The People's Business

I'm sure you've all been waiting with bated breath for me to weigh in on the meaning, import, and consequences of the recent election.  Well, I'm not gonna.  (Except to agree with what my friend Jana says in her excellent blog, that the world is a safer place with Christine O'Donnell at home.)

I think our politicians have collectively lost their way -- at least the ones at the congressional level, both federal and state.  In my state, the Democrats kept the senate but lost the house.  The new house minority leader said his highest priority for this session is to regain the majority.

Really?  Well, that sucks.  Because it means you intend to play politics instead of doing the people's business.

That's exactly what the Republicans did for the last two years.  It worked for them politically -- they gained quite a lot of ground in this midterm election.  But at what cost?  The ugliest, most divisive political rhetoric in decades.  The vilification of a good man who brought enough people together to elect him President.  Heightened racial tension.  Veiled threats invading our political discourse.  The rise of a "movement" with no leadership, no purpose, and no position except hating the government that guarantees the very freedoms about which they wax poetic (while threatening to use "second amendment remedies" in support of their own particular version of those freedoms).

If I were a conspiracy theorist, I could not concoct a more perfect storm than the one we just experienced.  Consider this:

1. In a time when access to public education in our nation is almost universal, our campaign process has been "dumbed down" to the extent that misrepresentations of opponents' positions in 15-second political television ads are all the majority of voters bother to learn about the candidates.
2. That very public education is the target of anger from conservatives because education "indoctrinates" by exposing people to ideas with which their parents may not agree. 
3. People no longer read newspapers.  Newspaper "replacements" now include much more opinion and much less factual information. 
4. Voters no longer read the position statements printed in their voter guides.  
5. Voters don't bother to understand the underlying reasons for things like the economic downturn, and don't follow things closely enough to know what is being done about it and what impact it may have.

One party has done a great job of capitalizing on the voter ignorance created by sound-bite politics.  They all sing from the same page in the same hymnal.  They use the same (meaningless) phrases:  Reduce government (because, apparently government is the real enemy -- even though they ARE the government).  Promote family values (but that doesn't mean promoting actual families!).  Reduce taxes (because no policy benefits the wealthy more).  Eliminate government regulation because it puts an unreasonable burden on business (go here and here, then decide if you think businesses are over-regulated). Religion and politics should go hand-in-hand, because America is a Christian nation founded on Christian principles (of which separation of church and state, along with freedom of religion and speech, are apparently not a part).   They stay on message and seem to believe their party is the party which represents these positions best, even when their actions are completely antithetical to them.  Is it sincerity borne of ignorance?  Or is it great marketing?  (Perhaps a bit of both.)

The other party is the party of nuance, detail, "me too," and mixed messages.  Yeah, we want to lower taxes, too... except we know we still have to pay for stuff.  So yeah, we want to reduce the size of government, too... except we know that if we do that with the economy in the shape it's in, the government ceases to be the "spender of last resort" and the economy will crash.  We think religion should stay out of politics -- but don't worry, we're all Christians, too, because we think it will get us votes if we say that.  And because we are so mired in our nuance and detail, we permit the other party to frame OUR positions and label us "socialists."

What SHOULD a cohesive Democratic message look like?  Perhaps something like this:

Government isn't the enemy.  In our democratic republic, government is the people.  As your representatives, our job is to use government as a tool on your behalf.  Government is supposed to:

1. Protect our citizens from military and terrorist threats.  Defense is important.  Security is important.  Democrats believe in a strong and effective military and strong and effective homeland security.
2. Protect our citizens from other interests that work against them.  Corporations are vehicles designed to enhance the wealth of their shareholders.  They do not have the general welfare of the public as their primary purpose.  Reasonable regulation is necessary to keep corporations in check and keep them from injuring our citizens.  A completely unfettered free market results in abuses like the ones we are recovering from now.  Carefully applied, minimal regulation protects everyone's prosperity -- including the corporations -- and avoids corporate and bank bailouts.
3. Preserve the political process from corruption.  Corporations are not persons and should not have the same rights and privileges as individual American citizens.  It is time to remove corporations from the political process entirely.  The wealthy should not have a louder voice in our political discourse.
4. Maintain good relationships with the rest of the world.  Our goal is a foreign policy which promotes our nation's interests without hurting the citizens of other countries.  We respect cultural differences while promoting human rights around the world. 
5. Do things we can't accomplish without cooperating on a large scale.  Interstate highways, space exploration, national air traffic control, and the military are examples of worthwhile endeavors which require the resources of our nation to accomplish.  You can add scientific research here because the government will fund research without obvious profit potential just because it could benefit us.
6. Promote the general welfare.  Yes, it is right there at the beginning of our Constitution as one of the basic responsibilities of government.  We will use this as a guideline for every vote we take.  Does it promote the general welfare?  If not, why are we doing it?
7. We support policies which promote equality and freedom for all our citizens.  Respect, tolerance, and acceptance of other ideas, religions, and sexual orientations is as American, and pro-American, as it gets.  There is nothing more fundamental to our national identity.  We believe in the freedom of Americans to choose their own spouses, and decide whether to procreate.  Government has no place in those decisions.
8. We believe in fiscal responsibility.  This means balancing not just our budget, but our priorities.  We will fund programs for the right reasons.  "Across-the board" budget cuts are a cop-out.  Instead, we will make the hard decisions and reduce or eliminate programs which are less effective, and fund the ones that work.  We will make tax decisions that will bring in enough revenue to balance the budget, and will ensure that all citizens -- including the wealthiest ones -- pay their fair share.
9. We believe access to decent health care is a right, not a privilege.  It is time for every American to have that access.  If that means huge changes in the health insurance industry, so be it.  We do NOT believe in government control of health care delivery.  
10. We believe educational opportunity results in economic opportunity.  We do not believe standardized testing is the only, or the best, way to measure educational effectiveness.  We know that the schools can't educate our children successfully without involved parents who are fully supportive of their children's educational process.

In a nutshell:  We are the party of equality.  We are the party of fiscal responsibility, not fiscal whitewashing.  We believe in individual freedom, and want to keep the government out of your bedroom and your doctor's office.  We believe in effective, accountable government that works for its citizens.  

There you are:  Ten fairly coherent fundamentals.  I'm sure if I come back and revisit this in a week (which I will) I may have different items for the top 10.  But read this list.  Would you vote for that party?