Give Me Back My America

“Let our age be the age of improvement.  In a day of peace, let us advance the arts of peace and the works of peace.  Let us develop the resources of our land, call forth its powers, build up its institutions, promote all its great interests, and see whether we also, in our day and generation, may not perform something worthy to be remembered. Let us cultivate a true spirit of union and harmony. Let our conception be enlarged to the circle of our duties.  Let our object be, Our Country, Our Whole Country, and Nothing But Our Country.  And, by the blessing of God, may that country itself become a vast and splendid monument, not of oppression and terror, but of Wisdom, of Peace, and of Liberty, upon which the world may gaze with admiration for ever." -  Daniel Webster, 1825.

It is amazing to read Daniel Webster’s quotes and appreciate its timeless application to 21st century America.  During his time, horses moved Americans; now, Americans are mobile by plane, trains, buses, ships and cars. Yet, Daniel Webster’s political statements reflect a timeless perspective on what America is about -- its mission during that time when only 24 states were in the union.

Fast forward to 2010 -- America is populated with citizens of the world. In California alone, more than 200 diverse languages are spoken, forming a multicultural profile that is equivalent to the United Nations or the Olympics.

However, in other parts of America, this new multicultural personality is not quite embraced.  Voters in this mid-term election were older, with more Caucasians. Less than the 132,645,504 voters who voted in 2008 that were young -- Latinos, African Americans, Caucasians and Asians came out to vote.  42 million less voters opted out, according to the US Elections Project. The Obama multicultural coalition failed to vote in the midterm elections, discouraged in part by loss of jobs, foreclosed homes, and dire economic conditions.

The proclamation of ‘Give me my America back' by the Tea Party was to reclaim European ethnicities, while dismantling the Dept. of Education, NATO, and even Social Security.    It did not consider an America, built by many ethnicities throughout the centuries: African Americans in the tobacco and slave-owned plantations, Japanese with farming and other businesses, Chinese with the railways and flood channels, Filipinos and their work in the plantations, canneries and health care; and Latinos, who are now undergirding all services, from hotels, restaurants, gardens to taking care of homes and babies.

No one would dare say what America is really about.  Not after the progress that has been made half a century ago, when women and African-Americans were considered unworthy citizens and by law, could not vote.

Now, an African-American president has, in 18 months, fast-tracked the economy and prevented it from freefalling, stimulated the building of infrastructural projects, reformed health care that will likely create billions of savings if fully implemented in 2014, made current reforms to the credit card industry and even brought about the advent of financial reforms.  Even as I write this, record profits were reported by Ford, GM and Chrysler, who were near bankruptcy, but for the infusion of stimulus funds, and of course, the two big health care insurers, WellPoint and Aetna, at a combined $1.1 billion profits for the 3rd quarter. But the 111 accomplishments of the White House were not enough, as hedge fund donors funded Republican efforts and had wins in 9 out 12 Senate races and 14 out of 22 Congressional races.  Was the President hyperscrutinized? Did the electorate have unreasonable expectations? It seems other factors were at play.

MSN.com reported “outside groups fueled wins, nearly 42% of the $300 million dollars spent in attack ads came from Wall Street hedge fund moguls and wealthy donors, and $ 31 million from Chamber of Commerce.” One election monitoring group estimated $4 billion was spent nationwide in these mid-term elections. Coffee Partyers were born, composed mostly of young students and young adults, who confronted unspoken fears: “ What are you afraid of? That we can vote? That we can speak your language? That we are Americans?”  Millions of grassroots supporters were mobilized to push back the onslaught of these negative attack ads. On the weekend before Nov. 2 elections, fringed insanities got so out of whack, that a Restore to Sanity Rally’s placard stood out in Washington, DC: “I fought the Nazis and they don’t look like Obama."  “Tea Partyers, do not steep on me.” The rally was attended by over 200,000 folks, from the Capitol to the Washington Monument.

When California Election results were over and done with, Governor- elect Jerry Brown said:  “The voters gave some, passing an initiative to have a majority, instead of 2/3 to pass the budget, yet, voters took away an extra $8 fee, that got defeated.  The message is clear, fix the government, but stay away from my pocket book.”

A reflective, contrite, yet optimistic President Barack Obama had a press conference the day after the elections: “ What happened during the mid-term elections also happened to Pres. Ronald Reagan and Pres. Bill Clinton, and their mid-term adjustments led to two terms in office.”

The President acknowledged that his public tone might have made a difference in the margins, “Businesses need rules of the road, that customers are treated fairly, their mortgages, their credit cards.  America succeeds only if businesses succeed, free market has to be nurtured and cultivated.  Given the onset of health care reform, financial reform, and the BP incident (referring to the largest oil spill in New Orleans, at $40 billion plus worth of damages, a spill that could only be contained after two months, and after Haliburton used cement of substandard quality, as reported by LA Times), the President understood why businesses can feel they maybe the bad guys.”

He placed things in context but, admitted his mistakes when he pushed health care negotiations, when the legislative process got unwieldy, and there were back room deals that were not as transparent. It could have been a much healthier process.  He emphasized that the “American people understand that we are in a ditch and that we have not gotten out of the ditch, and both Republicans and Democrats need to push the car some more to get it on level ground.  But, we were pushing in opposite directions.”

The car became the metaphor for the US economy.  The economy was in freefall, the president continued, “It is now stabilized, we have 9 months of growth, but we are still stuck in neutral.  We have not had enough economic growth in the communities.  Both Republicans and Democrats have to come together.  Tax cuts alone is not a recipe for growth.  We had that in 2001-2009, but we need growth and expansion for unemployment to go down.”

The President might as well be talking about California.  For the last 7 years, we have had tax cuts under Republican Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, cuts so deep that they threatened higher education, public services and the safety net which was carefully constructed over the centuries.  California Mag reported in its Fall 2010 Issue: “Tara Duggan was marching with her 7-year-old daughter down Mission Street towards the Civic Center.  They joined thousands of others in the fight for public education and to fight against state budget cuts.   She believes public officials aren’t putting enough effort into the public school system and funding.  Duggan wants her children to at least have the opportunity when they graduate from high school to experience what she and family experienced: the unique people, classmates who turned into life-long friends, and the high level of professionalism among the campus’s staff and professors."

It presents a unique opportunity for both houses to be professionals, to be open to listen, to form a consensus, to converge on a shared agenda that moves America forward. Or a reactionary, lameduck Congress that criticizes and obstructs the president to no end, as the minority legislators did in California.  This will be counterproductive, as it creates a 2012’s sweeping wave for the other party to consolidate its power.  Without a true balance of power, an unlevel playing field results and further endangers the future of our children and grandchildren.

Professionalism, best practices, and quality interactions can be preferred styles of legislative policy making, and both parties can work from their best breeds, on behalf of the people’s agenda to set aside their differences.  While the Senate remains in the hands of the Democrats, and Congress in the hands of the Republicans, President Barack Obama’ s leadership can be an outstanding one that sets an enviable, sustained, amicable bipartisan process to move the American people’s interests forward.

While it is difficult to have this legislative balance of power that goes back to 80 years ago, 2010 presents a new opportunity for the real America to come back, an American nation at peace with itself, and whose object is "Our Country, Our Whole Country, and Nothing But Our Country!"