Posts filed under 'Politics as UNusual?'
Political season ranks right behind football and baseball season as my favorite time of year. I can do without the robocalls from former presidents and candidate’s spouses or moms. Even the littering of signs is a bit much. I just admire how people will stand outside for hours waving signs in 100+ degree heat for a candidate that they believe in.
In 2008, I happened to be in Nashua, NH during primary season and if anyone wants to see the real beauty of politics, they need to go to NH. Like spring training for Cubs fans, hope springs eternal and everyone is still in it. It is common for a presidential candidate to have coffee with a group of 3-5 voters in a living room everyday. I volunteered to a candidate that I supported and was amazed at the people that came from all over the country on their own dime to make hundreds of calls a day, wave signs in the snow, and go without sleep for weeks just because they believe their candidate can make a difference. It really is the best of America.
So here we go again and in the spirit of a pregame breakdown of two teams I detail how Republicans and Democrats win or lose in November.
How the Democrats win:
- The economy, job and housing markets and news improves.
- Run like a winner. If their agenda is the best way for America then run on the record. Run on health care, financial reform, stimulus, everything. Not personal attacks, run on an agenda.
- The Republicans don’t get out of their own way or fail to provide a roadmap. They will pick up seats but not take over.
- Listening. One thing that Republicans lost on a few years ago was just listening. They became so wrapped up in their power that they forgot that they represented people.
- Do what they say, say what they mean. Don’t say that PAYGO rules and discretionary spending is frozen and then pass billions in extended unemployment without having a way to pay for it. Don’t say that earmarks will be cut “with a scalpel” then pass billions in earmarks. People arent stupid, stop treating them as they were.
How the Democrats lose:
- Unemployment the same, stock market falling, consumer spending stalls, lack of good news. John McCain actually led after 8 years of Bush until Lehman happened. Dems can say anything that they want, but people are awake and listening and hard to believe numbers that require a PhD in economics and a magic 8 ball.
- Running against George Bush. Politics is about the future. You cant own congress for 4 years and not claim any responsibility for bad decisions that happen on your watch. It’s foolish and worse it implies that people that vote for them are foolish.
How the Republicans win:
- Define the narrative and create a roadmap beyond tax cuts. A new Contract with America that shows a unified movement and plan.
- Seek to understand peoples issues then attempt to be understood. This is a center-right country, but arrogance and lack of understanding is where they started to falter before.
- Be principled. Be simple. Be courageous. I’m not talking about reducing to slogans but define who you are and that the path forward will require some pain, but it allows people to see beyond the next election cycle. We need a 15-20 year executable plan on sustainable energy, social security, budget, etc. and that may not include that elected official being there to take a victory lap but show the courage to say no to some things need to go.
How the Republicans lose:
- They assume victory. Bad things happen to people and parties that arent exhausted from outworking and outthinking their competition.
- George Bush somehow gets on the ticket by association. If after 2 years of motivation and anger this happens, as a Republican I will dip myself in honey and roll around in fire ant piles. Then join an obscure 5th tier party that secures 12 votes during a presidential election.
- President Obama finds his voice again and it resonates. People are desperate for a transformative leader and are ready to sacrifice. In 20 years he can either be remembered as a Reagan or Kennedy or Carter. He needs to find it.
Prediction: Republicans pick up a healthy number in both but don’t take over leadership. Worst thing that can happen to Democrats because they still have the keys to power but have to have Republicans votes for anything. Gridlock may actually lift markets and lead some of the money on the sidelines back into the market. Obama’s numbers go a bit higher and set up a great next race.
Is it 2012 yet?
(Photo credit.)
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Andrew is married and a father of two daughters. Owner of Wilcox and Hackett, LLC a legal recruiting and client development consulting firm. A conservative who likes healthy debate. Enjoys reading, writing, working out, sports, and BBQ cooking.
August 26th, 2010
On this July 4th, I’m reading Authentic Patriotism by Stephen P. Kiernan. You should too. Here’s Kiernan about the origins of this very day, 243 years ago:
The colonists rebelled not only to free themselves from the yoke of British rule but also in order to reject the stratification of British society. They fought to bring to life one of the Enlightenment’s highest ideals: a new and nobler definition of what a human being is.
According to progressive thinkers of the eighteenth century, people did not need to bow to someone whose sole claim to superiority over them was birth… In the New World, in other words, merit alone would count. A man should advance not because of which family he was born into I but by virtue of his intellect, character, exertion, and luck.
