The Ideological Divide

My family’s power came on yesterday afternoon around 3:30. We were rescued from our island of cold darkness by dozens of electrical workers from Ohio who made their way through our neighborhood like a swarm of bees, finding every malfunctioning part—some of which I was not even aware of—until every last pole was fixed and every last wire was mended and reattached. Though you might not have known it from my endless complaint we actually had better than almost everyone us else who is truly suffering from the storm around the tri state region. While thousands of our fellow New Yorkers lost everything, we just lost power. There is no damage to our home and other than a few down branches no real damage to our property. Even our lack of power was mitigated greatly by a good Samaritan, a man my wife knows at her job, who stopped by after just a day and a half of darkness with a generator and gas to run it.  We could only draw power to heat a room at a time, and run a few lights and a space heater or the fridge, but as I told my wife even though it was maybe a 10% improvement in the quality of our circumstances it felt like 90%.

Next weekend and for maybe several weekends we intend to pay back that tribute by heading to the real disaster zones and offering whatever help we can. 

Media junkie that I am I was glad to have my smart phone which in absence of almost everything else was my primary source of information. I followed Cory Booker in Newark (inspiring and endlessly caring), The City Of Hoboken (overwhelmed), Governor Christie (fiercely determined), and half a dozen news sites on Twitter. This allowed access to the full range of news sources which I consume daily, and other than Morning Joe and AC 360, I didn’t miss much. I posted on Facebook several times a day and received  encouraging words from childhood and FB friends throughout which meant a lot, even as their kind words reinforced an image I have of myself which is unappealingly narcissistic and needy. Yes we were uncomfortable and inconvenienced, but we were hardly suffering. People in Breezy Point, Queens  Staten Island, and along the Jersey shore and the southern coast of Long Island are suffering in ways we can barely grasp.

Beyond the disaster coverage I caught glimpses of the political undertow pulling both right on left. More than one FB “friend” on the left posted the widely published photo of the President and Governor Christie and noted with contempt that Christie sure seemed to change his tune about the President now that he needed Federal action. Then yesterday after the power came up I noticed that a guy I knew 25 years ago, someone who is now fiercely conservative commenting on the picture with even more disgusted bile, ranting about why there were no similar pictures of the President embracing the families of those who died in Libya.  It has been widely reported that conservatives have gone batsh** over the New Jersey Governor’s positive and actually supportive interaction with the President. For those taking political shots from either side of the ideological divide we can be sure of one thing: No individual on either extreme really cares about those people who are really suffering right now. While there are thousands, tens of thousands, whose only possession is the clothes on their backs, these ideologues on both left and right have been the most exposed, their ideology just a mask for their contempt, their naked hatred exposed as having no connection to humanity or the common good.

We have seen photo op charity which chills, especially when compared to genuine charity which heals and unites. Thousands are either already engaged or are mobilizing right now to help those in need and to alleviate suffering. The political affiliation of the needy or the Samaritans matters little now.  While noting the curiosity of the  electrical workers being from Ohio, I was disinterested when I came upon them yesterday as to their party affiliation or even-- if the truth be told-- whether their rescue mission would keep them from voting in the most critical state in this most critical election. I wanted heat and I was and I am ever so grateful for their service.

I have also heard the absurd argument made by conservatives that challenges like this show the lie of the Federal paternalism. Charity they say is what really matters now. I heard one ask “When a tree falls on your house, do you call the Fire Department or your neighbor?” While this particular commentator allowed that both calls would be made, he really wanted to emphasize the importance of the neighbor, which is actually and truly fine, so far as that goes.  But when you, your neighbor, and really every family in your community has seen everything demolished, has lost everything there is NO substitute for coordinated Federal, State, and Local action.  Charity might get you some temporary power, or get you some warm food and blankets. Charity can mobilize more quickly and perhaps with more precision to get to those in need than all branches of government combined, but it has neither the resources nor the muscle to put things back together. Anyone who has seen the vast images of utter devastation knows that. Those making an argument otherwise are so far on the ideological extreme they are lost in nostalgia for a country that no longer exists if it ever did. I find this nostalgia ironic in that it masquerades as empathy for others, while only exhibiting ideological detachment from humanity.

In the end everyone knows that funding legislation will need to pass Congress in order to allow communities to put themselves back together and to make people whole again. Conservatives will argue, and have already done so, that any new spending should be offset with spending decreases elsewhere. Liberals will argue that that wasn’t the case after Katrina and ought not to be now. There will be a tug of war across the divide. Let us hope that it does not crush hope, delay help, or prolong suffering as we saw with the Zadroga Act, the healthcare bill for 9-11 first responders, which did not pass until 2010, nine years after the terrorist attack.  

