This has been a most extraordinary election season, more so than any in my lifetime and one that as a political junkie and a patriot, I hate to see end. I am incredibly excited to be voting on Tuesday, I will be there well before the polls open at 6 a.m., and then will be working my local polling places all day as a representative for a candidate whom I support for the State House of Representatives, Jack Doody. Go ahead and make all your Howdy Doody jokes now, I already have gotten it out of my system. Ok, back to the big decision, which of course centers around who will become our 44th president. I am an unabashed and proud supporter of Mr. Barack Obama, and before I get to the case for his presidency, I would first like to commend the American people for their level of passion and interest in this election.
The level of interest has been unprecedented, and if the lines at many early voting sites are any indication, voter turnout should approach or surpass previous high water marks. In a society that is often viewed, both from outside as well as from within, as hopelessly apathetic and borderline illiterate, it is heartening to see our democracy thriving as it has over the past couple years. I hope that the countless Americans citizens who have partaken in this campaign by watching, listening, reading, and most importantly discussing and debating, will stay involved in the process. Regardless of which party controls the levers of power, our system is best served when the citizens are involved and active, it is quite simply the greatest check on government power that exists.
I also hope that we can agree to expand citizenship to the tens of millions of Americans who would like to join our great society. Incorporating them into our system is the next great civil rights challenge that we face as a nation, and my hope is that we will be up to the task, just as our predecessors were in granting rights, albeit slowly but eventually, to women and blacks.
Barack Obama is the right person for the job of leading our country out of the massive hole we are in, and to lead us to a brighter and more prosperous future as a nation. His leadership style strikes me as one that will unite, involve, and inspire the American people to step up and take responsibility for doing the hard work that is needed to get our country back on the right track. Critics often point out that Obama is arrogant, an elitist, a celebrity, a Messiah like figure who can wave a magic wand and set things right.
Those who support him vehemently know this not to be the case, because a major reason why Obama has received such support is because he makes us believe in our own ability to effect change. We are not waiting for that one to do the job, we expect him to lead and will hold him very accountable, but we realize that it is the people that must lead if the leaders are to follow. We want to be united and involved, especially those in society who have been the most disconnected historically, namely young people and non-Whites, especially Blacks. To have a leader that gives people a sense that not only do they belong but that they are valued members of society has enormous value in making the society stronger and more fundamentally sound.
Obama is on the proper side on the major issues of the day, which are the big E, the economy, the Iraq War, healthcare, and the three little e’s, the environment, energy, and education. As a policy wonk I could go into detail here on these issues, but as I believe most people are already well versed enough at this point to make an informed voting decision, I will save that commentary for after the election. We’ve got to have some politics to discuss after this is all said and done after all. Suffice to say that if you support economic policies that favor the working and middle class, if you favor a responsible withdrawal of troops from the five and half year Iraq occupation, if you feel that the richest nation in the world has a moral obligation for the health and well being of its people, if you care about the high economic, environmental, and security costs of continuing to rely on oil, and if you believe that global climate change is a real issue that can and must be addressed, then Barack Obama is your guy.
If you are a rich person, which I would define as someone making at least a half million dollars a year, then Obama probably isn’t your guy. Your taxes will increase, there is no doubt about that, he has been very up front about this. Of course not all rich people are of the mindset that this is a bad thing, you may have heard of Warren Buffet, the investor from Omaha, Nebraska who is also ranked as the wealthiest individual in the world. He is in the Obama camp because he realizes that a society cannot long thrive when only a handful accrue the wealth while the majority scramble for the crumbs left behind. When I go to the track to bet on the ponies I have a theory that whoever the big money players are going for is the smart bet. Those with the most at stake generally have the best idea of what the stakes actually are. You won’t find a bigger money player than Warren Buffet, and we know who he is putting his money on. Just a little food for thought for those of you who may be inclined to listen to Joe the Plumber instead.
But you may ask, what about the claim that Obama is a Socialist. Surely he means to take away my hard earned wealth and give it to other people who are less hard working and are therefore less deserving? First off, anyone who has ever worked on a factory floor or done manual labor as many of our immigrant ancestors did, can attest that how hard you actually work is not generally reflected in the amount of money that you make. Neither is income reflected in the value your work has to the company, as any cubicle worker can attest, nor to the value your work has to society, as any teacher, police officer, soldier, or firefighter can vouch for.
The second point is that Obama will not take away any of your hard earned pay if you are one of the 285 million Americans who make less than $100,000 dollars a year. We are the people who will benefit from having Obama as our president. And this will not lead to ruin and destruction in the economy as supporters of supply-side economics would have you believe. Rich people will still be rich, just as they were during the decades from the 1950’s through the 1970’s before Ronald Reagan introduced trickle-down economics and drastically lowered the highest tax rates.
So what about this socialism you ask, I don’t want to become a socialist nation like France. While leaving alone the question for now of what exactly is so bad about France, let me assure you that we are in no danger, now or at any point of becoming a socialist nation. Socialism is defined as the government controlling both the means of production, as well as the distribution of wealth. All governments control, to varying degrees, the distribution of wealth in the form of taxes. They collect taxes and decide who pays what and where the benefits go. It is a long established principle in our capitalist, free-market system, that those who make the most ought to pay a larger share of their income to benefit the society that allows them to achieve their wealth. This is called a progressive income tax system and has been in place for nearly a century, with pretty good results too I might add.
The first part of socialism has to do with the government controlling the means of production, in other words the government owning the businesses and industries that produce goods and services. On this count, I would challenge anyone to find me an example of an Obama proposal that fits this definition of what socialism is. In other words, while we are and always have redistributed income, we are not now, nor in the future going to become a nation where the government nationalizes industries.
In order for propaganda and rhetoric to work, people must be emotionally impacted by it. It took the McCain camp awhile to hit on something that would do that, but they finally got it with the socialism scare tactic. Propaganda requires people to have a lack of knowledge on a subject, and to feel embarrassed to admit that they don’t really know what it means, which is human nature. So the socialism claim goes out and even intelligent people may be a bit baffled, but they just know that it isn’t a good thing and they don’t want it.
But there is something more sinister at work here, and this is where the McCain camp has hit the jackpot. They rang up a few cherries on the slot machine with the Muslim rumors, using Obama’s middle name of Hussein to give him an un-American sound, and to suggest that somehow he would support the terrorists, or that he would side with the Palestinians against Israel. My middle name is David but that doesn’t mean I automatically support Israel in their conflict with the Palestinians. Then they added the hanging out with terrorists like Bill Ayers touch, to show that this was a dangerous man who would consort with the enemy. Of course last time I checked it wasn’t radical hippies from the 60’s who attacked the Twin Towers, but again, minor details. They resisted the Reverend Wright tact because that was too overtly racial, McCain may not be a B student, but he’s no dummy either. So how to remind voters that they are about to vote for a black guy, without coming out and saying it? Enter socialism.
