At stake in
this upcoming presidential race is nothing less than the direction of the
United States of America for the present and near-term future (circa 2025-2040).
Given the role of the U.S., as the consequential nation throughout the world,
the election not only has domestic significance, but high-level global
implications. While there may be substantive differences on the nature of such direction
among informed people who probe this matter, a baseline criterion for the
assumption of public office is studied attentiveness to the core objectives this
nation needs to address in the near- and longer-term. The alternative is that
our political leaders get sidetracked on extraneous matters or subsumed in culture
war outrage rhetoric and ignore the domestic and international matters that
should arouse the studied attentiveness of this nation’s most informed
political minds and decision makers.
For the
Democratic Party such a pathway is based on the importance of the central role
of government in conjunction with other major sectors of U.S public life in
addressing major challenges on the domestic and international front. This has
been a key factor in the party since the New Deal reforms of the 1930s. In
short, without major governmental direction, there would be no Social Security,
no Medicare, no Affordable Health Care, no 40-hour work week, no minimum wage,
no child labor laws, no unemployment insurance, no laws against racial
segregation, no civil rights legislation, no safety and health regulations, nor
federal support for disaster relief. President Ronald Reagan was dead wrong
when he said government is the problem. Rather, without the key influence of
government, the people of the United States would be subject to the corporate desires
of large business interests without any countervailing influences, which
government, as the representative of the people, has the capacity to provide.
While
one may disagree with some of the policies initiated under the Biden
administration, there is little doubt in my mind of the intent of his
administration to direct governmental resources to address a broad range of
issues related to climate change, infrastructure enhancement, and expanding the
U.S. manufacturing base through the Chips and Science Act. In addition, the
Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has addressed major health care reform, provides resources
of universal pre-kindergarten education, paid-family leave support, and allocates
significant financial support to “reduce greenhouse emissions and
promote lean energy technologies.” It also includes a $2,000 annual cap on
prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients (https://www.npr.org/2023/01/01/1143149435/despite-infighting-its-been-a-surprisingly-productive-2-years-for-democrats).
This was a far cry from what Biden initially pushed for in the Build
Back Better Act and other legislation. Nonetheless, given the president’s
persistence and legislative acumen, the IRA was a significant achievement
accomplished within a challenging political environment that made it impossible
for Democrats to attain their top-line goals in virtually any area.
The point for
this discussion is not the specifics of each piece of legislation proposed Biden-Harris
administration and passed through the work of Democratic Senate and House
members, with occasional support from some Republican legislators. What is crucial is that the agenda points to a
forward-looking direction in addressing core domestic and international challenges
this nation needs to face in coming to terms with the significant issues of our
times and foreseeable future. The critical factor here is not so much the
central role of government as an ideological end point. It is, rather, that the
problems this nation needs to forcefully address require strong government
engagement to effectuate.
While the
following is far from complete, the areas of governance that need to be
discerningly addressed include public health and safety concerns, climate
change, middle- and working-class job creation, poverty reduction, civil rights
for all groups of people, a comprehensive immigration policy, and the
preservation and expansion of vital democratic values and institutions. As exhibited
in the achievements and underling vision of the Biden administration, the
Democratic Party has the will, and the knowledge base to effectively grapple
with these issues if they gain sufficient political power to do so.
The challenge I
pose for the Republican Party is to identify those issues that are central for
the vitality for the citizens of the United States in the domestic and
international realm for the next 10-15 years, and to engage in constructive
discussions both with the citizenry, at large, and with the Democratic Party in
a serious effort to tackle them. In its
current articulation, the Republican Party is utterly unequipped to address
such matters. Nonetheless—however unlikely, given the current climate—the
political health of the nation requires two fully functioning parties poised on
working toward the national interest in key policy areas, and to exercise the
capacity and inclination to engage in workable compromises, when needed, in meeting
the long-term goal of effective governance.
For all it flaws, the Democratic Party is ready for such an effort, in which the Biden-Harris
administration has been sharply focused. Meanwhile, the other party - (essentially the party of one man, Donald
Trump) - has been preoccupied with more extraneous matters, while offering a
nominee for president who, by temperament, character, and lack of policy acumen
and civic awareness of this nation’s foremost political values, is utterly
unfit to occupy the highest office in the land.
In short, the
stakes could not be higher in this upcoming election.
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