Inauguration Reflections

The inauguration of Barack Obama was immensely emotional and a source of pride to many including yours truly. It was hard not to be swept away by both my coworkers and citizens of Cambridge watching his swearing in and address. It's more than a truism to me that electing an African American President means that we have come a long way.

I remember the segregated South that I moved to in 1959. There were signs posted by the KKK welcoming travellers to North Carolina. At my Greensboro school, a schoolyard game was called "nigger pile" where all the boys would chase down some unlucky victim and all pile on him. Ironically, I remember in 1964 when the schools were to be integrated one of the toughest kids on the schoolyard told us that we couldn't call our game "nigger pile" any more. He didn't want "no trouble". A bit crude but "blessed are the peacemakers". We still played our same old game but without a name. With equal opportunity, white and black boys unlucky enough to be caught suffered through this schoolyard hazing.

Today, Greensboro, North Carolina, the site of the first Sit Ins and KKK shootings, has a brand new Renaissance Park in the center of its downtown. It's peaceful and full of citizens of all colors in what has become a destination location in the city. No, it's not utopia, but we really have come a long way.

The President's address was powerful. He didn't hide the fact that we are entering very dangerous times and this certainly wasn't a Reaganesque "morning in America" moment. Yet, like Reagan, his words were uplifting. I along with those around me for that moment felt assured that he was going to lead us through these tough times.

As he pointed out, we certainly do need to once again find strength and enter a new era of personal responsibility. For it is also "we the people" through our excesses who share blame for the problems we face.

Good feelings aside, parts of his address concern this old lover of the America of constitutionally limited government. Despite his assertion to the contrary, the debate about whether government is small or large enough is hardly over. This is a question as old as the Republic and a core concept of our Constitution. While I appreciated the President's insistence that poor performing programs would be cut, he doesn't seem to understand that ever growing government entitlements undermine the other pillar of his program and vision. The greatest enemy of an era of new personal responsibility IS ever expanding government. This was the harshest lesson from my own urban activist days in Philadelphia. There, every program under the sun was available but there it was also increasingly more difficult to organize people to fend for themselves. The natural energy of the free citizen willing to take personal responsibility for their problems had been sapped by the very programs meant to empower them.

This President is brilliant so it's hardly an over site. Many think that the time of limited government is past. After eight years of the "conservative" Bush administration expanding the federal government beyond even LBJ's wildest dreams, these folks may have a point. Also, electorally, tax consumers (reinforced by the now likely amnesty for illegal aliens) may soon OUT VOTE tax producers. What do folks who don't pay taxes care about the future of limited government? More taxes mean more programs for them. There is a flaw in this picture, however. Only the most brute force of a rapacious tax revenue hungry majority could sustain this scenario for a while. Ultimately it would collapse like the Soviet Union because it would be the best example of the worst kind of "taxation without representation".

So here I am conflicted, proud of America's great accomplishment, and yet concerned about the future of its greatest accomplishment, our Constitution and the concept of limited government supported by sturdy self reliant citizens.

Where Left And Right Unite

Nationally, and locally, there are de facto, new emerging voter coalitions. The Obama victory was not a victory of ideology, but a victory of both disgust with the Bush administration, and the charismatic appeal of Obama's personality. Our political landscape is very much in flux, and the uncomfortable coalitions within the Republican and Democrat parties are stretched to the breaking point. The most publicized and uncomfortable coalition crack is within the Republican party. On one side are the paleo, populist or traditional conservatives. On the other, the neo-conservatives and the Wall street conservatives. It's Pat Buchanan and Sarah Palin vs. "W" and his fellow travellers. To read the American Conservative magazine these days, is to read articles that find common cause with the left on a number of issues from the war in Iraq to globalization. Even though each each side travels a very different route of logic to get to their mutual destinations, they still arrive at the same operative point of view. So contrary to the neo-con weltanschauung is the traditional conservative perspective, that National Review (which has become the neo-con mouth piece), publishes articles about the "unpatriotic" traditional conservatives. They are branded as isolationist and protectionist. Et Tu, Toby?

