I know what you're thinking: eeeeeasyyyyyyyyyy, Tex. We just won the election and we're going to have a sitting Democratic president; the second in the past 28 years. But this government needs to take the reins quickly. The large issues must be resolved first: housing; health care; Iraq & Afghanistan; consumer confidence; energy. I can't offer ideas on housing and somewhat on health care because, I must admit, I am lacking in knowledge in those areas. With that being said, I do have some thoughts on areas the new administration could advance.
Ultimately, I think there are systemic problems with our economy and giving money to AIG, et al isn't the unique solution. This isn't a dilemma one can repair by pouring money into the fiscal system, even though I think it needed that infusion to stave off the worse. (Don't worry, I won't bore you with any Main Street-Wall Street comments.) Any greater answer to what has been heralded as a once in a century crisis will require multi-polar approaches and solutions.
Am I proposing some big-spending liberal agenda to restructure our economy and social order that hasn't been seen since the New Deal? Yes, in short, I think that's what the Obama presidency should seek to accomplish to float all the proverbial boats and erase the steep and shocking income inequality and shrinking real wages for most of us. I don't know if I believe a new political alignment can be built along the lines of the New Deal coalition, but I think the opportunity is presenting itself in this crisis. Rove's and others' belief in building a permanent Republican party are now seen to be hollow. I doubt the Democrats could do the same with some of the ideas I wrote above, but it would be a step in the right direction after being walloped and pressured into centrist/right leaning politics over nearly 30 years.
Foreign Policy
1. Close Guantanamo's detention center. Sure, it holds some very real enemies of the United States that were targeting the US and American troops in Afghanistan, but Guantanamo is a losing proposition for the US. It appears that, like Abu Ghraib, it's become synonymous the world over for the corruption of the US' standards for civility and human rights. At a moment when hope, change, and opportunity have been the dominant themes of the election, it's time to shutter Bush's gulag.
2. Implement micro-financing in Iraq in the style of Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. I wouldn't be surprised if this began, but I haven't heard much about the soft side of the US' occupation. This may or may not work, but my larger point is that the soft aspects of nation-building must be implemented sooner rather than later. With the surge's success, thanks to the Iraqis and the US, it's time for the US to consider pulling out and doing what it can to stabilize the social order. As everyone knows, throwing money at a problem isn't a solution but the non-lethal approaches to repairing Iraq must begin in earnest.
3. Improve the Afghanistan-Pakistan issue. With the potential of enemies encircling Pakistan, the Pakistanis (rightly) will not tolerate that possibility. The US doesn't have nearly enough political capital to resolve Afghanistan by itself, but the US can't get stuck in Afghanistan. There's a bad historical precedent.
4. Figure out Israel and Palestine. Okay, good luck on that one. But see if Abu Mazen can marshal the necessary steps to work with Israel, and see if Tzipi Livni is serious. On that same note, push Syria and Israel to resolve their long-standing disputes.
5. Open dialogue with the Iranians. If I were Iran I would be nervous about the US, too. We have them surrounded and the executive branch issues not so-veiled threats about military action. Provide the US interests section in Iran with meaning. Iran's economy is threatened by the dipping price of oil, and we're at a point where we have some leverage.
6. Accept that the Russians don't like being encircled by the US and we were partly to blame for the attack on Georgia. In some ways, physical containment hasn't ended and the Russians have begrudged the US' meddling in the Stans, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro, etc. The Russians view that as their sphere of interest or buffer zone, and we need to step gingerly rather than tromping around and dumping millions of dollars into tiny states such as Georgia. Put differently, if the situation was reversed the US would be hard pressed to tolerate Russian involvement in Latin America.
7. Read Andrew Bacevich's Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.
Ultimately, I think there are systemic problems with our economy and giving money to AIG, et al isn't the unique solution. This isn't a dilemma one can repair by pouring money into the fiscal system, even though I think it needed that infusion to stave off the worse. (Don't worry, I won't bore you with any Main Street-Wall Street comments.) Any greater answer to what has been heralded as a once in a century crisis will require multi-polar approaches and solutions.
Am I proposing some big-spending liberal agenda to restructure our economy and social order that hasn't been seen since the New Deal? Yes, in short, I think that's what the Obama presidency should seek to accomplish to float all the proverbial boats and erase the steep and shocking income inequality and shrinking real wages for most of us. I don't know if I believe a new political alignment can be built along the lines of the New Deal coalition, but I think the opportunity is presenting itself in this crisis. Rove's and others' belief in building a permanent Republican party are now seen to be hollow. I doubt the Democrats could do the same with some of the ideas I wrote above, but it would be a step in the right direction after being walloped and pressured into centrist/right leaning politics over nearly 30 years.