The S word has replaced the N word in this election. Thankfully in our society today it is no longer acceptable for racists and those whose tendencies lean that way to come out with overtly racist language. But don’t be fooled into thinking that means that racism and racist tendencies have disappeared from people’s hearts and minds.
White people, many of them at least, like to pretend that racism doesn’t exist, and that those who play the so-called race card are whiners and excuse makers. Well here’s the real scoop, racism, while not as prevalent as in previous generations, is kind of like the Taliban, it doesn’t disappear it just hides out in the caves and recesses of people’s thoughts until it is called upon. And that’s what the socialist argument is doing, it is giving white people who would hate the thought of being labeled or even identifying themselves as in any way racist, permission to vote against the black guy. Not because he’s black mind you, but because he’s a socialist, or so the justification goes. If you start your sentences with, “I’m not trying to be racist but…”, and then proceed to say something racist, Obama might not be your guy. But if you can acknowledge your own prejudices, prejudices I might add that exist in all of us to some degree and are therefore not inherently bad unless you let them control your thoughts and actions, if you can admit that to yourself and look at the man, the issues, and the times we live in, then maybe you can vote for the black guy after all.
I have tried to make the case, as best I can, for the man whom I think has the potential to be the best person that Americans have had the wisdom to vote for since they put FDR into office back in 1932. He is not a perfect candidate, no candidate is, and he will ultimately be judged, both by his contemporaries and by history, for the job he does while in office. His opponent is an honorable public servant who has not always run the most honorable campaign, which as one who had always had mostly positive regard for Mr. McCain, is a disappointment. But the main point here is that in this race between two individuals, there is one, Senator Barack Obama, who is clearly the best choice to lead this great nation of ours, and whose policies will clearly benefit the majority of us, bringing about much needed change without altering the foundation of what our country has been built upon.
I look forward to meeting with people all day long on Tuesday and to being a part of this great experiment in democracy and a part of this historic election. While I hope that all of you that have stuck with this column for this long will go out and express your preference and will encourage everyone you know to do the same, I ultimately hope that you will consider my arguments and explanations, and will help to elect Barack Obama as our nation’s 44th president.
Saturday, November 1, 2008
Thursday, October 30, 2008
It seems very likely that Barack Obama will be elected as our nation’s 44th president in a matter of days, and while anything can still happen with regards to the election, I am going on the assumption that not only the polls, but my own intuition which I have gone with all summer long, as well as plain old common sense will prevail and Obama will win the election, very likely by a comfortable margin. Of course getting elected, like showing up, is only half of the battle. The real fun begins when you get to start ruling and when the buck officially stops with you. In the difficult economic times, dangerous foreign policy situation, and often fractured social system that we currently find ourselves living through, it is more important than ever that Mr. Obama rule from the center if he and the Democratic party are going to rule effectively and for any length of time.
There will be calls from those on the left to enact drastic and radical reform, and I must admit as one who tends to that side of the debate it is tempting to succumb to the desire to really shake things up. But I am old enough to know better, and as a student of political history I know that the philosophy of going for broke is a short term proposition. Change is needed, this is one of the major themes of this election and one of the main reasons why Obama has appealed to so many, but change must come gradually and it must be as all encompassing as possible.
There will be those on the right that will oppose Obama and the Congress at every step, and that is just the system we have, for better or worse. A strong and vocal opposition serves as an important check and counterbalance on the party in power, and my hope is that those on the right will keep their focus on what, in their opinion, is best for the country, and not simply become the current version of the angry pissed off liberals that have demonized President Bush for the last 8 years.
But most people are neither on the right nor the left, they may lean one way or the other, but they are moderate and not overly partisan. The policy debates and the decisions that emanate from them must take this into account if they are to be meaningful and have a lasting effect. Obama and the Democrats in Congress must enact reform and bring about change in a way that will allow the majority of Americans to get on board, and more importantly stay on board through difficult times. Playing to the base is not good politics in that it appeals to the few at the expense of the many, and it generally doesn’t produce good policies either. A few examples of this would be the failed Clinton health care proposal of the early 90’s or the failed Bush attempts at privatizing Social Security in the middle of this decade. Not coincidentally, both brought about a change in the balance of power in the Congress shortly thereafter.
On the pressing and vital issues of the day, foreign policy, health care, and what I call the four E’s of the economy, the environment, energy, and education, we must first build consensus with honest and open debate that takes into account all of the stakeholders, which basically means the American people. We must not demonize the opposition or look down upon each other while shouting each other down at the same time. We must find common ground where it exists, and develop solutions and policies that first do no harm, and then provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number. If we can do this, we will realize the hope that so many of us have in a President Obama, that we will become a more united nation and a better, more equitable, and just society for all.
There will be calls from those on the left to enact drastic and radical reform, and I must admit as one who tends to that side of the debate it is tempting to succumb to the desire to really shake things up. But I am old enough to know better, and as a student of political history I know that the philosophy of going for broke is a short term proposition. Change is needed, this is one of the major themes of this election and one of the main reasons why Obama has appealed to so many, but change must come gradually and it must be as all encompassing as possible.
There will be those on the right that will oppose Obama and the Congress at every step, and that is just the system we have, for better or worse. A strong and vocal opposition serves as an important check and counterbalance on the party in power, and my hope is that those on the right will keep their focus on what, in their opinion, is best for the country, and not simply become the current version of the angry pissed off liberals that have demonized President Bush for the last 8 years.
But most people are neither on the right nor the left, they may lean one way or the other, but they are moderate and not overly partisan. The policy debates and the decisions that emanate from them must take this into account if they are to be meaningful and have a lasting effect. Obama and the Democrats in Congress must enact reform and bring about change in a way that will allow the majority of Americans to get on board, and more importantly stay on board through difficult times. Playing to the base is not good politics in that it appeals to the few at the expense of the many, and it generally doesn’t produce good policies either. A few examples of this would be the failed Clinton health care proposal of the early 90’s or the failed Bush attempts at privatizing Social Security in the middle of this decade. Not coincidentally, both brought about a change in the balance of power in the Congress shortly thereafter.
