Over the last two centuries, members of congress from across the political spectrum have forged compromises that elevated our civil debate, moved our country forward, and gave the world a model for democracy. Sure, at times we did not live up to our highest ideals, but never in my lifetime have I seen such a sustained effort to undermine the function of our government. Government doesn't possess all the answers, but to say that a government has no answers is to fundamentally misunderstand the definition of democracy. When Americans work and sacrifice together in the battle for a better future, we solve tremendous problems.

CONSERVATIVE GRUMBLINGS
Led at its core by the vociferous anti-government rantings of conservative politicians and pundits, Americans' distrust of Washington has hardened the fringe elements of both parties, obliterating comity.

What remains in the crater of goodwill is a depression of courage. We, the American people--not the Republican people or the Democrat people--have systematically hacked off our head and limbs. No longer have we hands for the shaking or legs for the crossing of aisles. No longer have we a head filled with reasoned thought, engaged spirited debate. All that remains is a thrashing stump drenching the public discourse with venomous hate.

CHANGE IS NIGH
What will the U.S. Senate and House resemble after the 2010 mid-term elections? Vultures looking to amplify their stature in order to secure lucrative post-congressional lobbying positions are likely to vastly increase their numbers. These creatures are not interested in serving the greater good; the louder the voice the more lucrative the offers that come their way.

Tea baggers and their allies have such a fundamental distrust of government institutions that they will proudly elect vultures incapable of compromise, and vote out the few members with proven bipartisan track records.

The coming change is the final death blow to reality. Already hardened political lines will be pushed further to the fringes, offering more peril than reward for defying base ideology. The coming change is an even less productive congress, a more feckless administration, and a further weakened trust in public institutions.

WHERE DID WE GO WRONG?
I have worked for the last four years as an independent political strategist serving mostly Republican candidates. Although I am proudly a registered Democrat, I see value in productive and constructive opposition. I maintain a dim hope that sensible forces within the American right will survive the coming congressional massacre to help guide America through our time of national crisis.

When I was 15 I was really excited about the '96 Dole-Kemp campaign--yes, I was excited about Bob Dole and Jack Kemp--my political philosophy guided by a sense that government entitlements desperately needed reform, and in some cases, elimination. Social Security needed massive changes, preferably with full privatization for young workers like myself.

In 2000 I enthusiastically supported Sen. John McCain in his Republican presidential primary bid. He demonstrated that bipartisanship was a badge of honor, earned with decades of honorable service to our country. I worked for "McCain Youth 2000" in Long Island, New York, making signs, organizing rallies, handing out palm cards, and performing hundreds of other tasks. John McCain was the first presidential candidate to use the internet as a grassroots organizing tool, a fact for which he receives little credit. The forces of hate and political destruction now afoot are using tactics learned from this and subsequent campaigns to mount their attacks.

McCain was indeed a maverick in 2000. He rightly voiced his opinion and fought for comprehensive reforms that helped remove special-interest money from political campaigns. Yet McCain now faces the toughest reelection battle in his political career simply because we was willing to make hard compromises and work with Democrats. That is the poison of the tea bag.

POLITICAL GROWTH SPURT
Even though I had been leaning in the direction for some time, in 2003 I officially changed my registration to Democrat from Republican because the Democratic Party best represents core American values of hard work, justice for all and courage in the face of tyranny.

Seven years later, America is at a dangerous crossroads with peril lurking down every road. With the election of Barack Obama, I, like many Americans, believed that we were entering a period of broad cultural healing, and that he was the one leader who could successfully navigate the ship of state on its treacherous journey. I am not so naive to think that rainbows and unicorns were going to descend from the heavens and sprinkle fairy dust over Washington, replacing distrust and division with peace and cupcakes. However, what I did not expect was that the anti-government movement would be so successful in carrying their message of intolerance to facts and ignorance of history to the forefront of American debate.

Civil discourse is as lost an art form as the hand-written letter. Sure, people still write with their hands, but eloquent words on stationery are replaced with incoherent messages on poster board. The ingenuity and tenacity of the tea party forces has deeply confounded educated progressives, producing victories for dubious agents of change. This clearly presents the fundamental flaws of progressive political strategy.

The right responds most effectively to emotional messages which pull at their heartstrings. (This is why I enjoy working for Republican candidates.) The left, on the other hand, seeks to engage in a professorial debate of the facts. Throughout our history, Americans have never been concerned first and foremost with facts because facts ignore the notion of faith. The most direct route to winning the mind of a voter is through the heart.

