[Dialogue] 9/15/11, Spong: Signs Appear That the Toxic Political Atmosphere in America is Beginning to Lift

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Signs Appear That the Toxic Political Atmosphere in America is Beginning to Lift
The president has made his dramatic appeal to a joint session of congress for a jobs bill and the Republican House of Representatives leaders John Boehner and Eric Cantor appear to be receptive at least to some of his ideas.
The first Republican presidential debate is now history. The candidates were consistently negative about all aspects of the Obama administration, which is par for opposition candidates, but it did not degenerate into slander.  One candidate even called President Obama “a nice guy.”
The polarized state of American politics is now focused squarely on the super congressional Committee of Twelve and some people are hopeful.  Three senators appointed by the Majority Leader Harry Reid and three by the Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, will join six congressional representatives, three appointed by the Speaker John Boehner and three by the Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi.  On this politically balanced committee one person will have to break ranks with his or her party to create a 7 to 5 majority.  If that happens, the Senate and the House will vote up or down the committee’s recommendations without amendments.  The hope is that this committee will identify three trillion dollars in budgetary cuts and at least one trillion in new revenue sources over the next ten years. Clearly many political “sacred cows” will be questioned and even disposed of in this process.
The cuts will probably affect aspects of both Social Security, started under Democrat Franklin D. Roosevelt in the 1930’s, and the Medicare drug benefit, passed by a Republican controlled congress and signed by Republican president, George W. Bush.  It would be my guess that none of these cuts will affect anyone for a decade or so to ease the political pain and to allow the generation 50-55 years of age time to prepare and to adjust to the cuts.  I suspect that the cut off point for receiving benefits will be set at a figure like an annual income of more than a million dollars. Bill Gates and Warren Buffet, for example, do not need Medicare or Social Security and they will be the first to tell us that.  Since the words “tax increases” have now become a red flag term justifying stonewalling and non-negotiation, Washington will call any new revenue sources “closing loopholes” or “broadening the tax base,” which have become politically acceptable euphemisms for revenue increases.  Politics as an enterprise does strange things to vocabulary.  If the rates are lowered, the loopholes closed and the revenue totals go up, all will claim victory, but, more important, a crisis in America’s economic life will have been averted. It is my sense that during the recent recess our senators and representatives were told loudly and clearly by their constituents that they have had enough of grandstanding, hard-lining, the placing of our entire economy at risk and a refusal to find a middle ground that has paralyzed our government in recent days.
Polls indicate that the hard-charging, uncompromising rhetoric of those who call themselves “The Tea Party” is losing both steam and popularity. Where does one look for data to corroborate this conclusion?  It is not by listening to political rhetoric, but rather by watching the way the politicians, who read public opinion better than most, are beginning to react to those who were once their absolute enemies.  Let me point to the signs beyond the response to the president’s jobs speech and the improved tone in the Republican debate that are visible to me:
1. Wisconsin – The voters in that state re-elected the challenged Democratic state senators and recalled two of five Republican state senators.  That means that the Republicans now have a 17-16 majority in the Wisconsin State Senate instead of the 19-14 margin that dispensed with workers’ rights to negotiate through collective bargaining.  One of the seventeen Wisconsin Republicans is a maverick, not a “red meat” Republican, so Governor Scott Walker can no longer assume a majority on any vote.  A threatened recall of the governor, which cannot come until he has been in office for two years, is real enough to bring about a far more conciliatory stance on Governor Walker’s part.  He has asked for a meeting with state Democrats “to explore ways of working together.” I applaud that.  Cooperative efforts were shunned just a few months ago and the hostile Republican rhetoric matched the intensity of the Democrats fueling public demonstrations.  It is amazing how polling that reveals shrinking popularity can change the attitudes of the most ideological politicians.
2. Ohio – Governor John Kasich in Ohio followed a similar path to Governor Walker in Wisconsin in curtailing negotiations with state workers and rolling back pensions and benefits.  The result was riots in Ohio and the threat to put on Ohio’s ballot in the next election a resolution to repeal the laws enacted by the legislature and signed by the governor.  Polls indicate that the repeal would carry, so John Kasich, whom I have always though of as a decent and fair minded man, has read the tea leaves and has decided to work with the Democrats to bring about a more balanced and fair solution to the problems that Ohio faces. It is another sign of the return of rationality to the political process.