On the pressing and vital issues of the day, foreign policy, health care, and what I call the four E’s of the economy, the environment, energy, and education, we must first build consensus with honest and open debate that takes into account all of the stakeholders, which basically means the American people. We must not demonize the opposition or look down upon each other while shouting each other down at the same time. We must find common ground where it exists, and develop solutions and policies that first do no harm, and then provide the greatest benefit for the greatest number. If we can do this, we will realize the hope that so many of us have in a President Obama, that we will become a more united nation and a better, more equitable, and just society for all.
Monday, July 28, 2008
Just Say No
I am not referring here to drugs, or was it sex, that Nancy Reagan was telling the youth of America to abstain from back when I was one of those youth in the 1980’s, although I have come to the conclusion that both are vastly overrated in our popular culture, which sells the notion of using both without consequences and which can both lead to addictive and destructive behavior if used without morality. What I am saying no to, and encouraging all other consumers to do likewise, is ridiculously priced items that are constantly marketed and peddled to us, items ranging from tickets to ballgames, certain foods at the grocery stores, to the enormous amounts of money that our Congress and President feel fit to spend on our behalf for wars we don’t support and for welfare to the very same corporations that are charging us outrageous prices in the first place, or as in the case of the mortgage industry, selling us snake oil in the form of unrealistic home loans.
Let’s get one thing straight, we as consumers are complicit in all of this, the last example of the mortgage broker snake oil is a readily available case in point. I saw one of those feel sympathy for the poor victim pieces you so often see on the news channels the other day about a lady who was being evicted from her home, the typical foreclosure story that everyone by now is aware of. The only problem with jumping on the sympathy train was that here was a single mom, making a respectable 50,000 dollars per year, who bought a house worth over 560,000 dollars. There is a serious disconnect here between reality and fantasy land. Who in their right mind thinks they can afford a house worth over ten times their annual salary? The expression that comes to mind, which describes not only this consumer but our consumer oriented society in general, is having champagne tastes while living on a beer budget. Put aside for the moment that a quality brew is infinitely better than some overpriced and overrated French wine, the point is that we have allowed ourselves to live well beyond our means, and it is finally about to catch up with us.
I say about to catch up with us because we are still living in denial, as is evidenced by a trip to the local shopping mall, restaurant row, or movie theatre complex, not to mention the drive there with all the big monster gas guzzlers still clogging our roads. Apparently many Americans think this current recession is just a blip on the radar screen, something that will be nothing more than a small bump in the road to unending economic prosperity and unlimited spending. Our national philosophy has become buy now, pay later, and then buy some more before the original payments even come due. While no one, including your humble correspondent, can predict the economic future, it seems to me as a longtime observer of such things that this is much more than a short term economic detour and more of a long term fundamental shift than many seem to realize. Gas prices do not seem likely to drop substantially for any prolonged period of time , and housing prices are unlikely to rebound strongly anytime soon, certainly not to the insane levels they were being driven to just a couple short years ago. Prices for basic commodities, many of them tied to oil prices due to transportation costs, such as food, are likely to stay at high levels, and energy prices don’t seem likely to drop substantially either. In addition to high gas, energy, and food prices, lower housing values, we have the fact that banks and lenders are sobering up from the Wall Street financed bender they went on during the first part of this decade and are tightening the availability of credit. Unable to apply for yet another credit card, or to open or extend their home equity lines, the middle class is quite simply tapped out. Prospects for increased income from work are bleak as well, as corporations are more focused on keeping shareholders and executives happy with dividends and immoral bonus packages designed to allow the rich to keep getting richer while the rest of us fight for the scraps left over at the table. Stock prices continue to dip, the Dow average which was humming around 14,000 at the height of the most recent period of irrational exuberance less than a year ago, is now sputtering along at around 11,000, a drop of over 20% in a relatively short period of time. As a result, corporations are losing paper valuation at a pretty steady rate. Since we live in a gilded age, where the executives and management at the top have little to no sense of responsibility and ethics for those that build and support the economic pyramid, it is highly unlikely that the fat cats in the corner offices will give up their share of the shrinking pie, which means that the rank and file workers in the cubicles will start losing their jobs. Once you throw unemployment into the mix, the shiite will really hit the fan, and it will be anything but a sunni day for the typical American consumer.
This gets me back to my original premise, which is that we as typical consumers need to draw a line in the sand and start saying no to outrageous prices for stuff we don’t really need to begin with. We can start with our federal government, and demand accountability from our Congress and our next President in how our tax dollars get spent. Recently the cabal that manages our shared resources decided to spend another 162 billion dollars on the war in Iraq and whatever else they presumably threw into this spending bill. While one side claims to be opposed to the war and the other side claims to be in favor of paying as we go, in the end both sides gave each other enough of what they wanted so as to allow for each to compromise on their principles and get the deal done. If this is what is meant by reaching across the aisle and achieving a bipartisan consensus I’ll take a pass on that notion. What’s another 162 billion you ask? In addition to being 540 dollars for each citizen, around the same amount as the recent stimulus checks meant to placate us by the way, it is a lot of money that could have been spent on desperately needed priorities such as failing schools, crumbling bridges, or a 300 year-old city in Louisiana that is still not rebuilt after nearly three years. Where was the coverage of this in the media, the so-called fourth estate that is supposed to serve as a watchdog of the government but is more inclined to cover the birth of celebrity twins or the latest Hollywood star to enter rehab? Where was the public outrage over this spending measure, and the countless other bills like it that allow the federal government to take our hard earned income and use it for whatever purposes they deem will allow them to continue to keep their jobs as overpaid public servants? As consumers and taxpayers we need to start following the money, as Woodward and Bernstein taught us, and start demanding accountability from our elected officials. If the people lead, the leaders will follow, and if we don’t then those in charge of our money will continue to spend recklessly on priorities that benefit those who ensure their perpetual reelection. We need to have our Senators and Representatives on speed dial, their email in our contact list, their websites in our favorites, and a handful of stamps nearby to write the occasional old-fashioned letter expressing our outrage and concern when necessary, and our approval when they do the right thing.
Another thing we can say no to is paying too much for stuff we don’t need to be paying too much for. We need to put gas in our tanks in order to get around, that is simply the reality of modern life, and while we can drive less and drive more fuel efficient vehicles, most of us are pretty well locked into the vehicles we drive and the commutes we must make. We also need electricity and water and food and internet access and high definition cable TV with DVR boxes. So one man’s luxury is another’s necessity, the point is that I’m not proposing we live a Spartan existence and give up all of life’s simple pleasures. Everyone obviously needs to decide for themselves what is and isn’t worthy of spending their hard earned money on, and those decisions are dictated by a number of factors, how much money you make, what your interests are, and what your family wants and what you wish to provide them with. For me, there are many things I would give up before the ability to record TV programs and store them on a hard drive and to watch ballgames in high def. What I have decided I won’t spend my money on however are outrageous prices to attend live sporting events.
