Most of the time, honestly, my preference is to not get into politics here on R&K. That’s what Facebook is for. And my original intent, a couple days ago, was to write this post about the everyday stuff that’s been happening around here – new clients, weekend trips, maybe a bit about church politics, that sort of thing. Maybe a fanboy ramble about the recent release, after eight long years, of Black Mesa, the fan-built Half Life remake. (Which is absolutely amazing, by the way, so go download it.)
And then the Republican presidential candidate has a “McCain Suspending Campaign To Posture On Economics” moment, after a video surfaces of him deriding a full half of the U.S. population as unrepentant Democratic losers determined to bleed the Republican winners dry.
Wow. Just wow.
The line between private enterprise and promoting the general welfare (lest we forget, an activity important enough to warrant inclusion in the opening line of the U.S. Constitution) has always been a contentious one in this country, closely running in parallel to the other two great American political divides: urban vs. rural interests, and local vs. federal authority. The conservative vs. liberal arguments we hear today are just the latest – and for the most part, heavily watered down – versions of those debates.
So of course this election is the “most important of our times”, an “ideological war”, whatever you want to call it. They all are. They always have been. That’s America.
Norman Mailer wrote a very eloquent chapter in The Spooky Art about how morality advances in society. His point was primarily about writing and literature, but it applies to politics as well. Basically, we divide into competing but reasonably respectful camps, and each side has its time in the sun, forcing the other to retool and reconsider and come back with better and more thoughtful arguments. The ball gets knocked back and forth, forever.
Ultimately, neither side gets to win until the end of time. What happens is that as a society, we continually get better at discerning our moral compass. We become more aware. We learn to ask better questions. We all move forward.
And that’s the way it should be. The problems start happening when one side decides that the other side doesn’t have the right to participate, and so declares itself as God-given truth. They declare a monopoly, removing competition rather than engaging it. And then we go off the rails.
What flabbergasts me about the Romney video – which is worth watching, in case you haven’t, but reading the transcript will give you plenty of the story – isn’t that he was coldly candid about things like holding up Chinese sweatshop labor as a model for the future, or even that he point-blank dismissed Obama supporters wholesale as being too lazy and/or stupid to know better. He was pitching to financial supporters at a $50,000-a-plate dinner. His comments are troubling, to be sure, but hardly surprising.
What bothers me – and this only really comes out when you watch the whole video and take his comments with context, as his campaign is now arguing that we should – is his view towards American power and power in general. That’s SERIOUSLY worrying, if you care at all about individual liberties, promoting the general welfare, domestic and global stability, and maintaining a thriving and growing middle class.
In the video, he keeps coming back to an overarching theme: that as President, every decision he makes will first and foremost be aimed at making America powerful. Not necessarily a strong America – that’s not what he’s saying – but powerful. They’re not the same thing.
What he describes in the video is a governing philosophy derived straight from the basic business strategies from his time at Bain Capital. Focus on the powerful, build them up, and then shed yourself of the excess. He doesn’t talk about building communities, extending the economic franchise, or moving the American project forward – just focusing purely on the profit centers and jettisoning everything else. And, as Romney himself says in the same speech, that “everything else” is 47% of the nation, the people who won’t vote for him. Because they’re inherently lazy and a drag on our trade relationship with China.
Romney’s governing philosophy, roughly, is that America should amputate its left arm because it happens to be right-handed. And because China’s left arms come much more cheaply.
Alas, you may believe the same. A depressing number of people do. But before you pull that lever in November, you may want to consider where exactly you personally are on Romney’s priority list.
I’m not saying that Obama is without his flaws. No politician is, including Romney. And in the end, most every politician will do and say what it takes to win. And building and maintaining a power base is important, both for individuals and as a nation. Obama, however, seems to take a bit more thought and caution when it comes to deciding how to wield that knife, fully aware that the blade is very sharp and is capable of a lot of damage. He may be reluctant to use it – which can be easily mistaken for timidity – but when he does, it’s typically with care and focus.
The Romney in that video just wants the knife. Because half of the nation is dead weight, and he knows better than you who needs to go. And he won’t wield it reluctantly.
Are you really sure about your indispensability in the Mitt Romney vision of a powerful America?