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Political Warfare

By pharrell

At the final Democratic debate in Iowa, the moderator asked John Edwards how he would accomplish his "agenda after spending a lot of months calling [Washington special interest] groups corrupt." He looked a little taken aback by the question, which assumed he would have to work within Washington to accomplish his policy goals, and his answer suggested that he rejected that premise:

[S]ome people argue that we're going to sit at a table with these people and they're going to voluntarily give their power away. I think it is a complete fantasy, it will never happen. I don't think anybody in America wants to see politicians fighting with each other. But I think they understand that we have an epic battle in front of us to do what needs to be done for all the American people. All the things we've talked about today...depends on winning this battle. We cannot do it if we don't win this battle, and all I would say is I?ve been fighting these people, big corporations, for 20 years in courtrooms and then in public life. I have been fighting them my entire life, and I have been winning my entire life.

I have the deepest respect for Edwards for his willingness to stand up for his principles. But his answer left me wondering whether the moderator was on to something with her question--is Edwards simply too entrenched, too personally scarred by Washington politics to try a different approach? For the past 15 years, since 1992, really, Washington has been poisoned by a no-holds-barred partisan warfare that's left both sides with such deep misgivings about one another that it can be hard for people to sit in the same room, much less talk over compromise solutions that could actually solve the very serious problems facing our country.

That's why I've been supporting Barack Obama. He's not perfect, and he doesn't pretend to be. But he takes steps--like hiring former Clinton advisers who've been through the policy wringer--to compensate for his own weaknesses. He apologizes when he makes mistakes. He's got a couple of interesting policy ideas that set him apart from the pack. But most of all, he brings a different approach to politics, a willingness to put to one side the battles and ill-will of the past in an effort to start anew. That might prove stupid personally--his extended hand might get bit rather than shaken. But the current system is broken, seemingly beyond repair. Time and again, from Iraq, to social security, to education, to health care, to science policy, the standard model of politics-as-mortal-combat has failed to produce policies adequate to the challenges we face. And if we don't have a leader who is willing to take the risk of starting anew somewhere, I don't see how things will ever change.

Full post as published by Harrell Blog on December 16, 2007 (boomark / email).