Doing a little searching online the other day for ticket prices for the upcoming football season put me in a most sour mood, when I realized that exorbitant salaries being doled out to often unappreciative and undeserving professional athletes are having a direct impact on my ability to take my son to a ballgame once in awhile. Here are some sobering stats for you fantasy football players, which to me fantasy football is now referring to the dream that a middle class high school teacher can afford to attend one of these games in person to support the local team. Tickets to sit in the upper reaches of the new, taxpayer funded football stadium that the Arizona Cardinals call home are 70 to 80 bucks a pop. Multiply that times two, never mind by four if I wanted to take the whole family, and throw in the cost of gas, parking, 10 dollar beers for me and 8 dollar hot dogs for my boy, and you’ve got quite an expensive outing. Mind you, this isn’t to watch the defending champs or even a contender, this is the Arizona Cardinals we are talking about, a team that in its now 20 year history in the Valley of the Sun has managed a grand total of one winning season.
So I figured that with the price of pro football out of reach, I could always take my boy to see my alma mater, Arizona State play some football at my old stomping grounds on the ASU campus and Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. Surely tickets for college football, especially for a program that has only been to the Rose Bowl twice in nearly 30 years of Pac-10 play, and one that is trying to rebuild and compete for a fan base in what has become a pro sports town, surely they would offer reasonable prices for alumni and the general public alike. Think again average sports fan, not only is there no alumni discount for single game tickets, but the primo game of the non-conference season, against the highly ranked Georgia Bulldogs, is primo priced at over one and a half times the level of a regular conference game. 65 dollars to sit in the upper decks, and even 40 dollars to sit in the no longer appropriately named cheap seats for a conference game. I won’t pay, and don’t come crying to me ASU when the stadium is half filled with visiting Georgia fans who will pay these silly prices and make a desert vacation out of the deal. I’ll be watching the game on TV along with the rest of the fans who simply can’t or won’t pay.
Which gets to the point of just saying no. If enough of us consumers simply stop paying for tickets and restaurant meals and premium cable channels and magazine subscriptions and greens fees and so forth that are overpriced and overrated, perhaps the prices will eventually come down. The law of supply and demand dictates that such would be the case. Everybody has their own threshold and their own priorities, far be it from me to be some liberal Nazi telling other people how they should live their lives and shaming those who don’t go along with the party orthodoxy as the enviro-fascists and global warmists are wont to do. But here is my personal rule; I am calling it the 25 dollar rule. Quite simply, I am no longer willing to pay more than 25 bucks a pop for what I consider to be luxury items. That includes tickets to a ballgame, play, or a concert, green fees to play golf, a book, DVD, or CD collection, or takeout food. I will make exceptions as necessary, rules are made to be broken after all, but I will try to limit those exceptions to special occasions, a box set CD of the Grateful Dead or John Coltrane, and Ray’s Pizza. But to my way of thinking, if consumers just say no often enough and strongly enough, maybe things that are now out of whack will come back into line. Perhaps our government will stop spending like the proverbial drunken sailor on leave and will start to spend on priorities that will benefit ordinary middle and working class Americans rather than, and even at the expense of, the upper class. Maybe the price of certain food items, namely dairy products, cereal, and meat will come back down to earth, and possibly the price of going to a ballgame or playing a round of golf will not require us to bust the weekly budget. And if the law of supply and demand turns out not to work its magic, at least we will have gained some measure of fiscal discipline and a sense of control over our economic lives, not to mention that we might find some interesting alternatives to activities and products that we once thought we couldn’t do without.
Let’s get one thing straight, we as consumers are complicit in all of this, the last example of the mortgage broker snake oil is a readily available case in point. I saw one of those feel sympathy for the poor victim pieces you so often see on the news channels the other day about a lady who was being evicted from her home, the typical foreclosure story that everyone by now is aware of. The only problem with jumping on the sympathy train was that here was a single mom, making a respectable 50,000 dollars per year, who bought a house worth over 560,000 dollars. There is a serious disconnect here between reality and fantasy land. Who in their right mind thinks they can afford a house worth over ten times their annual salary? The expression that comes to mind, which describes not only this consumer but our consumer oriented society in general, is having champagne tastes while living on a beer budget. Put aside for the moment that a quality brew is infinitely better than some overpriced and overrated French wine, the point is that we have allowed ourselves to live well beyond our means, and it is finally about to catch up with us.
I say about to catch up with us because we are still living in denial, as is evidenced by a trip to the local shopping mall, restaurant row, or movie theatre complex, not to mention the drive there with all the big monster gas guzzlers still clogging our roads. Apparently many Americans think this current recession is just a blip on the radar screen, something that will be nothing more than a small bump in the road to unending economic prosperity and unlimited spending. Our national philosophy has become buy now, pay later, and then buy some more before the original payments even come due. While no one, including your humble correspondent, can predict the economic future, it seems to me as a longtime observer of such things that this is much more than a short term economic detour and more of a long term fundamental shift than many seem to realize. Gas prices do not seem likely to drop substantially for any prolonged period of time , and housing prices are unlikely to rebound strongly anytime soon, certainly not to the insane levels they were being driven to just a couple short years ago. Prices for basic commodities, many of them tied to oil prices due to transportation costs, such as food, are likely to stay at high levels, and energy prices don’t seem likely to drop substantially either. In addition to high gas, energy, and food prices, lower housing values, we have the fact that banks and lenders are sobering up from the Wall Street financed bender they went on during the first part of this decade and are tightening the availability of credit. Unable to apply for yet another credit card, or to open or extend their home equity lines, the middle class is quite simply tapped out. Prospects for increased income from work are bleak as well, as corporations are more focused on keeping shareholders and executives happy with dividends and immoral bonus packages designed to allow the rich to keep getting richer while the rest of us fight for the scraps left over at the table. Stock prices continue to dip, the Dow average which was humming around 14,000 at the height of the most recent period of irrational exuberance less than a year ago, is now sputtering along at around 11,000, a drop of over 20% in a relatively short period of time. As a result, corporations are losing paper valuation at a pretty steady rate. Since we live in a gilded age, where the executives and management at the top have little to no sense of responsibility and ethics for those that build and support the economic pyramid, it is highly unlikely that the fat cats in the corner offices will give up their share of the shrinking pie, which means that the rank and file workers in the cubicles will start losing their jobs. Once you throw unemployment into the mix, the shiite will really hit the fan, and it will be anything but a sunni day for the typical American consumer.
