Every day I ride past the White House on the way to my office and have been watching the construction of the Inaugural reviewing stand on the pedestrian plaza formerly known as Pennsylvania Avenue before it was shut to traffic (who says security mania is all bad?). Soon Obama will be president. What then?
We've been hearing a lot about hope in the past year. Okay. So here's what I find myself hoping for as we all await the end of the grim Bush era at long last. These are items that are both exciting and yet which it is just possible at this moment to imagine maybe being enacted or at least pushed by the new president. In no particular order:
- National health insurance. Employer-based health insurance makes no
sense. The insurance companies are little more
than parasitical leeches, sucking money out of the health care pipeline
while providing no actual social benefit, and in fact doing active harm by
spending many of the dollars they suck our of the health care system on
figuring out how to avoid paying for people's health care (when they're not using it to lobby against reform). They are enemies of the public good. Obama should
use the crisis of the car companies which are hurt by our stupid system (though they and other US companies seem too dumb or ideologically blinded to see it)to help explain why the United States
needs to do this. It's time to restore some humanity and morality to our healthcare system -- this may be the top thing that can be done in America today to eliminate unnecessary human suffering.
- Build a rail infrastructure. As Congress contemplates a stimulus package of up to a trillion dollars, a top priority must be the construction of a world-class public train network. I say public because there's scarcely a passenger rail system in the world that runs a profit - it should be regarded as a public utility like the interstate highway system, not like a company. When is the last time interstate 95 made a profit, or that any conservatives demanded that it do so? With global climate change, peak oil, continued concentration of population - not to mention horrible traffic congestion just about everywhere - it should be a no-brainer. Trains are so much more energy efficient than cars; this is a vital investment in our future. Also more efficient than jets; there is no reason anyone should be taking flights of less than 300 miles. If Congress wants to add provisions to encourage the creation of a domestic rail industry, that would be all the better (perhaps GM could do that and actually contribute something beneficial to the world for a change). With all the billions that are going to be thrown around as part of the stimulus plan, now is the time to make a major investment that will pay dividends for many years.
- Undo the Bush attack on civil liberties. In 1998, President Clinton was impeached for lying under oath about sex was not a "high crime or misdemeanor," undermining the rule of law. It is true, despite our written Constitution, that when push comes to shove the law is nothing more than practice and social agreement. Perhaps conservatives recognized that reality and just took it *really* seriously, despite fact that Clinton's lie didn't seem to be an especially pertinent violation. (The primary flaw in this logic, which I never saw spelled out in all the commentary at the time, is that *any* violation of the law violates the "rule of law," yet the Constitution specifies impeachment only for "high crimes and misdemeanors"). Anyway, all that talk about rule of law by conservatives now stands revealed as just so much cynical political posturing, because these same conservatives (with a few exceptions such as Bob Barr) have spent the past couple of years defending far, far more serious violations of the law -- violations with the potential to undermine our constitutional structure itself. Obama needs to rapidly and decisively overturn and repudiate these policies. If he does, Bush's crimes become an aberration. If he does not, they become the new status quo. More broadly, Obama needs to curb the burgeoning power of the national security state, which is growing at a genuinely frightening pace.
- Repair our relationship with the Arab & Muslim world. Our nation's foreign policy has been a disaster with respect to the Arab and Muslim world, harming the (true, non-short term) national interest, earning the hatred of a big slice of the world's population, bringing down upon our heads acts of terrorism (and the deep security costs and attendant drains and inefficiencies that have followed), and threatening to embroil us in a quasi-religious hot/cold war. What's needed is to stop U.S. support for undemocratic regimes, end the stupid Iraq war, end the seemingly failing and possibly hopeless Afghan war, and rebalance our Israel policy to work for an end to the oppression of the Palestinians.
- Decisive moves to curb global warming. Any other kind of moves will be a disappointment. Just two facts: Seven of the nine warmest years on record have been since 2000. And half the polar ice cap has melted since 2000. Be very afraid, we're not in Kansas anymore, we're entering new territory for the human race. (Unless you're conservative, then no need to worry -- only olive-skinned shoe bombers are a threat to our "national security," right?)
If these things are done, Obama will go down as a great president, who really rose to the challenge presented by the crises of our time, and moved our country forward and positioned it well for the future. Even if he tries to accomplish these goals but cannot force all of them through, I will consider him great. Of course, I'm alarmed by recent disturbing signs such as his suggestion that we might need to cut Social Security and Medicare. NO no no! We're not going to cut our nation's pathetic excuse for a social safety net, at a time when ordinary people are hurting and billions are being tossed to numerous, to put it mildly, less deserving parties? Hopefully there's some explanation for these statements other than that this guy is going to be the biggest disappointment since Piltdown Man.
There are of course many other things that need to be done as part of a full liberal program for restoring our country and moving it forward, but I don't expect Obama to attempt these (let alone for Congress to pass them) unless he proves to be an exceptionally formidable, forceful and strong progressive leader. For example:
- Create a decent national retirement system to go along with our national health care system. It is barbaric for 70-year-olds to be working at McDonald's in a country as rich as ours.
- Restore the progressivity of our tax structure to the reasonable levels it had before the conservative/Reagan revolution. From 1951-1963 -- hardly an economically stagnant time in U.S. history -- the top marginal tax rate was 91%. Until 1980 it was 70%. Since 1987 it's been in the 30s (since 2003, 35%). Good for the rich, but nobody else.
- Curb the political power of corporations, which is at historically high levels and is distorting our political system and everything controlled by that political system.
- Shrink the military and security sector, which has been growing and gaining power rapidly. That is dangerous in a democracy -- and a huge waste of money since unlike, say, a bridge, money spent on the military does not circle back and contribute to our economy and our quality of life for years to come. The military should be cut, at a minimum, in half, and the money redirected to domestic projects that will actually help build a better nation.
We'll see how he does. Meanwhile, I'll be watching the inauguration with no more than cautious optimism.
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