Back in the U.S. Again

A few thoughts on the usual things while awake on Ireland time...

I flew back to the U.S. yesterday after a five-week return trip to Europe, and I feel compelled to comment on my fellow Euro-traveller, one Willard Mitt Romney. (To even things out, I've got something to say about Obama and the Dems, too, but let's start with the juicy stuff.)

Without meaning to be all Euro-snobbish about it, it was frankly embarrassing to be travelling at the same time as the former governor. The quick recap is that he visited three very friendly countries (England, Israel and Poland), and managed to step in it in each place he visited. Dissing the Brits' Olympics preparations practically the moment he landed was...deft. As the Guardian pointed out, he both blew "an easy date" and did more to unite the Brits behind their Games than any Brit politician had done. Then there was the "Mr Leader" flop with Labour leader Ed Milliband.

Lest he let foot stray too far from mouth, Romney went on to promise each Israeli 40 acres and a suitcase nuke (or something like that), further saying that Palestinians' economic woes have mostly to do with inferior "culture". If we think that economic sanctions have enough oomph to give the Iranians pause in their quest for the nuclear grail, don't we think that occupation and sanction might have some kind of limiting effect on Palestinians? Finally, in Poland, a Romney staffer stole the headlines from the boss by telling reporters to kiss his ass and "shove off" after yet more requests for comments from the candidate. (Mitt answered exactly three questions in the six days, all of them hastily fielded outside 10 Downing St).

People, we have seen this movie before. And "Neo-Cons 2: Return of the Ignorance"is not a sequel I particularly want to see. I know I'm howling at the moon by asking this country to look one or two meters (what's a meter?) beyond its own navel, but we simply can't have another No Apologies president right now -- preferably ever. Anybody who wants to claim American exceptionalism and "light unto the nations" status should at least be able to find those other nations on the map and know one or two things about how to interact with them. Insulting the world and ginning up a war in the Middle East were the hallmarks of a certain Republican administration of the not-too-distant past, and we know how those worked out. You don't have to like Obama, but let's not elect another neocon puppet to remind ourselves of why we were so desperate to elect the guy in the first place.

Speaking of Obama and the Democrats -- come on, people! A few days ago it was announce that Bill Clinton will have a major role at the upcoming nominating convention/love-fest, a move that was billed as a way of exciting the base and injecting some life into the campaign. As a fellow Hoya and something of an admirer, I'd be happy to hear what Bill thinks, but the fact that he's getting center stage at the convention is a bad sign.

Four years ago, Obama played a Greek god at the convention and came up with the oratory to match. You couldn't get a base or the independents much more excited than they were at that stage. Four years later, the candidate of our dreams can't come up with ideas exciting enough to dominate the convention himself? The Republicans want to replay the 2000's; the Dems want to bring back the 90s. Don't we know better than both of those by now? I hate to say this in the run-up to a convention -- and more importantly an election -- that Obama really needs to hit out of the park, but a Clinton retread (of the male variety) is a bad sign that the Dems are just as out of ideas and backward-looking as the Republicans. Isn't Hillary doing a good enough job at State to get some air time? How about Chelsea, whose name is already being batted around for a convention of her own in a few years? Can anybody focus on the future right now, or is it so bleak that we need to go back to the 90s? Don't forget, Bill was the man who caved to the Republicans' privatization-of-government thing by turning welfare into TANF and SNAP. But hey, the economy was booming then. What could go wrong? Thanks to deregulation, assistance to needy families isn't looking so temporary and there's a lot of supplemental nutrition that needs delivering.

The moral of the story, as always, is that we're better than this -- or at least we could be if we want to be. If the only plan for the future is to appeal to competing idealist visions of an ideal past, decline is a self-fulfilling prophecy. If we get serious about the future -- get the money out of politics and into innovation, get education happening, get moving, get serious about protecting the environment -- we can lead. Frankly, the most surprising thing about decline is that no one has yet been more eager to give our pedestal a good shove and see if it cracks. There are good reasons for this -- being the world's reserve currency helps a lot -- but that's hardly a defense of exceptionalism.

If we turn politics over to the wealthy and corporate executives, they'll soon go the way of economics: grossly enriching a few at the tippity-top, who keep the rest of us going with the promises of democracy just as empty as the myth of boot-strapping entrepreneurship.