This gets me back to my original premise, which is that we as typical consumers need to draw a line in the sand and start saying no to outrageous prices for stuff we don’t really need to begin with. We can start with our federal government, and demand accountability from our Congress and our next President in how our tax dollars get spent. Recently the cabal that manages our shared resources decided to spend another 162 billion dollars on the war in Iraq and whatever else they presumably threw into this spending bill. While one side claims to be opposed to the war and the other side claims to be in favor of paying as we go, in the end both sides gave each other enough of what they wanted so as to allow for each to compromise on their principles and get the deal done. If this is what is meant by reaching across the aisle and achieving a bipartisan consensus I’ll take a pass on that notion. What’s another 162 billion you ask? In addition to being 540 dollars for each citizen, around the same amount as the recent stimulus checks meant to placate us by the way, it is a lot of money that could have been spent on desperately needed priorities such as failing schools, crumbling bridges, or a 300 year-old city in Louisiana that is still not rebuilt after nearly three years. Where was the coverage of this in the media, the so-called fourth estate that is supposed to serve as a watchdog of the government but is more inclined to cover the birth of celebrity twins or the latest Hollywood star to enter rehab? Where was the public outrage over this spending measure, and the countless other bills like it that allow the federal government to take our hard earned income and use it for whatever purposes they deem will allow them to continue to keep their jobs as overpaid public servants? As consumers and taxpayers we need to start following the money, as Woodward and Bernstein taught us, and start demanding accountability from our elected officials. If the people lead, the leaders will follow, and if we don’t then those in charge of our money will continue to spend recklessly on priorities that benefit those who ensure their perpetual reelection. We need to have our Senators and Representatives on speed dial, their email in our contact list, their websites in our favorites, and a handful of stamps nearby to write the occasional old-fashioned letter expressing our outrage and concern when necessary, and our approval when they do the right thing.
Another thing we can say no to is paying too much for stuff we don’t need to be paying too much for. We need to put gas in our tanks in order to get around, that is simply the reality of modern life, and while we can drive less and drive more fuel efficient vehicles, most of us are pretty well locked into the vehicles we drive and the commutes we must make. We also need electricity and water and food and internet access and high definition cable TV with DVR boxes. So one man’s luxury is another’s necessity, the point is that I’m not proposing we live a Spartan existence and give up all of life’s simple pleasures. Everyone obviously needs to decide for themselves what is and isn’t worthy of spending their hard earned money on, and those decisions are dictated by a number of factors, how much money you make, what your interests are, and what your family wants and what you wish to provide them with. For me, there are many things I would give up before the ability to record TV programs and store them on a hard drive and to watch ballgames in high def. What I have decided I won’t spend my money on however are outrageous prices to attend live sporting events.
Doing a little searching online the other day for ticket prices for the upcoming football season put me in a most sour mood, when I realized that exorbitant salaries being doled out to often unappreciative and undeserving professional athletes are having a direct impact on my ability to take my son to a ballgame once in awhile. Here are some sobering stats for you fantasy football players, which to me fantasy football is now referring to the dream that a middle class high school teacher can afford to attend one of these games in person to support the local team. Tickets to sit in the upper reaches of the new, taxpayer funded football stadium that the Arizona Cardinals call home are 70 to 80 bucks a pop. Multiply that times two, never mind by four if I wanted to take the whole family, and throw in the cost of gas, parking, 10 dollar beers for me and 8 dollar hot dogs for my boy, and you’ve got quite an expensive outing. Mind you, this isn’t to watch the defending champs or even a contender, this is the Arizona Cardinals we are talking about, a team that in its now 20 year history in the Valley of the Sun has managed a grand total of one winning season.
So I figured that with the price of pro football out of reach, I could always take my boy to see my alma mater, Arizona State play some football at my old stomping grounds on the ASU campus and Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe. Surely tickets for college football, especially for a program that has only been to the Rose Bowl twice in nearly 30 years of Pac-10 play, and one that is trying to rebuild and compete for a fan base in what has become a pro sports town, surely they would offer reasonable prices for alumni and the general public alike. Think again average sports fan, not only is there no alumni discount for single game tickets, but the primo game of the non-conference season, against the highly ranked Georgia Bulldogs, is primo priced at over one and a half times the level of a regular conference game. 65 dollars to sit in the upper decks, and even 40 dollars to sit in the no longer appropriately named cheap seats for a conference game. I won’t pay, and don’t come crying to me ASU when the stadium is half filled with visiting Georgia fans who will pay these silly prices and make a desert vacation out of the deal. I’ll be watching the game on TV along with the rest of the fans who simply can’t or won’t pay.
Which gets to the point of just saying no. If enough of us consumers simply stop paying for tickets and restaurant meals and premium cable channels and magazine subscriptions and greens fees and so forth that are overpriced and overrated, perhaps the prices will eventually come down. The law of supply and demand dictates that such would be the case. Everybody has their own threshold and their own priorities, far be it from me to be some liberal Nazi telling other people how they should live their lives and shaming those who don’t go along with the party orthodoxy as the enviro-fascists and global warmists are wont to do. But here is my personal rule; I am calling it the 25 dollar rule. Quite simply, I am no longer willing to pay more than 25 bucks a pop for what I consider to be luxury items. That includes tickets to a ballgame, play, or a concert, green fees to play golf, a book, DVD, or CD collection, or takeout food. I will make exceptions as necessary, rules are made to be broken after all, but I will try to limit those exceptions to special occasions, a box set CD of the Grateful Dead or John Coltrane, and Ray’s Pizza. But to my way of thinking, if consumers just say no often enough and strongly enough, maybe things that are now out of whack will come back into line. Perhaps our government will stop spending like the proverbial drunken sailor on leave and will start to spend on priorities that will benefit ordinary middle and working class Americans rather than, and even at the expense of, the upper class. Maybe the price of certain food items, namely dairy products, cereal, and meat will come back down to earth, and possibly the price of going to a ballgame or playing a round of golf will not require us to bust the weekly budget. And if the law of supply and demand turns out not to work its magic, at least we will have gained some measure of fiscal discipline and a sense of control over our economic lives, not to mention that we might find some interesting alternatives to activities and products that we once thought we couldn’t do without.