Barack Obama wasn't elected president because he presented logical reasons for his election--though he did. He was elected president because the idea of a black president with a soft, palatable, progressive message fundamentally appealed to the hearts of Americans who wanted to believe that racism and segregation were ghosts of the past. While Obama was by far the best choice in 2008, America needed to seat 535 more Barack Obamas in desks at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue to effect real change in Washington. Sadly, there is only one Barack Obama.

MR. SMITH RUNS FROM WASHINGTON
As radical elements dip their tea bags in the well of America's future, they sit on the face of moderate members of congress with the solitary goal of preventing progress. These fundamentalists chase away the few good men and women left in our government. As retiring Sen. Evan Bayh of Indiana said in his surprise retirement announcement Monday, "I do not love congress." How could anyone love congress when every day is an election, and no real work can commence?

Mr. Bayh is not the first politician, nor will he be the last, to run from the poisoned game of congressional politics.

SIMPLE SOLUTIONS
For years I have advocated change in how we elect our representatives in Washington and how they perform their duties. Unfortunately, the current system prevents real progress from occurring because no congressional majority would vote to change the rules of the game.

Here are a few common sense solutions that would truly change the way Washington works:

• Members of the U.S. House of Representatives should be elected to a single six-year term
• Members of the U.S. Senate should be elected to a single eight-year term
• U.S. Supreme Court justices could serve no more than a single 15-year term
• Members of congress would be prevented from working as a lobbyist for 10 years after they complete their term
• Presidents would be elected to a single eight-year term
• Eliminating the senate filibuster and instituting majority rules
• Judiciary positions would not be elected, rather appointed by the chief executive of that government level
• All federal, state and local campaigns would be 100% publicly financed, and corporations would be barred from advertising, endorsing or supporting any candidate

Swift implementation of these ideas would by no means solve all of our country's myriad problems, but they would go along way to improving its function and restoring public trust.

GET GOVERNMENT OUT OF MY SOCIAL SECURITY
Since 1995 I have paid into this broken system--and likely will continue to do so for another 60-70 years--to receive a sharply negative return on my investment. By contrast, the de facto 0% interest rate I receive for any overpayment in my income taxes (tax refund) is a far more sound investment than any contribution to Social Security. Why should anyone have such an outrageous return on investment forced on them for a program that will eat up the largest share of our GDP in the decades to come?

As a long-time self-employed individual, I have paid a significantly higher percentage of my income to the federal government when compared to salaried individuals with similar compensation, but I don't have the benefit of social safety nets. There is no unemployment insurance for me to collect when business dries up; I can't afford health insurance premiums for myself or my employee-contractors; and my access to credit started shrinking in 2007 and early 2008 before the economy took a complete nose-dive. Like many other casualties of our broken system, I was forced to close my business and lay-off workers. Where was my bailout?

These sentiments are a large part of what is fueling the harsh rhetoric of the tea party movement. My greatest concern with the tea baggers is not that they are thoughtfully voicing the concerns of people like me, but that they are supporting candidates who have no interest in actually improving the function of government. These candidates engage in public temper tantrums reminiscent of the ineffectual anti-Iraq war movement, rather than debate the specifics of an issue. This repulsion of civil discourse is not going to usher in an age of better government; it will only make rational citizens less inclined to tune in to their message.

CHANGE WE CAN'T BELIEVE IN
With no end in sight to the perverted dialog, these are among the many changes we shouldn't expect to see in the future:

• The repeal of Don't Ask, Don't Tell
• Marriage equality for all
• Comprehensive climate change legislation
• Social Security and Medicare reform
• Education reform
• Broad and inclusive employment non-discrimination legislation
• Restoration of balance to the American system of taxation
• Making pay-as-you-go rules a constitutional amendment
• Instituting a robust single-payer public health care system
• A coherent national energy, infrastructure and technology policy

The strongest impediment to American progress is the political stagnation of the perpetual campaign. Without fundamental change to the idea of how the governement operates, we can't expect to place new people in a broken system and somehow expect different results. With the departure of centrist, reasonable individuals from the halls of political Washington, it's time to wave the white flag of our castrated democracy.

Justin Schuck is an independent political media strategist, and served as a senior policy adviser to the 2006 Scott Rolle for Attorney General campaign in Maryland. He was the founding editor of PoliticsAside.net and the executive director of The Center for Independent Dialog in Washington D.C.

Labels: Barack Obama, Budget, Democratic Party, Editorial, Evan Bayh, Government, John McCain, politics, Republican Party, washington dc

Having started my day feeling sick, tired and achy, the present I received in my inbox just a short time ago really made my day: "CNN Breaking News: Pennsylvania Sen. Arlen Specter will switch from the Republican to the Democratic Party, multiple sources tell CNN."