3. Utah – Senator Orrin Hatch, a very conservative Republican senator who has represented Utah in the United States Senate since 1976, was feeling the pressure from Utah’s popular Republican congressman, Jason Chaffetz, a Tea Party favorite, who talked about challenging him in the Republican primary.  Representative Chaffetz was thought by the Hatch forces to be a formidable opponent.  Before our eyes Senator Hatch, one of the nicer guys in the senate, became more and more conservative even coming out against “fairness” in tax policies, suggesting that the rich already pay too much!  This tilt to the right, however, worked for Hatch and Congressman Chaffetz decided to run for another term in the House.  The polls in Utah revealed that negative reaction to the Tea party agenda was rising. “We do not want a Sharron Angle in Utah,” one Republican was heard to say.  For those with short memories, Sharron Angle defeated main-stream Republicans in a Nevada primary for a chance to unseat Senator Harry Reid.  Polls suggested that any one of those main-stream candidates would have defeated Senator Reid.  Sharron Angle was too extreme to unite the Republicans and Reid defeated her, not easily but handily.
4. Texas – The governor of Texas, Rick Perry, entered the presidential sweepstakes with both guns blazing.  At first he was thought to be just what the Republicans were seeking, someone who could unite the social agenda-grass roots Republicans with the economically-conservative Wall Street Republicans.  He is well-spoken, photogenic and sports a jobs-creating record in his ten years as governor of Texas.  The rollout of his campaign, however, left fiscally-conservative Republicans aghast that he was a loose canon.  In the space of two weeks, he met with Evangelical Christians and asserted his love for Jesus, which in the South is code language for racism, anti-abortion, anti-gay and pro-military stances.  He had already suggested that Texas might secede.  Then, in rapid order he suggested that the armed services personnel are not proud of their President and Commander-in-Chief, ignoring the fact that significant numbers of our military are African-Americans and Hispanic Americans, who are very proud of their Commander-in-Chief.  Then he came out in favor of teaching creation science in public schools, he denied that science supports global warming, he called Social Security “a ponzi scheme” and suggested that Ben Bernanke, Chairman of the Federal Reserve and a George W. Bush appointee, might be guilty of traitorous behavior.  Suddenly, that was too much for Karl Rove and the Bush wing of the Republican Party.  That was when the word went out that the Republicans still need to expand their field of candidates, a clear sign that they too are reading the polls.  New pressure was put on Congressman Paul Ryan of Wisconsin and Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey to run, while lots of establishment Republicans continued to look longingly at Indiana’s Governor Mitch Daniels and Mississippi’s Governor Haley Barbour, both of whom have previously ruled out a run.
5. Utah again, a small but apparently crucial state in this election since the next sign of the times was the attempt on the part of former Utah governor Jon Huntsman to crack into the top tier of presidential hopefuls by moving to the center and calling for “moderation.” His ability to work across party lines by serving as President Obama’s Ambassador to China suddenly became an asset as he is the only Republican presidential candidate with foreign policy experience.  Some inner poll or focus group must have convinced him that there is support for such a shift.  Politicians do not move to new positions unless there is some voter pressure to do so. Will this Huntsman strategy succeed?  Time alone will tell.
All of these are signs that the time of political confrontation and hard lines drawn in the sand between uncompromising conservatives and diehard liberals is finally coming to an end.  America is in crisis.  Leadership is important.  Both parties have a responsibility to nominate competent, non-polarizing candidates for whom the well-being of the country is more important than partisan ideology.  In recent days there has been movement in that direction.  I rejoice in that.  The age of extremism is fading.  I also rejoice in that.  One can be conservative without being crazy.  One can be liberal without being wild-eyed.  This country needs more of these types and I perceive that the political will in America is finally beginning to make that clear. I favor more “blue dog” conservative Democrats and more moderate Republicans to recreate what was once upon a time the political center.
~John Shelby Spong
Read the essay online here.





Question & Answer
Victor Fuentes, via the Internet, writes:
Question:
My name is Victor Fuentes, I live in Ottawa, Canada.  I am a graduated lay minister of the United Church of Canada, originally from Central America.  I have read some of your books and I have a lot of  admiration for your contemporary interpretation of the Bible.  I would like to know if I can get a transcript from your lecture on The Terrible Texts of the Bible (Burke Lecture).  I am going back to my country and I would like to reproduce the lecture in Spanish with your authorization.  Thank you.
Answer:
Dear Victor, 

Thank you for your letter.  Places where I go to lecture frequently both audio and video record the lectures and distribute them as they will.  Normally I have nothing to do with it.  The Burke Lecture, to which you refer, was delivered at San Diego at the San Diego branch of the University of California a number of years ago.  I gather it has played on PBS several times in that part of California, since following each replaying I receive a new spate of letters about it.  I also know it is available on the web for any one to hear or even to download who wishes to do so.  I do not, however, have a copy and seldom do I keep copies of the audiovisuals anyway.  If you would contact the University of California in San Diego or the PBS station in that part of California, I feel confident they would be able to get it for you and I would be quite pleased if you were to translate it into Spanish. 

I wish you well. 

~John Shelby Spong





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