Political winds of change after the Bush Administration

September 2007

WINDS OF CHANGE?
Now We Look
Forward…To What?
By Zain Deane

It’s been a long time. Almost seven years now, since the Bush administration took the reins and yanked sharply in another direction. A merciless ideological and political siege in which Capitol Hill dug its trenches and resisted all attempts from inside the nation or out to usher in a brand of governance that applied logic and reason and justification to its decision-making process.

But it’s almost over, and now we look forward to … well, I’m not quite sure what. Because, even as we collectively yearn for a change, I’m not sure we’re going to get what we want. It seems apparent that this will be the most important election to date of this fledgling millennium, and so it is all the more ominous that neither party has found a leader behind whom they can throw their weight.

It is refreshing to see that it’s not just the Democrats who are bleating about the president’s incompetence. The Republicans are scattering in so many directions that they are united only in their desire to get as far away from Bush as possible. Every new member of the GOP either has something ornery to say about his former champion, or is in the process of tendering his resignation. And I’m glad to see it. The winds of change are more like gale-force blasts. But, just when it was beginning to look like we had learned our lessons and were getting ready to turn the political page, we learn that maybe the grass isn’t all that greener on the other side after all.

When presidential candidate Barack Obama—by all accounts the fresh, cool voice and the darling of the Democratic party—publicly proclaimed that, if elected, he might order unilateral military strikes against terrorists hiding in Pakistan, I almost thought it was a joke. It had to be; this was exactly the kind of statement that has us groaning with disappointment and despair every time our current president opens his mouth. And now, the liberal, young, dynamic Barack Obama is following his lead?
The last time I checked, Iraq still served as a poignant and painful lesson that we can’t just storm into another nation and do what we like. The consequences are disastrous to us, to our allies, and to the global community. To hear a man who I believed was a champion of a new paradigm advocate this course of policy was not only alarming, but profoundly disappointing. After all the mistakes, and after all the failures, the idea that our next leader is so ready to sanction a unilateral military campaign into another sovereign nation is a tragedy and a travesty. I really thought we were ready to start favoring diplomatic endeavors over military maneuvers.

My disappointment with Obama’s declaration brings up an interesting dilemma: Setting party lines aside, who is the best candidate to run for president? I’m not sure we’ve ever seen a more tenuous class of successors to the throne. Obama is young and unproven; Clinton has the resume and the name, but has never been able to win over the American people. Giuliani, incredibly, is still managing to piss off the people of New York. McCain often marches to his own beat, even when his own party is jiggling to a different tune.

It’s a muddled field, and for the first time in a long time, it’s not at all clear who will emerge. Whoever takes the reins from Bush walks into a stifling and precarious position with little room to maneuver and pitfalls at every step. How do we get out of Iraq? How do we pass and enforce an immigration bill that makes sense? How do we become a greener nation? How do we address a national real estate problem?

So far, I’m not sold on anyone, on either side of the fence. With Bush’s own party leaping off his bandwagon by the dozens, we’re sure to hear a sweeter song from the Republican candidates who vie for our votes in 2008. (I almost wish Bush were up for reelection so that I could see him lose in a landslide … only I thought that would happen in 2004.) The Democrats haven’t been this optimistic, this boisterous, and this pleased with themselves since the pre-Lewinsky Clinton years.

And when the time comes, Republicans and Democrats alike will cry for a new way forward, and both parties will talk about ending the war, getting our people home, stimulating the economy, improving our schools, lowering taxes, eliminating our national debt, reducing our dependency on oil … you know the drill, and they do this kind of thing much better than I can. Many experts have already celebrated the “return to diplomacy” of post-Bush America.

Up until a few months ago, I was celebrating too. It had been a long time since I raised my head, sniffed the political climate, and dared to hope. Now, I’m not sure the winds are changing; maybe they’re just picking up steam.