Kiernan writes about what transpired in the spring of 1776 in New York Habor:
There George Washington and the fledgling colonial army had gathered after an unexpected victory in Boston. At the time the colonies did not possess a navy, not even a single ship. To demonstrate his power, the king sent warships to New York that May and June, foremost among them the sixty-four gun HMS Asia. Soon the British added two fifty-gun ships, the Centurion and Chatham, then the Phoenix with its forty guns, next the thirty-gun Greyhound with an army general aboard. These ships also bore tens of thousands of troops. The king then added the Rose, as well as the Eagle-another sixty-four-gun ship, this one commanded by the fearsome Admiral Lord Richard Howe. Colonists spied five lore ships arriving one day, eight another, twenty another. By late June the harbor and its outer reaches were crammed with some four hundred ships, including seventy-three warships and eight ships of the line with fifty or more guns each. It was the largest military force ever dispatched by any nation on earth.
And what did the colonists do that July? How did they reply to his terrifying display of power and glory?
They declared their independence. They cataloged their grievances, explained their reasons, and announced their permanent separation from Great Britain. The bonds were dissolved, the ropes that tied the colonists to the monarchy permanently cut.
It was not mere impudence that this act of rebellion displayed. It was character. It was determination. The king had failed to realize that every step he took to suppress the colonists, to intimidate them, to reinforce their inferiority, only invigorated their growing conception of what a human being is.
July 4th, 2010
Senator Tom Coburn (R- OK) made comments in a town hall last week with a little bit of something for everyone. For The Village Square, Republican Coburn stuck up for rival Democrat Nancy Pelosi, calling her “a nice lady” to a crowd that didn’t want to hear that.
But what was most interesting was to watch the coverage of different aspects of Coburn’s town hall depending on which network covered it.
At The Village Square we have observed an attendance pattern at events: People tend to come to the forum that interests them, therefore we get more conservatives when we talk taxes and and more liberals when we talk environment. We’d like to reverse the trend, for the sake of improving the civic dialogue. So… in that spirit, please note the reading instructions for this blog post:
For Republicans, please read this:
“What we have to have is make sure we have a debate in this country so that you can see what’s going on and make a determination yourself,” the Oklahoma senator said in remarks to a home-state town hall meeting… “So don’t catch yourself being biased by FOX News that somebody is no good. The people in Washington are good. They just don’t know what they don’t know.”
“I want to tell you, I do a lot of reading every day and I’m disturbed that we get things… that are so disconnected from what I know to be the facts. And that comes from somebody that has an agenda that’s other than the best interest of our country. And so please balance and be careful.”
And here is the reading assignment for Democrats:
“The motivation is not to fix health care,” Coburn told about 40 people at the Miami Civic Center. “The motivation is to put the federal government in charge of health care.
“This sounds somewhat paranoid, but I think they know this is going to fail,” he said. “Then they can say, ‘See, the government needs to be in charge of all prices doctors (charge) at all levels.’?”
Rigging the system to fail will pave the way for “single-payer, government-run, rationed health care,” he said.
(Photo credit.)
April 8th, 2010
Two Senators have finally caught on to what The Village Square knew all along: They’d better start eating together if they want to get along. Retiring Senator Evan Bayh (D-Indiana) and Senator Lindsay Graham (R-South Carolina) wrote a joint letter requesting that the Senate convene a once a month bipartisan lunch. On today’s Face the Nation:
SENATOR EVAN BAYH (D-Indiana): Well, first, Lindsey Graham is my friend and we need more friendships across the aisle because that’s ultimately how you get principled compromise enacted. And part of this, Bob, was informed by my father’s experience where back in the day he might have philosophical or political differences but you still reach out and try to do the people’s business. So little of that takes place because there’s so little action– interactionamong senators. We have the caucus systems. So the Democrats are over here. The Republicans are over here. They hardly ever meet to listen to one another…
SENATOR LINDSEY GRAHAM: …But he’s dead right. You know we share a locker by the– by the gym. I get to– I’ve got to know Evan when– when he announced he was going to leave the Senate. A lot of Republicans said, oh, boy, we can pick up Indiana. The first thing I thought of was, oh, no. Because at the end of the day Evan has shown a willingness to reflect Indiana values which is to find middle ground because it’s in the middle of the country. I hope people respond to the lunch and I hope it will over time mean something. I know it’s silly for most Americans to think this is newsworthy but it is.