Monday, July 14, 2008
You Had Us At Hello-Unsolicited Advice For Senator Obama
Barack Obama is a different kind of cat. That’s what has attracted him to countless potential voters and what ultimately will get him elected as our nation’s 44th president. Much has been said and written about the historic nature of this campaign, especially during the Democratic primaries, as Obama was vying to become the nation’s first black president, while Hilary Clinton was attempting to become our country’s first female president. On the other side of the coin, a bunch of Republicans were competing to become our nation’s 44th white male president. John McCain won that battle, and will be taking on Barack Obama in the general election, which of course you would have to be living in an Al-Qaeda cave in Tora Bora not to be aware of, and I’m guessing even those cave dwelling terrorists know what’s going on. I hear that Larry King Live is a big hit among the cave clan, they like him much better than Sean Hannity, who gets on everyone’s nerves around the globe, even in the caves of Tora Bora.
But let’s not get sidetracked here, this election isn’t about electing a black man, although that is historic and has positive implications for our national reputation. While it certainly doesn’t solve our racial issues in one fell swoop, it doesn’t hurt either. The real issue is that we have the chance to elect someone who is not a typical politician, which is to say someone who still has a soul and can go home at the end of the day and kiss his wife without leaving residue from the arse that is left on his lips from the days business. Now let’s get one thing straight, Obama is a politician, and while many naysayers are all too quick to point out that he isn’t as special as those of us who believe his rhetoric think he is, he is not a typical politician. Which gets to point number one on my advice to Obama list: Stop trying to impress the critics because they can’t be won over, their job depends on them being critics and naysayers.
The likes of David Brooks of the New York Times, who has been one of your major critics, or much of the mainstream cable news crowd love to point fingers and shout “I told you so!” every time you do something even remotely political, like expressing a nuanced opinion or doing something like raising money for your campaign so you can actually win an election. They are shocked, shocked to hear that politics is going on at this political establishment! News flash here, politics is still politics, you still have to play the game, but it’s how you play it that counts. So quit trying to please the critics who will always bash you, and get back to what allowed you to stand out in the first place.
Be a different type of politician, one who shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. If you want to talk about bitter white people clinging to guns and religion, then talk about it. If you want to talk about black people who need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own lives, talk about it. You're probably not going to get the bitter white guy vote anymore than you are going to lose the black vote, but the honesty and sincerity will endear you to many that have yet to be won over. Personally, I like the idea of faith-based initiatives even though I am not an overtly religious person. I also believe in the rights of gun owners, even though I don't own one myself. And while I remain on the fence on the death penalty, if anyone should get it, those who harm children would be first on my list. But the point here is not that we need to agree with you on all issues, I've always felt that anyone who agrees with someone else on every issue is either brainwashed or hen pecked, or both. Most voters are sophisticated enough to accept that they won't see eye to eye with their candidate on every single issue, they want someone whose judgement they can trust and whose core values are basically in alignment with their own. They also respect someone who will tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
While you’re at it, we don't care whether or not you wear a flag pin, what church you attend, or that your mom is white. Those of us who bought into your whole concept don’t care what race you are, and we don’t care much for symbolic patriotism either. Anyone who would go to the lengths and sacrifice necessary to run for public office has enough patriotism in their bloodstream for our tastes, and that includes members of both parties by the way. It is silly and immature to think that one party or the other has the market cornered on patriotism or that one loves their country more than the other. We also don’t care if the pastor who runs your church is a wing nut, which he is, but we are intelligent enough to realize that you are a Christian and that your spiritual beliefs are your own and separate from the political beliefs of every Tom, Dick, and Jeremiah that you might associate with.
As for trying to win over women, I will get to that later, but for now, don’t pander to Clinton supporters. If they want to be a bunch of bitter white women clinging to male bashing and whining about how sexism kept their woman down and that somehow that is your fault, let ‘em go. Sexism is all too prevalent in our society without a doubt, but it doesn't help the cause to play the gender card at this point, especially when the alternative is to put another Republican in office, one who will without question be less of a feminist than you will be. They can either grow up and get over it or not, my gut tells me that when they compare their legitimate options they’ll end up punching your dance card in November after all. Stay focused on the big prize, and do it the way you set out to, which is what attracted us to you in the first place.
Who is us? The younger and middle-aged generation, first-time voters and many veteran voters who are this close to saying to heck with the whole thing because we see such hypocrisy and are tired of the rich getting richer and pointless wars and the new boss being the same as the old boss, but who got excited when you came along and promised us something different. We believe, and if you let us down we will be disappointed and disillusioned, but we are willing to take the chance that you are the real deal, and so we need you to continue to be just that.
My second piece of unsolicited advice for you, the man who would lead the free world, is to keep focusing on your personal story because it is a good one. The way I see it, you are an anti-elitist, a regular guy who grew up in the middle class, who got into an Ivy League school on your own merits, and who worked your back side off on the streets of Chicago and the state legislature to rise to where you are today. Do the town hall meetings, do the interviews with your wife and kids, and show yourself in your political ads, because this is the kind of stuff that people eat up, myself included.
Look, the biggest problem, of many, with our political system is that both parties are made up of rich guys who are only going to look out for their own interests. There are no teachers and small business owners and rank and file office workers serving in the U.S. Congress, mostly it’s a bunch of wealthy and powerful elites. So human nature dictates that those people will look out for their own kind. You seem to be one of us, or at least you were not all that long ago, obviously serving in the U.S. Senate changes that, but that’s where your inexperience is a plus with many potential voters. We don’t want someone who has been jaded by years in Washington, who has forgotten where they came from, and who has forgotten what it’s like to be in the middle class. Remember in ’92 when George Bush didn’t even know what a grocery scanner was? Well I and many voters did, and it’s that type of elitism that people resent and mistrust. The pictures I saw last week of you at your daughter’s soccer match were exactly what we need to see more of. If you want the support of the middle and working class, this type of stuff will go a long ways, and from what I can tell it seems to be pretty genuine. The real elitist in this race is McCain, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, officer, and career politician. But forget McCain, this election isn’t about him, he’s just the Washington Generals to your Harlem Globetrotters, the foil to be defeated. Keep your eyes on the prize, and hold on against all the negativity and traditional right-wing attacks, don’t get distracted or lured into a game you probably can’t and certainly don’t want to win. Tell your story, and then like the shampoo bottle says, repeat if necessary.