Foreign Policy
1. Close Guantanamo's detention center. Sure, it holds some very real enemies of the United States that were targeting the US and American troops in Afghanistan, but Guantanamo is a losing proposition for the US. It appears that, like Abu Ghraib, it's become synonymous the world over for the corruption of the US' standards for civility and human rights. At a moment when hope, change, and opportunity have been the dominant themes of the election, it's time to shutter Bush's gulag.
2. Implement micro-financing in Iraq in the style of Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank. I wouldn't be surprised if this began, but I haven't heard much about the soft side of the US' occupation. This may or may not work, but my larger point is that the soft aspects of nation-building must be implemented sooner rather than later. With the surge's success, thanks to the Iraqis and the US, it's time for the US to consider pulling out and doing what it can to stabilize the social order. As everyone knows, throwing money at a problem isn't a solution but the non-lethal approaches to repairing Iraq must begin in earnest.
3. Improve the Afghanistan-Pakistan issue. With the potential of enemies encircling Pakistan, the Pakistanis (rightly) will not tolerate that possibility. The US doesn't have nearly enough political capital to resolve Afghanistan by itself, but the US can't get stuck in Afghanistan. There's a bad historical precedent.
4. Figure out Israel and Palestine. Okay, good luck on that one. But see if Abu Mazen can marshal the necessary steps to work with Israel, and see if Tzipi Livni is serious. On that same note, push Syria and Israel to resolve their long-standing disputes.
5. Open dialogue with the Iranians. If I were Iran I would be nervous about the US, too. We have them surrounded and the executive branch issues not so-veiled threats about military action. Provide the US interests section in Iran with meaning. Iran's economy is threatened by the dipping price of oil, and we're at a point where we have some leverage.
6. Accept that the Russians don't like being encircled by the US and we were partly to blame for the attack on Georgia. In some ways, physical containment hasn't ended and the Russians have begrudged the US' meddling in the Stans, Ukraine, Georgia, Serbia, Montenegro, etc. The Russians view that as their sphere of interest or buffer zone, and we need to step gingerly rather than tromping around and dumping millions of dollars into tiny states such as Georgia. Put differently, if the situation was reversed the US would be hard pressed to tolerate Russian involvement in Latin America.
7. Read Andrew Bacevich's Limits of Power: The End of American Exceptionalism.
Labor, Capitol, & Jobs
1. Create programs to spur green jobs in the rust belt in manufacturing solar cells, hybrid and clean diesel vehicles, wind farms, machinery for geo thermal housing. This could allow the Democrats to rebuild a vibrant democratic party base in the Middle West and lock OH and IN into democratic voting states.
2. Adopt the Pickens Plan, but keep Boone out. Some of his past is shady and reprehensible--Swift Boating, comes to mind--but he has some solid ideas on how to turn the source of the country's energy consumption around. Installing wind farms in the center of the country and relying on local labor could go a far way toward building political capital for the Democrats in the center of the country. In other words, take the 50 state strategy to the next level and hammer the growth of jobs, jobs, jobs under Obama. People care about the environment, they really do, but economic self-interest comes first. I'm not wild about CNG cars, but it sure beats the alternative.
3. Subsidies for companies creating jobs in green industries.
4. Revamp America's infrastructure: electric and transportation. In Matthew Wald's August 2008 story on wind energy, Wald quoted Bill Richardson's comment that we still have a Third World power grid. The fact is that electricity is coursing through a dated and outmoded grid that struggles to accept the recovery of new energy rather than simply emitting energy. Roads, bridges, and mass transit needs funding and, in many cases, local initiative that can be assisted with government pushing. Here again, jobs, jobs, jobs.
5. Hire Andy Stern as the Secretary of Labor. Okay, that's just a guilty pleasure to have the head of the largest and growing union in the states (SEIU) lead the DoL.
6. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
7. Pass the Webb GI Bill. Historians, correctly, criticize the post-war GI Bill as a tool that was capitalized upon by upper-Middle Class men, and thus it neglected working-class, poor, women, African-Americans, and most minorities. We're at a time when we can not only update an option for those who served, but also ensure that it helps all of those who apply.
