  Perhaps Perry realized that silence is preferable to his bumbled response to questions about his hunting camp named “Niggerhead.”

As this latest version of romper room politics played out, the Census Bureau issued a sobering report on the state of the economy.    The New York Times reports that a study conducted by the Census Bureau shows that between June 2009, when the recession officially ended, and June 2011, inflation adjusted median household income fell 6.7%.  During the recession, from December 2007 to June 2009 household income fell 3.2%.  During the recession the average length of time for a person to be unemployed was 24 weeks.  Today it is 40.5 weeks.  In plain fact we are worse off now than we were during the 2007-2009 recession.

One has to question the mental stability of elected officials who engage in these mindless, irrelevant debates when the country is on the verge of economic collapse.  The lack of self awareness is palpable.  And the lack of comprehensive solutions to our country’s problems is proving to be more serious than we could have ever imagined.

    

  

Steve Jobs 1955-2011

Steve Jobs passed away yesterday, taking with him a creative genius that will be sorely missed.  Jobs had the unique ability to know what we wanted before we did.  He brought technology and humanity together in a way never before thought possible.  His true genius was his obsession with stylistic simplicity.  His innovative creations are as intuitive to a three year old struggling with language skills as they are to an octogenarian experiencing the internet for the first time.  Steve Jobs touched the lives of billions.  He changed the world for the better.  What greater legacy could there be?     

Surtax On Millionaires Day Late Dollar Short

Senate Democrats are proposing a 5% surtax on annual incomes of more than $1 million dollars to pay for the President’s job creation proposal.  The bill, proposed by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, has two purposes: to force Republicans who have consistently denounced tax increases of any sort to vote “No” on raising taxes on the rich and to appease some Democrats who have objected to sections of the President’s jobs bill.

Naturally Republicans have come out in full throated fury against the bill.  They argue that it is bad economics to raise taxes on “job creators” during this tough economic period.

Senator Reid knows that there is no chance of this bill ever becoming law.  It is purely a political move to take a more populist tone and more clearly define the differences between the two parties.

The Democratic Party has obviously given up on reaching any constructive compromise with Republicans.  This bill along with the combative change in tone in the President’s stump speeches illustrate that the Democrats are in full campaign mode. 

And who can blame them?  The Republicans have back handed every olive branch offered by Democrats.  Majority Leader Cantor and Speaker Boehner have both chosen to walk out on negotiations rather than seek common ground.

So let the campaign games begin.  We can expect these political cat fights to continue for the next fourteen months.  That’s good news for political junkies constantly seeking red meat for their daily blogs.  That’s bad news for a country saddled with a stalled economy and 16% real unemployment.

Senator Reid’s bill is good politics and a viable solution.  But it should have been proposed in 2009.  In 2011 it won’t help the country.

       

This and that...

Chris Christie took to the podium yesterday to formally announce what he has been saying for the past several weeks…he’s not running.  Christie joins Palin, Trump, Bachman, Huntsman, Perry and now Cain as the latest flavor of the month to unseat Romney as frontrunner for the Republican nomination.  Kudos to Christie for being true to himself and true to the promise he made to the people of New Jersey to serve as their governor.  His politics aside, It takes a strong will to say no when everyone is fawning over you, begging you and throwing vast sums of money at you to run.  We could use a lot more of Christie’s strength of character in our politics.

This Republican parade of candidates is of historical significance.  Republicans are usually known for their discipline.  They stay on message and line up behind the guy whose “turn it is” to be the nominee.  It is usually the Democrats who evoke the image of herding cats.  But this is the era of the Tea Party and they have shown themselves less than willing to toe the party line.  The Republican candidates continue to run toward the Tea Party right.  That strategy may win in the primaries but it won’t play in a general election.

Have you been following the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations?  This small gathering of angry students has grown into a massive national movement of people who are angry about the disintegration of the middle class.  These are the “99%ers”; those who are not better off than they were four years ago.  Protests are occurring in New York, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles.  The students have been joined by the AFL/CIO, teachers unions, first responders and a whole host of everyday Americans who are tired of the rich getting richer while the rest of the country slides rapidly into poverty.  A number of conservative media types have referred to these protestors as losers, bums, socialists, Nazis and “little more than a bunch of kids banging bongos and smoking weed.”  The truth is this protest is no different than the “Arab Spring” uprisings occurring all across the Middle East…the impoverished masses rising up against the rich and powerful.  This protest is no different than the one waged in the 1700’s by disenfranchised colonists who were tired of watching all the wealth sail to England while they wallowed in poverty. This is what democracy looks like.  It isn’t pretty.  Will the “Occupy Wall Street” demonstrations bring about any measurable change in our society?  Who knows!  But to ridicule their efforts is to ridicule the very foundation on which this country was founded.  One thing is certain; history is littered with empires that fell because the divide between the huddled masses and the wealthy few grew so wide that the entire structure collapsed.  History does have a way of repeating itself.