Let us hope too, that the events of this past week help all Americans to focus on our communities, the need for united action and less on the issues that divide us. America must unite to rebuild and heal the communities devastated by Sandy. The hurricane has generated an uptick in those that believe that climate change is real, about 60%. But the power of the energy companies to stifle this sentiment and postpone government action is manifest and profound.  Without mentioning candidates both big oil and big coal have run thousands of ads highlighting seemingly middle class, just like you and me, “energy voters”. Despite overwhelming scientific evidence big energy has created seeds of doubt about the reality of climate change. One has to wonder what will it take for Americans to see that the storming is breaking?

Back in Washington liberals are already lining up on their side of the divide to protect any movement on entitlements. They will argue that nothing ought be done until the rich are once and truly made to pay their fair share. I have sympathy for this argument as an intellectual exercise, even as a moral one, but politically that deal is not out there. This is the reason Obama was so vague on his plans. A more left-leaning fiscal argument on the President’s part would have made liberals feel good, but would cost Obama the election. On the other side of the divide, a more right leaning argument from Romney that not only provided the carrot, tax cuts across the board, but also the stick, massive reductions in clearly defined spending and deductions to pay for it, would drop Romney from a near tie, to a ten point deficit. Ideologues on both sides of the divide making the argument that the other guy is being vague are ignoring completely the vagueness of their own candidate’s proposals. As a liberal I think that Obama has been more forthright than Romney, but only by degrees. 

Fiscally, a program that contains tax increases, probably even on those making less than $250K per year, along with increases in the retirement age to slow the rates of growth in Social Security and Medicare, are a necessity. Liberals will howl. I won’t.  On spending I would hope that the grand bargain contains more short-term stimulus targeted to create jobs, especially among the long term and unskilled unemployed. The working poor became the villains in so many ways during this election cycle. They have been largely ignored, but any real solution must address the urgency of their plight.  

At the same time providing long term spending reductions is absolutely essential. Neither party can continue to accept the status quo muddied by dishonest rhetoric where one party talks about lifting all boats, which only happens at the margins if at all, or getting control of the debt, which the other party does not at all. While we can and will disagree with the causes of the debt, whether Republican, Democratic, or both, we can and must make the sacrifices to get it under control. The job picture remains dismal, especially for segments of the population with less skills and/ or education, and the Republican criticism of the President’s priorities, jobs vs. healthcare, or not without merit. Considering that the conservatives have stymied jobs programs over disagreements about spending they are also somewhat disingenuous. But here again Americans on both sides of the divide have to understand and accept what is politically possible.

There will be no moral victories for Obama, if he is reelected for a second term. He will have to show a level of political dexterity that has not been in evidence up until now. I am among those who feel that the President has missed chance after chance to govern. He has done many great things, but he has governed over a malfunctioning government for which he bears direct and personal responsibility. 

On the other side of the divide Republicans need to understand that the world of the Beev’, Ward and June Cleever is no more. For millions of Americans, especially people of color, memories of those days are not sepia colored and tinged with nostalgia. Seldom are recollections of fire hoses or attack dogs set upon peaceful demonstrators marching for the right to vote or sit at lunch counters considered nostalgic.  The day is fast approaching when white majorities will no longer control national elections. If Obama does win it will be because he cobbled together a collation of blacks, Hispanics and just enough white votes, although not close to a plurality.  Republicans and conservatives can be angry about that, they can demonstrate against it which only exposes vile race hatred from which a small but real fraction of their vote is drawn, or they can accommodate to it.  The Darth Vader of the right, Karl Rove, knows that Republicans will have to increase the size of their tent in order to maintain relevance. If the GOP does not make the adjustments they will see themselves consigned in history alongside the Whig Party  and their righteous  message of fiscal discipline will go with them. Romney may carry this election with majority white support, but if he dies it will likely be the last that can be won that way.

The reality is that this is a deeply conservative country. I mean this not in terms of social activism where Americans have shown a tremendous ability to adapt and expand rights. Nor do I mean this in terms of fiscal policy. Americans are mostly conservative in their unwillingness to change quickly. There are vast forces arrayed on both sides of almost every argument now. While it is true that as Rachel Maddow said that almost all of these forces have an economic power structure behind them which means real, true, progressive change nearly impossible to achieve, Citizens United is the new reality.  While fair minded people of both parties are organizing to overturn it, people who want to see action from their government better learn how to govern with it. Liberals who believe they can accomplish anything critically important without accommodating at least some segments of Republicans are dooming themselves to four more years of gridlock.

Americans of all political stripes want the things that government provides without the responsibility of paying for it. Romney has played to this in the most craven manner, promising tax cuts, increases in defense spending, and protection of treasured middle class tax deductions such as charitable giving on interest of home mortgages. Something has to give, and even a cursory understanding of the debt we are piling up now would indicate the ridiculous nature of his proposals. Obama has been less absurdist in his proposals, but a fair minded person would acknowledge that they don’t add up either.

So the movement forward in the next four years under either candidate will be small and incremental. Americans that truly want it all will see to that.  Any hope for something better, whether progressive or disciplined, or my choice some combination of both lies in the middle, the place occupied by those who have abandoned their decrepit home on one side or other of the ideological divide.