My third and final piece of advice is borrowed from the winning Clinton strategy in ’92, it really is all about the economy. People care about Iraq, they care about foreign policy, they care about the environment, and government accountability, the budget deficit, all that stuff is good and well to deal with. Yet what keeps people interested and what motivates them are the basic pocketbook or kitchen sink issues that affect our lives more directly and more profoundly than all the other issues combined. Taxes, gas prices, food prices, utility rates, medical bills, job security, these are the things that affect us greatly and the issues that the middle and working class can unite behind. They affect us whether we are urban or rural, whether we live in red or blue or purple states, and whether we are Protestant, Catholic, or non church goers. I suppose there are voters who care more about issues like abortion, gun control, gay marriage and the like, but for most people who work for a living and pay their bills on time and try to make due as best they can with the scraps that are left over, we care about the economy, and how we perceive the government is working to help make our lives better. On the whole, we are not bitter, we certainly are not whiners, but we are anxious, and we seriously question whether our government gets it, and whether if they do get it they care enough to act. The candidate who does the best job of convincing us not only that he can feel our pain but that he has solutions to ease that pain is the one who will get our votes almost every time.
The federal budget is important, but it’s the family budget that hits home, and who is it that handles the family budget decisions in most cases? Now we’re back to really appealing to women, specifically moms who are responsible for making the leftovers from the paychecks stretch as far as possible to pay for food, gas, clothes, all of the kids activities, and maybe have enough left over to go see a good romantic comedy or go out for a decent meal at the end of the week. If you want to appeal to women, as you should, forget the pandering to the bitter Clinton supporters who can't let go of their hurt and anger, forget abortion and most other so-called women’s issues. Women are not some monolithic group that all think the same, anymore than blacks are or old people or any other demographic group that the so-called experts and pollsters love to break down for us on cable news and the Sunday morning round tables. But women do care about the family finances, more so than men who are generally more juvenile and unrealistic when it comes to money. Most guys have unrealistic expectations of their own earning potential and their idea of budgeting is to spend it as fast as you can make it and if you run out hope that one of your buddies can float you until the next payday. Women deal in the real world, and if you want their vote, my advice is to stay focused on the economic issues that matter.
A certain amount of political pandering, moving to the center, and sucking up to big corporate donors is allowed, because after all you do have an election to win before you can bring about any kind of change. But don’t lose sight of what it is that got you the nomination in the first place. Lately it seems as if you have become like a football coach trying to protect a two touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, shying away from the attack and going into the prevent defense. Like the saying goes, the only thing a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Stay on the attack so to speak, not against your opponent per se, but against politics as usual. Give us more of the personal story to show us and those who might not be on board yet that you are one of us at heart. Give us hope that someone is manning the economic ship, often times that is enough for consumer confidence and market forces to do the rest. It wasn't so much FDR’s New Deal policies that lifted the nation out of The Depression as it was the notion of someone in charge caring and understanding what ordinary people were going through, and pledging to try to tackle the problems they were facing.
Forget the critics and naysayers, you simply don’t need to please everyone. As President Bush is living proof of, you don’t need to win in a landslide in order to become president, you just need to win more electoral votes than the other guy. Dance with those of us that brought you, and stay true to form and you’ll pick up enough independents and cross-over Republican votes to get the job. You had us at hello, and while most guys don’t have enough sense to know when to shut the heck up and get out of their own way, we think you can seal the deal by using some good old-fashioned common sense and sound judgement. You are a different kind of cat, smarter than the average bear, and if you do it the right way, your way, you’ll be the one taking the oath of office come this January. Of course, then the real fun starts, but you've got to get there first, and I for one think that our nation deserves a president that we can admire, respect and be proud of. We haven't had one in my lifetime, which goes back to 1970, and it would sure be something to see and feel the way my parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy and Roosevelt. That's the hope and the dream, and the purpose of writing this open letter to the man who gives us hope for a better nation, one that moves into the future in a progressive manner, while utilizing the best of our great history.
But let’s not get sidetracked here, this election isn’t about electing a black man, although that is historic and has positive implications for our national reputation. While it certainly doesn’t solve our racial issues in one fell swoop, it doesn’t hurt either. The real issue is that we have the chance to elect someone who is not a typical politician, which is to say someone who still has a soul and can go home at the end of the day and kiss his wife without leaving residue from the arse that is left on his lips from the days business. Now let’s get one thing straight, Obama is a politician, and while many naysayers are all too quick to point out that he isn’t as special as those of us who believe his rhetoric think he is, he is not a typical politician. Which gets to point number one on my advice to Obama list: Stop trying to impress the critics because they can’t be won over, their job depends on them being critics and naysayers.
The likes of David Brooks of the New York Times, who has been one of your major critics, or much of the mainstream cable news crowd love to point fingers and shout “I told you so!” every time you do something even remotely political, like expressing a nuanced opinion or doing something like raising money for your campaign so you can actually win an election. They are shocked, shocked to hear that politics is going on at this political establishment! News flash here, politics is still politics, you still have to play the game, but it’s how you play it that counts. So quit trying to please the critics who will always bash you, and get back to what allowed you to stand out in the first place.
Be a different type of politician, one who shoots from the hip and tells it like it is. If you want to talk about bitter white people clinging to guns and religion, then talk about it. If you want to talk about black people who need to step up to the plate and take responsibility for their own lives, talk about it. You're probably not going to get the bitter white guy vote anymore than you are going to lose the black vote, but the honesty and sincerity will endear you to many that have yet to be won over. Personally, I like the idea of faith-based initiatives even though I am not an overtly religious person. I also believe in the rights of gun owners, even though I don't own one myself. And while I remain on the fence on the death penalty, if anyone should get it, those who harm children would be first on my list. But the point here is not that we need to agree with you on all issues, I've always felt that anyone who agrees with someone else on every issue is either brainwashed or hen pecked, or both. Most voters are sophisticated enough to accept that they won't see eye to eye with their candidate on every single issue, they want someone whose judgement they can trust and whose core values are basically in alignment with their own. They also respect someone who will tell people what they need to hear, not just what they want to hear.
While you’re at it, we don't care whether or not you wear a flag pin, what church you attend, or that your mom is white. Those of us who bought into your whole concept don’t care what race you are, and we don’t care much for symbolic patriotism either. Anyone who would go to the lengths and sacrifice necessary to run for public office has enough patriotism in their bloodstream for our tastes, and that includes members of both parties by the way. It is silly and immature to think that one party or the other has the market cornered on patriotism or that one loves their country more than the other. We also don’t care if the pastor who runs your church is a wing nut, which he is, but we are intelligent enough to realize that you are a Christian and that your spiritual beliefs are your own and separate from the political beliefs of every Tom, Dick, and Jeremiah that you might associate with.
