10.11.08
looking forward to 2009
A sweeping wind came through Los Angeles yesterday evening and brought biting air, while wiping away the smog. And it reminds me of the feeling I have every four years, in fall, where I’m usually trying to figure out political choices between the least of several evils. But for once, I’m actually looking forward to winter, 2009, and whats to come.
In 2000, McCain seemed like a reasonable guy, and someone that socially liberal folks could get behind. Apparently, McCain decided that particular incarnation of him had no chance at winning in 2008, so we get the Karl Rove-GW Bush Republican mold running, and really, there isn’t much appealing about this incarnation. He doesn’t have any strong policies, he doesn’t have a positive vision, and he picked a really terrible vice president. So clearly McCain is the greater of two evils.
But looking at the Democratic opposition, it is clear we do not have a Kerry or a Gore. Instead we have a real progressive who is in a climate where comprehensive health care can be enacted, corporate control/lobbyist influence diminished, and climate change policy enacted. So there isn’t a lesser of two evils mentality here. Obama genuinely seems like he could be a very good president to tackle some of these major issues.
There is concern amongst the net roots that the $700 billion bail out will handcuff Obama’s ambitious plans, but Robert Reich disagrees. Essentially, he claims that our deficit as a percentage of GDP is low (3%), and that the best cure for a recession is spending programs to rebuild infrastructure and get the country back on track, as WWII did for the depression era. Given an era when the investment class is calling for more government intervention in the financial markets, and not less, and when middle class America is worried about their retirements in 401K, among other issues, it seems like a good time to enact Medicare-for-all. Despite the heated jeers of “socialist” by McCain supporters, these folks seem to be a small reactionary group. Or at least I hope so. Because these policies are not socialism.
It is clear we need government intervention into the health care market, which is spiraling to a demise. And it is clear that government has a big role in science research in alternative energies, and implementation of clear energies in the private sector. Companies are very hesitant to spend huge sums of capital for solar panels, for example, when the return on investment comes in 20 years. Government tax breaks and credits are the key to making these technologies fit into a company’s timeline.
On another note, did things really have to be so lopsided in this year’s presidential election? McCain was the only Republican candidate that stood a chance of winning, but he blew it. He had to turn hard right to win his party’s nomination. But what if he had gone straight to the center after the primaries, like Obama did. What if he had picked a social moderate as a running mate - perhaps a pro-choice woman. The social conservative base would be pissed, but would folks like myself have to think twice about the ticket? Perhaps. It clear that McCain is getting blown out, and even without the economic crisis, Palin is wearing thin (and guilty of abuse of power in Alaska), and his overall electoral prospects looked weak. Rather than embrace his “mavericky” self, he embraced the “Agents of Intolerance” whom he previously condemned. And as a result he casts a light on a dying ideology.
It is too early to take an Obama win for granted. The race will probably tighten up. But I look forward to 2009, with the first act of a new President Obama to draw up a 16 month timeline to withdraw our forces from Iraq.