8. If money is given to bail out the automotive industry, the big three (or two depending on possible mergers) should be obligated to improve production of hybrid autos, cleaner diesels, and, generally, improve fuel milage. The automotive industry can help guide American consumers as much as it can reflect the consumers' choices. Fleets of gas-guzzling pick ups, hummers, SUVs, etc. should go the way of the dodo.
9. Follow through on the promise to make student loan interest rates easier. It's awfully difficult for doctors to chose primary care if they are shackled with decades of loan debt. Of course, I think it applies to other fields (like getting a nearly useless MA in history), but that case is most instructive.
10. Encourage Americans to save.
11. Give more financing to Teach for America and state and local programs--like Illinois' Golden Apple Foundation--if you seriously want to improve the quality and number of teachers.
Politics1. Create programs to spur green jobs in the rust belt in manufacturing solar cells, hybrid and clean diesel vehicles, wind farms, machinery for geo thermal housing. This could allow the Democrats to rebuild a vibrant democratic party base in the Middle West and lock OH and IN into democratic voting states.
2. Adopt the Pickens Plan, but keep Boone out. Some of his past is shady and reprehensible--Swift Boating, comes to mind--but he has some solid ideas on how to turn the source of the country's energy consumption around. Installing wind farms in the center of the country and relying on local labor could go a far way toward building political capital for the Democrats in the center of the country. In other words, take the 50 state strategy to the next level and hammer the growth of jobs, jobs, jobs under Obama. People care about the environment, they really do, but economic self-interest comes first. I'm not wild about CNG cars, but it sure beats the alternative.
3. Subsidies for companies creating jobs in green industries.
4. Revamp America's infrastructure: electric and transportation. In Matthew Wald's August 2008 story on wind energy, Wald quoted Bill Richardson's comment that we still have a Third World power grid. The fact is that electricity is coursing through a dated and outmoded grid that struggles to accept the recovery of new energy rather than simply emitting energy. Roads, bridges, and mass transit needs funding and, in many cases, local initiative that can be assisted with government pushing. Here again, jobs, jobs, jobs.
5. Hire Andy Stern as the Secretary of Labor. Okay, that's just a guilty pleasure to have the head of the largest and growing union in the states (SEIU) lead the DoL.
6. Pass the Employee Free Choice Act.
7. Pass the Webb GI Bill. Historians, correctly, criticize the post-war GI Bill as a tool that was capitalized upon by upper-Middle Class men, and thus it neglected working-class, poor, women, African-Americans, and most minorities. We're at a time when we can not only update an option for those who served, but also ensure that it helps all of those who apply.
8. If money is given to bail out the automotive industry, the big three (or two depending on possible mergers) should be obligated to improve production of hybrid autos, cleaner diesels, and, generally, improve fuel milage. The automotive industry can help guide American consumers as much as it can reflect the consumers' choices. Fleets of gas-guzzling pick ups, hummers, SUVs, etc. should go the way of the dodo.
9. Follow through on the promise to make student loan interest rates easier. It's awfully difficult for doctors to chose primary care if they are shackled with decades of loan debt. Of course, I think it applies to other fields (like getting a nearly useless MA in history), but that case is most instructive.
10. Encourage Americans to save.
11. Give more financing to Teach for America and state and local programs--like Illinois' Golden Apple Foundation--if you seriously want to improve the quality and number of teachers.
1. Let the Republicans be the party of Ronald Reagan. Emphasize that Reagan's coalition is broken and life has moved on since 1988. The Republicans can be the party of the past while the Democrats are the party of the now and future. And if they trot out the spector of big government and Dutch's well-worn line about the ten worst words ("Hi, I'm from the government, and I'm here to help."), mention that there were people in New Orleans and around the country losing their homes and jobs who wanted desperately to hear those words under Republican rule.
2. Control the language better than in the past. Whose recession was that? Oh, yes, the Bush Recession.
3. Steep the Republicans as the party of the past whose policies led us into this mess.
4. Bush recently boasted to a Federalist society gathering that he altered the identity of the nation's appointed judges. Reverse that at all costs and prepare for the SCOTUS vacancies ahead of time. (I admit that I'm sure that's been done.)
3. Steep the Republicans as the party of the past whose policies led us into this mess.
4. Bush recently boasted to a Federalist society gathering that he altered the identity of the nation's appointed judges. Reverse that at all costs and prepare for the SCOTUS vacancies ahead of time. (I admit that I'm sure that's been done.)
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