As for trying to win over women, I will get to that later, but for now, don’t pander to Clinton supporters. If they want to be a bunch of bitter white women clinging to male bashing and whining about how sexism kept their woman down and that somehow that is your fault, let ‘em go. Sexism is all too prevalent in our society without a doubt, but it doesn't help the cause to play the gender card at this point, especially when the alternative is to put another Republican in office, one who will without question be less of a feminist than you will be. They can either grow up and get over it or not, my gut tells me that when they compare their legitimate options they’ll end up punching your dance card in November after all. Stay focused on the big prize, and do it the way you set out to, which is what attracted us to you in the first place.
Who is us? The younger and middle-aged generation, first-time voters and many veteran voters who are this close to saying to heck with the whole thing because we see such hypocrisy and are tired of the rich getting richer and pointless wars and the new boss being the same as the old boss, but who got excited when you came along and promised us something different. We believe, and if you let us down we will be disappointed and disillusioned, but we are willing to take the chance that you are the real deal, and so we need you to continue to be just that.
My second piece of unsolicited advice for you, the man who would lead the free world, is to keep focusing on your personal story because it is a good one. The way I see it, you are an anti-elitist, a regular guy who grew up in the middle class, who got into an Ivy League school on your own merits, and who worked your back side off on the streets of Chicago and the state legislature to rise to where you are today. Do the town hall meetings, do the interviews with your wife and kids, and show yourself in your political ads, because this is the kind of stuff that people eat up, myself included.
Look, the biggest problem, of many, with our political system is that both parties are made up of rich guys who are only going to look out for their own interests. There are no teachers and small business owners and rank and file office workers serving in the U.S. Congress, mostly it’s a bunch of wealthy and powerful elites. So human nature dictates that those people will look out for their own kind. You seem to be one of us, or at least you were not all that long ago, obviously serving in the U.S. Senate changes that, but that’s where your inexperience is a plus with many potential voters. We don’t want someone who has been jaded by years in Washington, who has forgotten where they came from, and who has forgotten what it’s like to be in the middle class. Remember in ’92 when George Bush didn’t even know what a grocery scanner was? Well I and many voters did, and it’s that type of elitism that people resent and mistrust. The pictures I saw last week of you at your daughter’s soccer match were exactly what we need to see more of. If you want the support of the middle and working class, this type of stuff will go a long ways, and from what I can tell it seems to be pretty genuine. The real elitist in this race is McCain, U.S. Naval Academy graduate, officer, and career politician. But forget McCain, this election isn’t about him, he’s just the Washington Generals to your Harlem Globetrotters, the foil to be defeated. Keep your eyes on the prize, and hold on against all the negativity and traditional right-wing attacks, don’t get distracted or lured into a game you probably can’t and certainly don’t want to win. Tell your story, and then like the shampoo bottle says, repeat if necessary.
My third and final piece of advice is borrowed from the winning Clinton strategy in ’92, it really is all about the economy. People care about Iraq, they care about foreign policy, they care about the environment, and government accountability, the budget deficit, all that stuff is good and well to deal with. Yet what keeps people interested and what motivates them are the basic pocketbook or kitchen sink issues that affect our lives more directly and more profoundly than all the other issues combined. Taxes, gas prices, food prices, utility rates, medical bills, job security, these are the things that affect us greatly and the issues that the middle and working class can unite behind. They affect us whether we are urban or rural, whether we live in red or blue or purple states, and whether we are Protestant, Catholic, or non church goers. I suppose there are voters who care more about issues like abortion, gun control, gay marriage and the like, but for most people who work for a living and pay their bills on time and try to make due as best they can with the scraps that are left over, we care about the economy, and how we perceive the government is working to help make our lives better. On the whole, we are not bitter, we certainly are not whiners, but we are anxious, and we seriously question whether our government gets it, and whether if they do get it they care enough to act. The candidate who does the best job of convincing us not only that he can feel our pain but that he has solutions to ease that pain is the one who will get our votes almost every time.
The federal budget is important, but it’s the family budget that hits home, and who is it that handles the family budget decisions in most cases? Now we’re back to really appealing to women, specifically moms who are responsible for making the leftovers from the paychecks stretch as far as possible to pay for food, gas, clothes, all of the kids activities, and maybe have enough left over to go see a good romantic comedy or go out for a decent meal at the end of the week. If you want to appeal to women, as you should, forget the pandering to the bitter Clinton supporters who can't let go of their hurt and anger, forget abortion and most other so-called women’s issues. Women are not some monolithic group that all think the same, anymore than blacks are or old people or any other demographic group that the so-called experts and pollsters love to break down for us on cable news and the Sunday morning round tables. But women do care about the family finances, more so than men who are generally more juvenile and unrealistic when it comes to money. Most guys have unrealistic expectations of their own earning potential and their idea of budgeting is to spend it as fast as you can make it and if you run out hope that one of your buddies can float you until the next payday. Women deal in the real world, and if you want their vote, my advice is to stay focused on the economic issues that matter.
A certain amount of political pandering, moving to the center, and sucking up to big corporate donors is allowed, because after all you do have an election to win before you can bring about any kind of change. But don’t lose sight of what it is that got you the nomination in the first place. Lately it seems as if you have become like a football coach trying to protect a two touchdown lead in the fourth quarter, shying away from the attack and going into the prevent defense. Like the saying goes, the only thing a prevent defense does is prevent you from winning. Stay on the attack so to speak, not against your opponent per se, but against politics as usual. Give us more of the personal story to show us and those who might not be on board yet that you are one of us at heart. Give us hope that someone is manning the economic ship, often times that is enough for consumer confidence and market forces to do the rest. It wasn't so much FDR’s New Deal policies that lifted the nation out of The Depression as it was the notion of someone in charge caring and understanding what ordinary people were going through, and pledging to try to tackle the problems they were facing.
Forget the critics and naysayers, you simply don’t need to please everyone. As President Bush is living proof of, you don’t need to win in a landslide in order to become president, you just need to win more electoral votes than the other guy. Dance with those of us that brought you, and stay true to form and you’ll pick up enough independents and cross-over Republican votes to get the job. You had us at hello, and while most guys don’t have enough sense to know when to shut the heck up and get out of their own way, we think you can seal the deal by using some good old-fashioned common sense and sound judgement. You are a different kind of cat, smarter than the average bear, and if you do it the right way, your way, you’ll be the one taking the oath of office come this January. Of course, then the real fun starts, but you've got to get there first, and I for one think that our nation deserves a president that we can admire, respect and be proud of. We haven't had one in my lifetime, which goes back to 1970, and it would sure be something to see and feel the way my parents and grandparents felt about Kennedy and Roosevelt. That's the hope and the dream, and the purpose of writing this open letter to the man who gives us hope for a better nation, one that moves into the future in a progressive manner, while utilizing the best of our great history.
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