I have had a great deal of respect and admiration for the senior senator from Pennsylvania for quite some time. He has shown for years that principles count more than party loyalty. He is a shining example of public service and MANY democrats could learn more than a thing or two about the grace and dignity Sen. Specter has shown for his office. Like many people on both sides of the aisle, Sen. Specter understands the true meaning of patriotism—using it for unification, not obstruction.

I look forward to following where Sen. Specter and the White House lead this nation. He deserves not only our gratitude for making the right decision today, but more importantly, recognition for his nearly thirty years of honorable service to this nation in the U.S. Senate.

Get the news from every perspective::
http://edition.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/04/28/specter.party.switch/

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/04/28/source-specter-intends-switch-political-parties/

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/28/specter-will-run-as-a-democrat-in-2010/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/04/28/arlen-specter-switching-p_n_192298.html

http://specter.senate.gov/public/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arlen_Specter

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124093451028864031.html

http://www2.arkansasonline.com/news/2009/apr/28/specter-seek-re-election-democrat/?subscriber/national

http://www.amconmag.com/blog/2009/04/28/specter-switches/

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/politics_nation/2009/04/arlen_specter_switches_parties.html

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0409/21798.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30456741/

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/04/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry4974413.shtml

http://www.wtov9.com/nationalnews/19311990/detail.html#-

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/senate/specter-to-switch-parties.html?hpid=topnews

http://www.cleveland.com/plaindealer/index.ssf/2009/04/us_sen_arlen_specter_of_pennsy.html

http://www.npr.org/blogs/politicaljunkie/2009/04/ap_reports_sen_arlen_specter_t.html?sc=fb&cc=fp

Labels: Arlen, Big News, Democrat, News, Newsworthy, politics, Republican, Republican Party, Specter

Dear President Bush,

By my calendar you have about 7 months, give or take a little, before the end of your term, but I wanted to let you know that it's not too late for you to take back your presidency from your handlers.

I know you know that things haven't been going well. The American people aren't your biggest fans right now, but you can change that. It's really simple actually. Well nothing is ever simple in politics or government, but I have a few ideas I think might be good.

First thing you'll want to do is call a prime time press conference. Have your people put the feelers out that this is going to be a big conference that the world won't want to miss. I'm sure someone will have all the right signage and imagery up on the stage behind you to help convey your importance and your patriotism. In this first press conference you should make a series of announcements, but don't tell anyone what they are until you're ready to give the speech. Oh, and don't read from the prompter. Try and memorize most of it and read from your hand-written notes that you'll pull out of your pocket after the cameras are streaming live.

So if I were you, I'd announce the following:

1. You would like to apologize to the American people and the world for the bungling of intelligence leading up to the Iraq War. Use your own language, but make it sincere.
   
2. You want to apologize for dropping the ball in Afghanistan but you pledge to renew your focus on this vital part in the "battle against maniacal guerrilla forces" -- not the "war on terror."
   
3. You want to apologize for the perception that you stole the 2000 election. You didn't, but it still doesn't sit well with a lot of Americans.
   
4. You are going to start and all-out, non-stop-until-inauguration day 2009 diplomatic offensive, both abroad and at home.
5. You are going to spend one weekend, if not more, a month in New Orleans getting your hands dirty building homes, talking to fellow citizens and learning how we can prevent people from suffering like this ever again in America.
6. You're going to tell people of New Orleans that they shouldn't rebuild in the lowest wards and parishes. It won't be popular down there, but it needs to be said.
7. You're going to stop blaming the Democratic congress for everything. You'll admit your part in contributing to the vitriolic partisan rancor that has further sullied the already-soiled reputation of Washington. (See #3) And you'll tell the American people that they need to read books by authors of an opposing political ideology.
8. You'll admonish Rush Limbaugh and other conservative hosts for promoting fear to your own advantage and ask that this behavior in radio and television come to an end.
   
9. You'll announce a call for people from all financial brackets in the US to serve their government and their country. You'll ask for more volunteers to join the armed services to help serve the conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq to make it easier for them to come home soon. Again, I know that won't be popular, but it needs to be said.
10. You'll also announce that you will have a weekly prime-time press conference to discuss the progress of your final-days initiative.
11. You'll admit that the tax cuts weren't responsible in light of the spiraling costs of the wars and our government's other responsibilities. You'll note that the government desperately needs money to not only pay for the wars, but for infrastructure improvement, and to pay down our debt to foreign nations, especially China. You'll propose to veto every single bill that is laden with earmarks and pork projects.
12. You'll admit that you're disappointed that no compromise could be reached on serious reform of Social Security and Medicare and that if the next administration and congress won't tackle the problem, they don't deserve a salary or benefits for the office which they hold
    
13. You'll have to apologize for your nonconservative, unrepublican, unrestricted spending and expansion of government, even though you acknowledge the need for a Department of Homeland Security.
14. You'll tell republicans especially to grow up and face the reality that illegal immigrants aren't going anywhere and that we need to find a swift pathway to citizenship to bring them out of their de facto slavery. You'll note that we need more than a southern-border wall; we need to work harder to promote economic opportunities in Central and South America to allows those nations' citizens to find meaningful and financially viable work in their home country.We are the land of opportunity for many, but we are the land of fear and poverty for so many as well.
    
