The Policy Wonk-a-be Rants

Seems a role I've held on this blog is that of wannabe policy wonk. So here's an alert: rant ahead. Those affiliated with the ostrich party will want to stop reading now.

The centrist movement I've been looking for over the past 2 decades may be in an emerging state. We had the Gang of 14 pop up in the Senate last year to deal with judicial appointments in a non-partisan, less ideologically warped manner (nothing wrong with partisanship and ideology, they just can't be the be-all and end-all of politics). Now, led by a Midwestern Democrat and a New England Republican, another gang is emerging. This one is not obstructionist like the tax-cut pushing, Limbaugh fearing wacko wing of the GOP which is still worshiping at the altar of free market economics though most of them couldn't pass ECON 101 with crib notes! - they've never heard of a basic economic concept called Second Best that deals with markets that aren't responsive to pure supply and demand. Nor is this a gang of special-interest beholden pork barrel filling jack-asses (which also come in the New Right Republican flavor as well as the traditional Democrat Party varieties).

This gang is actually bringing to life the rhetoric of our President. They are acting upon the principles and hopes he outlined as a candidate and in his speeches as president-elect. They're providing the leadership he called for, and suggested he would provide, in his Inaugural address. So, what will be the result for the stimulus bill? Will it end up being like the bank bailout bill - robbing average Americans to put money into the pockets of politically connected oligarchs? As much as I want to just cover my ears when the GOP right gets cranked up, they are correct in their complaint that much of the bill as currently constituted does not effectively stimulate the economy but instead creates unsustainable government largess for Democratic insider constituencies. And the GOP push for business and investment tax cuts is just idiocy. But will this bill be the change we hope for?

Will it be more of the same old thing - or will the Center prevail and this bill become a true investment in America that works for the common good? Money for rebuilding crumbling, but critical infrastructure. Seed money for R&D into energy and transportation that increases our national security and our environmental health. Investments based upon sound economic and scientific positions, not driven by political expediency and votes. Grants and contracts that go to those best able to leverage the investment into true, sustainable growth, not doled out to cronies or political donors. Well, ok, maybe that's too much to hope for in the first go-round. But if the Center holds, and President Obama is willing to step out and lead, we can begin the long slow movement to having a government that represents and acts on our ideals, that truly is about what's best in America. Or we can continue our descent to ruin by living out Alexis de Tocqueville's prophecy: "The American Republic will endure until the day Congress discovers that it can bribe the public with the public's money."