American politics

feels so disheartening

I just want to turn away

Leonard Quart

 

Obviously I am biased, but scanning the NY Times each day I am stunned by the egregiousness of Republican legislators. They have marshalled an unyielding opposition to Obama's appointments at every level of government to an extent unprecedented in memory.
     For example, Peter Diamond, the Nobel prize-winning economist nominated by President Obama to a seat on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, just announced he was withdrawing from consideration for the position. Given that Diamond is an expert on labour market theory, one would think that since the rate of unemployment has just risen, his expertise would be a plus. But that's too logical for a Republican senator like Alabama's Richard Shelby, whose lame, politically motivated justification for his opposition is that Diamond's work had focused on pensions and labour markets rather than specifically on monetary policy.
     Then there is Elizabeth Warren, a Harvard law school professor who once headed the Congressional Oversight Panel on TARP, and actively took on Wall Street, the Treasury department, and the Fed, which made her a liberal heroine. Warren has worked to set up the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which she sees as acting as a cop on a beat enforcing basic rules to govern credit cards and the mortgage industry. But she was under fierce attack by conservatives as a 'totalitarian liberal', which led a large block of progressive Democrats in the House of Representatives to urge President Obama to make her head of the new consumer agency as a recess appointment if Republicans continued threatening to obstruct her nomination.
     As is his wont, President Obama has avoided a losing confrontation, and is also working to rebuild his links to the business community. (It's not in Obama's nature to make quixotic gestures that would make us all feel better.) So he is nominating Richard Cordray, the former attorney general of Ohio, to the post. Cordray already works for the bureau, and has Warren's endorsement, as well as more reluctant backing from her supporters. 
      Beyond putting up a roadblock in the way of appointments, the Republicans continue to blackmail the administration about raising the debt ceiling – the country's legal borrowing limit. They will only allow the raising of the debt limit if it is accompanied by some dramatic spending cuts adhering to their mad political mantra, that it's government spending and high taxes which are the cause of all our economic problems. So we have a united Republican Party that has given up any pretence at compassion, but uses the fiscal crisis to promote serving the rich at the expense of the poor – opposing any new taxes, as if no taxation is one of the 10 commandments.

 

     In liberal philanthropist George Soros's words: 'The Republicans have gained control of the agenda, and they are promoting a misleading narrative: everything is the government's fault'. Consequently, the Democrats and Obama are on the defensive, probably soon to offer concessions that may gut a whole host of social programmes, and even start at cutting entitlements like medicare and social security, so we don't default on our debts. Obama's triangulation will turn the US into an even more unequal society.  Much of Obama's offer seems politically calculated to both trap the Republicans in the role of ideologically rigid destroyers of the economy, and appeal to independents as a statesmanlike moderate in the 2012 election. 
       The only recent bipartisan moment came when Congress gave full-throated, uncritical, and politically self-interested support for Israel's prime minister Netanyahu's unyielding and self-righteous speech in which he claimed: 'In Judea and Samaria Jewish people are not foreign occupiers'. There is a part of myself that finds Congress's passionate commitment to Israel emotionally satisfying. But I also know that there won't be even a chance for peace, unless Netanyahu, with his extreme right-wing coalition partners, moves from his hard-line stance on the settlements and East Jerusalem. Justice and political necessity make compromise an imperative in the Middle East, although given Hamas's radical Islamism and support of terrorism, there is always the possibility that it won't make a difference what Israel does.
     However, what strikes me watching Congress react to Netanyahu's speech is how little capacity it has to deal cogently with any of the profound problems that confront us, be they domestic or foreign. And although I think the Republicans bear the lion's share of responsibility for the situation we face, the Democrats are clearly no profile in political courage. There are times when the whole political scene feels so disheartening that I just want to turn away altogether.
     Looking at state politics, there is also little cause for joy. In November the Republicans captured a majority of the nation's governor mansions and state legislatures. It has meant that Tea Party-affiliated governors like Rick Scott of Florida have cancelled a $2 billion federal high-speed rail project, while others like Christie of New Jersey and Kasich of Ohio have promoted anti-environmental regulation and activity. That seems only the beginning in the governors' attempt to push through a right-wing agenda – attacking unions and government workers, slashing jobless benefits, and pushing voter ID bills.
     I wish I could say that my own state's (New York) politically shrewd, pragmatic governor Andrew Cuomo, though far from a right-winger, has been a beacon of liberalism. Cuomo has been liberal on social issues, from gay marriage to the unjust deportation of immigrants, but the state budget that he passed drastically slashed funds to schools and local communities – cuts that were deeper than necessary because of Cuomo's refusal to extend a tax on New York's wealthiest residents. There is also his proposed pension legislation where some cuts seem justified and necessary, and other changes, like raising the retirement age from 62 to 65, which are open to attack from the unions. Cuomo has also proposed an ethics bill, whose passage will be a giant step towards making New York State's legislature less dysfunctional, but whose success is far from guaranteed, given the corruption that many of the state's legislators indulge in.
      These are hard times for state and local governments, and given the precarious condition of our politics, one has to be grateful that Cuomo has basically taken a centrist path. In his inaugural speech he struck a chord for non-partisan reform, committed to a less bureaucratic but more effective government. Still, he offers little to inspire one – he offers none of his father Mario's moral commitment to the poor. But given the state of our economy and politics, and the passivity of much of the public, that's probably asking too much.

 

Leonard Quart is a professor emeritus of American studies