...But with any luck I'll have something worthwhile to say about it.
What do you get when you take 20 minutes of the (in my ne'er to be humble opinion) best news hour on the week, and sit Maureen Dowd, Thomas Friedman, and David Brooks opposite Tim Russert?
A Sara who is beyond pissed that she didn't take notes because I could write about 500 different entries on the issues discussed. Random aside, you also get a Sara who is beyond pissed that Paul Krugman wasn't there as well, because someone needed to call Bush out on his tax policy, and as adept as Friedman is at pointing out the international dangers of the Bush Administration's economic policy, only Krugman could have succinctly countered Brook's asinine assertion that Bush's "compassionate conservative" side is the antidote to the horrors evident in the wake of Katrina.
However, that's a column for another day.
In order to boil this down for a second I want to do a brief list of the topics broached by these columnists (who, thanks to the capitalists at the New York Times you now have to pay to appreciate) hit on in less than 30 minutes:
*The potentially massive implications of the US trade deficit (and education deficit) with China.
*The security dangers inherent in current US energy policy.
*The deteriorating state of women in the new "liberated" Iraq.
*The absolute failure of women's rights champions in the US *coughHillary Clintoncough* to own up to their part in that.
*The horror felt by the average American upon finally SEEING what the gap between the rich and poor in their own back yard looks like.
*The true consequences of writing a president a blank check in the aftermath of a security disaster.
There was more, those are the ones left with me at this moment.
Oh, and this one, which is the point of this post:
The failure of any individual in either party to phrase a coherent message to the American people that answers their current fears.
I'm going to agree with Brooks again (yep, another rarity, but the man is speaking sense at an admirable level these days). There is no party, no group, and very few individuals (most of whom aren't getting air time) speaking with anything that even remotely resembles authority at the moment. There is no person that Americans can confidently look to lead them.
The fundamental question that needs to be answered there is why?
What lead us to this state?
Until about 40 minutes ago I couldn't put my finger on why I've been thinking about Rudy Guiliani so much recently. At first I thought it was that I, like many other people was merely struck by the contrasting results a strong, local leader can have in the face of disaster.
I don't want in anyway to diminish the accomplishments of Guiliani in the aftermath of 9/11. But that isn't all that is bugging me. In a sense, this post should be titled: "Where Have All the Leaders Gone?" They all sold their souls to Bush's massive political capital in the aftermath of 9/11.
Yes. I did mean to say all of them.
Those that didn't sell their souls were eviscerated by those that did prior to the devastation shown us by Katrina. Those that didn't sell their souls were out of power and out of the spotlight and not worth the front page during the last 4 years. Those that didn't sell their souls aren't flashy enough for the media. They aren't succinct enough to attract attention outside of the beltway.
These are the people who have been calling Bush out on Iraq, WMD, Energy Policy, Tax Policy, etc. since the get go.
To put together a very non-comprehensive shortlist (in order of the examples given above) they are Howard Dean, Bill Clinton, Russ Feingold, Al Gore and their many, many supporters whose cries have fallen on deaf ears.
Friedman summed up very well why those ears weren't receptive to the message today: No one wants to be told that their leaders don't know what they are talking about in a time of national vulnerability.
It reminds me of an argument that I had with my father on the eve of the invasion of Iraq. The long and short of it was I was calling the Bush Administration's assertions vis a vis Iraq bullshit. He told me quite frankly, that I was cracked if I thought I knew more than the Bush Administration and I should just trust them.
Well, that has worked out swimmingly these past few years, hasn't it?
We are a country bereft of leaders. They aren't there. Their cries have been falling on deaf ears, and now that people are finally listening they have forgotten who they were. Why? Because as Clinton said after the Kerry nomination for the Democrat's candidate for the presidency was sewn up, it's harder to be in the opposition these days. It's hard to think and pour through the facts, think for one's self and come to one's own conclusion.
It's easier to follow the figurehead, until the horrific consequences of that stare you in the face.
Katrina shows what happens when the leaders step back and bow to a figurehead, step back and wait for the Calvary (be it state, local, or federal) to arrive. It showed the danger of a society where it's preferable to sit back and WAIT for someone else to think for you, and figure out how to save you while your house sinks. In short, it shows the chaos that results when everyone thinks someone else knows better than them. In the aftermath of 9/11Guiliani didn't do that. He's not an expert on terrorism, he's not an expert on security studies--but he's a leader who knew that in that moment no one was going to save him, or his city but his own thoughts, his own head. That's why we admired what he did.
We need more of that. Desperately.