15. You'll stop using overly-crafted political rhetoric and sound bites, instead focusing on a finite number of things you can change. You'll have to work with democrats, but that's okay. History will be kinder to you because of it.
16. You're going to promise to the American people that anyone in your administration who seeks to derail your proposals will be exposed and humiliated in addition to being fired.
    
17. You'll invite prominent democrats and independents, in addition to Republicans, to take key advisory roles in the new President's Task Force for America's Future.
    
18. You'll denounce the partisan coverage of news channels that use fear and sound bites as a tactic of record rather than promoting independent journalistic principles.
19. You'll acknowledge that these proposals and initiatives must continue on in the new administration, and that my friend will be your lasting legacy.
    

There's a lot more that you'll want to say and need to say, but we'll all just have to wait until next week. It would be the most gripping bit of news and could do wonders for the Republican party in the fall. The only way any republican can win is to run against you, but the only way you can have a legacy is to run in a new direction. It isn't too late. I promise.

You might think Americans won't listen to you, but you're wrong. We're waiting to be asked. We're waiting to be asked to fully share in the responsibility of America's future. We're waiting to be asked to vote to make change happen.

I know you let the usual cronies get carried away, but it's high time you took back your presidency and became the president you always could be and should have been.

I'm available at your request at any point that you seek my counsel.

Sincerely Yours,
Justin Schuck

Labels: Bush Administration, George W. Bush, Iraq, Republican Party, U.S. Military, War

As an active volunteer for McCain Youth 2000 and someone who felt thoroughly disenfranchised by the Republican Party at the time, I am happy to see Sen. McCain finally get his victory lap. Unfortunately this victory lap is 8 years too late.

I welcome the political fight in the fall, and regardless of who receives the democratic nomination in August, the nominee will be running against a candidate who for independents and some democrats is extremely appealing.

Most independent-minded individuals remember how McCain 2000 stood up against evangelical figures, how he campaigned for his party's nomination from the center, how he energized a youthful, moderate base. Sadly however, McCain the 2008 model has actually gone backwards. This model is showing it's age.

John McCain will always be considered one of this country's greatest heroes. I long respected his ability to see his mistakes and correct them. I've also noticed how the republican machine has worn him down, beat him into a small, bitter version of his previous self. People forget just how awful the Bush people were to the McCain people. It was a mess and our man McCain would never forget it. Until he realized that, like Bush, he couldn't be his own man in the party of Lincoln.

I've stopped shedding (metaphorical) tears, but I do offer this unsolicited crumb of advice to the senator from Arizona: Don't run as a candidate seeking to govern for two terms.

If I were your top and most trusted adviser I would tell you to stay positive and fight hard. Keep the punches about facts, steer clear of typical republican sound bites and prepare yourself to have a very full four-year term. More on that a bit later.

I'm happy for Sen. McCain. The republican field was a rodeo of lesser-evils. He will prove to be hard-to-beat in November and will keep the polls close. His best hope for victory will be to see primary-weakened Hillary at the top of the Democratic ticket. If Obama the golden calf wins the nod, McCain's got as much of a chance as an ice cube in hell.

Labels: 2008 Election, Primary, Republican Party

I could draw my explanation out, but regardless of who wins the Democratic nomination fight, and I still predict Sen. Barack Obama, the polls between the Democratic nominee and the John McCain will be close. They'll be close right through to election day.

I'm going to go out on a limb here and say it's because Clinton is a woman, because Obama is black and because McCain is old. Call me crazy, but it's going to be a battle of the lesser-risks for most Americans, and no poll regardless of the science or the sample behind it will ever accurately show what the actual electorate is thinking.

I get calls all the time, usually for free vacations or herbal supplements, but I think that polling is inherently flawed. Polling that takes place in a market research firm in front of a double-sided mirror isn't any more accurate, no matter how many cameras are recording the participants' reactions.

There are two things in life that have no science, love and politics. Any attempt to apply scientific methods to either yields nothing but enlarged egos and broken hearts.

Labels: 2008 Election, Barack Obama, Editorial, Hillary Clinton, John Edwards, John McCain, Politics Aside, Polling, Primary, Republican Party