BOB SCHIEFFER: But it does sort of emphasize how bad the situation has gotten that you would propose this.
SENATOR EVAN BAYH: It’s almost tribal, Bob. And I think Lindsey is right most. Americans probably listen to this and go, well, that’s so basic it’s silly. But the caucus system really is used as an instrument of control, party control. The information that’s provided very often is designed to lead to a particular result. You spend a lot of time talking about. Well, my first day in the Senate, literally, my first day, first caucus meeting, we were already talking about the next election.
March 7th, 2010
As details of the expose on John Edwards’ train wreck (and oh my this is an epic train wreck) come out from Andrew Young’s book The Politician, it’s worth noting that I haven’t heard one peep from the GOP trying to tie Edwards to President Obama and the Democratic party in general. Apparently they’ve suspended “politics as usual” on this one, for which we should all be eternally grateful.
Too often we notice the transgressions, but I believe it’s worth noting the moments of real decency. We found one.
Go figure.
(Editorial comment: Citizens should be on guard for the corrupting nature of fame and power in their leaders on both sides of the aisle. To pretend that this is the exclusive territory of one or the other party – which one entirely related to which one you’re in – is just silly.)
(Photo credit.)
February 1st, 2010
Republican Senator Orrin Hatch eulogized Democratic Senator Ted Kennedy early this morning on news of his passing:
“In the current climate of today’s United States Senate it is rare to find opportunities where both sides can come together and work in the middle to craft a solution for our country’s problems. Ted Kennedy, with all of his ideological verbosity and idealism was a rare person who at times could put aside differences and look for common solutions. Not many ever got to see that side of him, but as peers and colleagues we were able to share some of those moments.”
August 26th, 2009
This morning I made my first visit to the places of worship of our summer panel for “A Rabbi, A Priest, A Pastor and An Imam.”
Today I visited “The Pastor,” The Reverend Dr. Julius McAllister and his Bethel AME (African Methodist Episcopal) Church.
To the swaying sounds of “Jesus is the light, that ever shines, in my soul” sung out strong by what seemed like way too few people for the sweet booming music they made, Reverend McAllister’s service was a celebration in every sense of the word. His sermon, more poetry than speech, complete with musical rests and crescendos, staccato and fortissimo, wisdom and humor, holding on and releasing.
I was conscious of the roots of their faith, the worship bequeathed from a mother and father to their children, and to their children, and to theirs. I was also conscious of the places in their tradition of worship that briefly kissed my Episcopal tradition. Obviously, we are neighbors. There’s beauty in these roots, both in where they touch and where they diverge. Something that grows so long from roots is strong.
During the portion of the service where Episcopalians say “the Peace” by reaching to the neighbors around us – sometimes with a handshake, a hug or a smile, Rev. McAllister’s congregation walked… they walked halfway down the long row of pews, they walked down the other aisle, they walked up to the alter, they walked just about everywhere. Men and women bouncing around; touching, laughing and hugging… all while seeming to save especially sincere words of welcome for me.
I couldn’t just sit in place – on the opposite side of town – and find the new neighbors I met on this Sunday. I wonder what would change – if like the congregation at Bethel AME – we all walked just a bit.
June 14th, 2009
Find the transcript of Governor Crist’s Meet the Press appearance here (page about halfway down the page). Crist:
“…well, there is a national leader, his name is President Obama. And, and the people elected him. And, and I’m willing to give him a good shot and, and try to help make this work. We’re in a tough time, as we talked about before. I think we do need to be bipartisan. We need to be, in fact, nonpartisan. We’re all Americans. Our country is at a dire point, and we need to do everything we can to work together to get America through this, and I know that she will.”
February 22nd, 2009
“The horrible thing about politics is the more they attack each other, the more they try to derail each other, the worse it is for the people.” –California Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger on This Week with George Stephanopoulos
February 22nd, 2009
On tonight’s Hardball, Chris Matthews, when discussing Judd Gregg bowing out of consideration for Commerce Secretary, referred to former New York Mayor John Lindsay (R), who according to Matthews said “there’s no Republican way to collect garbage.”
A wise man clearly ahead of his time.
(To my dear friend Anne: 1. Fact check, just like old times 2. More wise John Lindsay quotes 3. I remembered I always got the Ann vs. Anne wrong so I worked hard to get it right)
February 12th, 2009
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