Winds of Change

Question

Why does the Republican party leadership keep doing all the same things that gave them the lowest regard in public opinion in decades -which keeps getting lower? Can't they see their tactics are backfiring on them? Why do they keep giving the Obama administration free ammo? Do they really not see that they are painting themselves into a corner, alienating all but the most radical among their base? I used to consider myself an independent, and I find many of the traditional Republican values appealing: individual freedom, personal responsibility, self-reliance, pro-life. These have been supplanted with anti-science, anti-environment, anti-oil independence, anti-fiscal responsibility -if that was a result of principles, at least it could be defended. But it just so happens that all those things are nothing but the side effects of protecting corporate and christian-right interests (the latter only when it doesn't conflict with the former).

I, like many millions of others, consider myself a centrist -but I look more and more like a leftist because the actions of the Republican leadership have been dragging the party more and more to the right. If Obama were to run in almost any other developed country, he would be considered to be center or center-right, but here some call him a socialist. The world -even the US, is evolving politically, and while the tide can be contained for a while, it cannot be stopped. Older generations of loyalists are being replaced with younger generations of fact-checkers. Big Business campaign financing cannot compete with popular funding. Eventually the GOP leadership will have to adapt to the reality of a more informed and more involved voter, or be swept away. That much seems clear.

Paradigm

What is so incredible about the Obama campaign and election? His policies are not revolutionary. He has not uncovered new issues. He does not have a miracle strategy. What he has is the hope for change. But what kind of radical change is that? To manage the environment and avoid a global catastrophe. Stop a useless war that is filling the pockets of corporations and hurting everyone else. Go after terrorists at the source. Use the considerable influence of the US to seek peace in the Middle East. Seek consensus rather than imposing policies -both internationally and domestically. Modernize the economy and manage it responsibly. Education and health care. All things that should have been top priority for every administration regardless of party. But after the Bush dark ages, an administration that is actually pursuing all these common sense policies seems like some kind of heaven-sent miracle.

The other aspect of this paradigm change, as I see it, is the fact that the Obama team has managed to be politically successful without compromising their principles or selling their souls to interest groups. They just get it. That, I think, is the most hopeful thing of all.