It's with the Naderite, populist, and green wing of the Democrat party, where traditional conservatives find common ground. Setting aside abortion, there is much agreement about Iraq, stopping out-sourcing, rejuvenating manufacturing and controlling immigration to protect American workers and the environment. Lou Dobbs may best speak for this possible emerging populist coalition. And, typically, he has been branded isolationist, protectionist and even racist, by the standard brand types of the Democrat and Republican parties.

This development, has its greatest potential at the local level. I attend gatherings of both the Caroline Citizens for Responsible Growth and the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, and evidence suggests that the citizens in attendance are a good mix of principled liberals and traditional conservatives. This is also true of our Ridgely Planning Commission, as well as our town's successful voting coalition. Missing above are the community wrecking, Club For Growth types, whether they call themselves Democrats or Republicans.

Some of you must think that I'm sick, indeed, to be still thinking about politics after the Obamananza. Some of you may also think that November 4th settled everything. The election settled zero ideologically, and only guarantees that Obama will have an unusually free hand for at least the next two years until midterms. Such power on both ends of Pennsylvania Ave., will inevitably lead to hubris and overreach, and the pendulum swing of 2010 won't be a Democrat one. What has happened this year shows that because of the very strange times, all options are open. This is a fact to be both feared and welcomed. This could be a time of revolution or reformation. I'll hedge my bets with reformation. There are signs that we are on a road back to a time where community will once again matter, and America will return to being (in the words of Pat Buchanan) a "nation and not an empire". Our very precarious economic situation, will become the forge of a new politics. Whatever it may be called, a traditional conservative, green, and populist coalition, from the White House to the Ridgely House, would be in America's best interest.

All Options Possible With New Political Pardigm

A political paradigm is established when an election of such profound importance occurs that the political landscape is changed for a generation. Young people, in particular, attach themselves loyally to the ideology and party of the victor. 1932 was such a year for the Democrats and liberals with the election of Franklin Roosevelt. 1980 was such a year for Republicans and conservatives with the election of Ronald Reagan. What does 2008 and the election of Barack Obama mean?

First, it's not a triumph of liberalism. Senator Schumer ought to be reigned in by his colleagues before he tries to ban Rush Limbaugh and all conservative talk radio. This is one of a number of chest beating moves that will sink Obama. Obama won because of a brilliant campaign, candidate charisma that exceeds even Reagan, and the abysmal mess George Bush and the neo-cons have bequeathed America. Against such a combination, McCain, and particularly Palin, rallied all the troops that were possible on the conservative side.

Some of my friends and relatives voted for Obama, and they are not leftist ideologues. They were MAD AS HELL about "W". I didn't even vote for McCain in the Republican primary because of his associations with "W" and the neo-cons. Only good 'ole Sarah saved him for me by the general election.

The factors that will determine whether or not Obama has established a paradigm moment, are the extreme uncertainty clouding our future, and WHO Obama himself really is. All I can say about the uncertainty part is that, it looks as if we are about to live out the ancient Chinese curse, "may you live in interesting times". On the other hand, who Obama is, will be the key to any shift among the political tectonic plates.

In my blog, I have certainly have raised questions about Obama's buddies from Chicago, and what this might mean about his character. I know very well that it's hard to be a saint in the city. I too, knew some very unsavory charactors in Philly, BUT they weren't my political mentors. I have also evolved ideologically, and categorically rejected the leftist world view that characterized my youth. Obama only rejected Messrs. Wright, Ayers, and Farrakahn when he ran for President.

Obama might just be an opportunist and not a committed leftist. Believe it or not, I hope for this outcome. He just did what he had to do to survive in the city. If, however, he is a committed leftist, God help us. He has the ability, due to his charisma, to use the bully pulpit, to at least temporarily enact a very leftist agenda. While I'm sure time and reality would overturn such a coup, living through the process may not be very pleasant.

What's the paradigm? Who knows. It's too early to tell if a new paradigm will come into being. In the meantime, I kind of like the one here in Ridgley where traditional conservatives and liberals, unite against the likes of the Club For Growth, the rapacious developers, and their bureaucratic allies, to keep our good 'ole Ridgely livable. If such a united entity were only possible nationally, I'd be the happiest blogger in the blogosphere.