Taking The Pulse of America

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them” – Thomas Jefferson (1762- 1826) - 3rd President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence

The news this week that the Iowa Democratic Party has voted to bring forward the date of its caucuses to January 3rd has, for many, brought the presidential election campaign of 2008 sharply into focus. While national polls have Hillary Clinton enjoying a 30 point advantage over her nearest challenger Barack Obama, the most recent survey of potential caucus voters in Iowa show the two Democratic heavyweights in a statistical dead heat.

Some commentators are already referring to Clinton as the nominee, however as history has shown, a candidate with a big lead in the national polls going into the first big caucus challenge of Iowa should not take the nomination for granted. So before Hillary self anoints herself as the nominee she should recall what happened to Howard Dean in 2004. Going into the Hawkeye state caucuses four years ago, Dean held a commanding lead over John Kerry only for Kerry to win and go on to the nomination while Dean’s campaign imploded.

There is no doubt that there is a ground swell of support for radical change in the way government works in this country. The majority of Americans want to become engaged in the political process, however their sense of reality is being continually blurred by the ineptitude (and timidity) of most of the television and cable news networks to talk in any real, substantive way to the issues facing Americans today. On the other hand, FOX News is essentially the propaganda arm of the Bush White House and a host of fear mongering racists from Bill O’Reilly and Ann Coulter to Lou Dobbs and Rush Limbaugh are using issues like immigration, terrorism, religion and the so called liberal agenda to scare the crap out of people.

Amidst the cacophony however there are some people out there that can not only speak in a constructive way to the issues facing Americans today, but to also suggest workable solutions. And you know what? The public wants to listen.

Last night I, along with 750 others, each paid between $15 and $25 to attend a lecture given by New York Times Op-Ed Columnist Paul Krugman in downtown San Francisco. I was fascinated that such a crowd would turn out to hear a journalist speak on a cold Tuesday evening the night before Halloween. That was before I found out that Krugman is the author of 20 books and also a Professor of Economics at Princeton University. Krugman treated us to a 90 minute lesson on the history of American politics and economics since FDR's New Deal of the 1930’s.

In summary, he contends that economic policy IS driven by politics and that race is the card that has been played by Republicans to win elections over the past 40 years. Quoting a myriad of statistics, Krugman outlined why, since the adoption of the so-called “Southern Strategy” by Richard Nixon in 1968, white Southern males have left the Democratic Party and switched their allegiance to the GOP. Republicans have never been able to run on their economic record so they have appealed instead to people’s base fears and prejudices; initially race and segregation and latterly religion, national defense and terrorism.

As a result, government policy is directly affected by ideology, which in turn directly impacts the economy. It comes as no surprise therefore to learn that in the last 7 years of the Bush presidency, where the country has been at war for over 6 of those 7 years, America has not had a balanced budget and the national debt of the United States has almost doubled, while on the other hand no progress has been made, for example, on universal health care for all Americans.

The moral of the Krugman lecture, however, is that Americans want to engage with their politicians on the issues. The many questions from the floor last night were insightful and clearly thought through. Barack Obama is coming to San Francisco in mid November so I myself will have an opportunity to hear his message for America. For the Democratic candidates going into the Iowa caucuses, rhetoric, double speak and clichés will no longer suffice for voters. We have had 7 years of that and America is morally bankrupt because of it.