We’re Here!

This is the time when the nation, and individual states, make the critical and historic decisions about their future economic well-being.

Finally, it is not a decision that is decades, years or months to come. The decision will be made now.

Minnesota is a harbinger of what might happen in Washington, DC. Although I have pointed out that there are folks in both parties who know what needs to be done, the Democratic Party leadership has defensively buried its collective head in the Potomac River sand, and we are not able to hear from Democrats who want to be a part of the transformation of American economic policy. Republicans in the U.S. Congress, in governorships and in state legislatures, however, have no such ambivalences about reversing three-quarters of a century of increased taxes, increased government spending, expansion of government at all levels, and the mindless increase of entitlements in American society.

Rumors that these Republicans will now “cave” into desperate liberal warnings and rhetoric about imminent disaster if these programs are not renewed, the debt ceiling is not raised, if taxes for the rich are not increased, and if government is not allowed to further control the lives of Americans, seem mostly to originate in the Old Media that have become “obedient pets” of the the old order. Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives John Boehner has made it clear there will be no new taxes, no new spending and no bigger government. Even if he did not, the bulk of the GOP members of the U.S. house would balk at any agreement that did not honor these principles. The governors of New Jersey, Virginia, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, Florida, Texas and New York are showing remarkable leadership and singlehandedly have revived the original federal relationship as intended by the Founding Fathers who wrote the U.S. constitution.

The “deal,” however is not done. President Obama has thrown in his lot with the historical past. The U.S. senate majority seems to have no interest in being part of an historical transformation of U.S. politics. Individual governors and state legislatures are resisting change. Interest groups which benefit from the accumulated “favored” treatment of the past seventy-five years are understandably unwilling to be part of inevitable historical change.

Make no mistake about it, it is going to take one more national election to finish the job. I want to stress that the transformation of American politics need not be an ideological one. What is driving this transformation is economic necessity which equally affects all Americans, regardless of party or ideology. (I trust there are other Democratic politicians besides Governor Cuomo who understand that some boldness, courage and independence now will propel them to the leadership of a revived Democratic Party after the Obama-Pelosi-Reid era is over.)

It will take another national election to finish the job, but what happens now will be a key to the character of the change that will happen. We’re here!