One of the most under reported stories concerns the massive escalation of violence in Mexico being waged by the drug cartels.  The beatings, mutilations, murders and beheadings have escalated throughout the country.  Thousands of innocent civilians have been slain.  The government and local police are helpless to stop the violence in part because many have been bought off by the cartels.  This violence is threatening our southern borders.   Our view of the world and our security will be immeasurably altered if we have to worry about an unstable Mexico on our southern border.

The Texas Department of Motor Vehicles is contemplating a change in the design of their new license plates.  No big deal…right? It happens every year.  This year is a little different.  The Texas BMV is contemplating adding the Confederate States’ stars and bars to their license plates.  Its Texas…what else can you say?

    

                

Wanted: Leaders With Political Courage

In 1946 the war had ended, the troops were returning home and America was celebrating a great victory.  But all was not rosy.  Hundreds of thousands of young soldiers were flooding the private sector.  They needed training, education and jobs.  At the same time the Soviet Union was viewing a devastated Europe as fertile ground for the spread of Communism.  The expansion of Soviet ideology threatened the very freedoms that we had fought so hard to preserve.

Harry Truman, a Democrat, resided in the White House.  He understood the gravity of the threat pose by the Soviet Union.  Truman, along with his Secretary of State, George Marshall, worked with a Republican controlled Congress to create and pass the Marshall Plan.  The goal was to help return Europe to prosperity and stave off the spread of Communism.  This massive bi-partisan undertaking poured $13 billion in economic aid and technical assistance into the war ravaged European continent.  By the time the funding ended in 1952 the economy of every participant state has surpassed pre-war levels.  In essence the United States rebuilt the continent of Europe.

At the same time Truman and the Republican Congress passed the GI Bill and VA Loan bill paving the way for education, job creation and that beloved concept of "The American Dream.”

Can you imagine the political will and courage it took to propose a bill like the Marshall Plan?  Think about asking the American people to reconstruct the economies of our enemies; the very people who took so many of our young lives.  But Truman and the Congressional leaders looked past the next election cycle, put politics aside and did what was best for the country.

Today we are suffering from a lack of political courage.  Our leaders view their roles and responsibilities through the lens of ideology and electability.  They put party ahead of country.  They know what needs to be done.  If there are doubts all they need to do is listen to the American people.

-Over 70% of Americans want to invest in infrastructure, education, science and R&D.

-Over 70% of Americans understand the need for entitlement reform and want the eligibility age for Social Security and Medicare increased.

-Over 70% of Americans want the tax code reformed, loopholes eliminated and a more equitable balance between taxes paid by the rich and the rest of the country.

-Over 70% of Americans want the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan ended now and the money spent building roads, bridges, schools and hospitals in those countries to spent building those things here in the US.

-Over 70% of Americans want the government to create jobs.

What we need is a Marshall Plan for the country…and leaders with the courage to put it into action.       

Wartime Operations Escalate...Nobody Cares

Does it bother anyone that the United States military is currently dropping bombs on six countries…that we know of? 

Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Somalia, Yemen and our “ally” Pakistan have all been on the receiving end of drone attacks.  That doesn’t count the untold number countries where the US is conducting covert operations with CIA and Special Forces personnel.  The US has invaded Iraq and Afghanistan and the rest fall under the heading of “those that harbor terrorists”.  For the record, Congress has not declared war on any of these countries. 

Times have certainly changed since the days of the Vietnam War.  Those old enough will certainly remember the outcry when the country learned that President’s Johnson and Nixon had secretly ordered US troops to track the enemy into Cambodia and Laos.  Violent protests and riots in the streets filled the evening news. 

Today, not so much.  Yes, there are anti-war groups expressing outrage at the current expansion of military operations; but most of the country is ambivalent.  Most Americans could not find any of the previously noted countries on a map.  But young men and women are dying there just as they did in Vietnam.

So what’s the difference?  Why was the war in Vietnam such a visceral scar on the nation’s psyche while today’s bombing runs in six countries raise barely an eyebrow? 

The answer is simple…the draft.  Does anyone think that the military operations being conducted throughout the Middle East would be viewed with such apathy if every man and women over the age of eighteen faced the very real prospect of fighting in those wars?  Seriously!  Can you imagine the hue and cry if Americans, already struggling with a terrible economy, were asked to send their children off to war?

Only 1% of Americans are actually invested in these wars…the soldiers who are fighting them and the loved ones who pray for their safe return.  The rest of us hardly notice.  To most of us wars are like video games to be turned on and off at our whim; and this unrealistic, liaise fare attitude is further corrupting our already self absorbed society.

We need to reinstitute the draft for a whole host of reasons, not the least of which is to make this country appreciate the very real cost of war.