I didn’t vote on Tuesday in Phoenix, Arizona, my residence for almost the past 4 years though I voted in the National Elections last year. I was pleased to see that the local school funding and bond issues all passed with comfortable margins across the metro area. Had I voted, my other choice would have been for a city council position wherein I did not know either candidate.
ARIZONA
Heavily Democratic yet generally non-partisan Phoenix has been well-managed for years, unlike the wholly mismanaged Republican-controlled State government and the completely dysfunctional bi-partisan Maricopa County Government where Sheriff Joe Arpaio is always happy and ready to disregard the U.S. Constitution. It’s going to be a real barn-burner in Arizona next November when all State Legislators and the Governor face the voters not yet having any idea on how to fix a $2 billion budget gap without more draconian service cuts, a big tax increase, or both. The deep recession won’t make that job easier for several years to come.
NEW YORK
Former Governor Sarah Palin worked her magic in upstate New York as she did with Senator McCain nationwide in 2008. She guaranteed a Democratic victory in a conservative congressional district to the sole surprise of Media pundits. Her extreme cluelessness trumps everything – and I don’t even understand the claims she is physically attractive. A Democrat has not represented this district since 1872 and Alaska was only purchased a few years earlier from Russia in 1867. Mrs. Palin should first read history before she tries to rewrite it.
While growing up, I spent a couple of weeks each summer vacationing in upstate New York with my family. The last time I went there was in the mid 1990’s on a business trip to Syracuse and Albany, but I still have a few cousins living in Oneida and Glen Falls. Many arch-conservatives live in the 23rd Congressional district but they are not the majority of the spread-out population. Most of the electorate prefers moderately conservative policies in an area that survives principally on public spending and government payrolls. The rest of the people depend upon tourism to the beautiful Adirondack State Park and its mountains, lakes and forests.
NEW JERSEY
Governor Corzine of New Jersey – a former executive of Goldman Sachs – lost his re-election bid to a conservative Republican former District Attorney who publicly played up any moderate credentials and avoided his more conservative views. The state-wide graft and corruption has been and is so pervasive and embarrassing that it required a change in state leadership.
Anyone who throws around tons of his own money in a campaign that was made from working at Goldman Sachs is not going to win any popularity contests for a long time to come. With 60% of American adults considered obese, making fun of a candidate’s weight is not going to get an opponent ingratiated to any electorate.
I’ve also had a number of long visits during my childhood and teen years to the “Garden” State. Part of my late father’s family lived in Hoboken and my parents had some close friends living in Spring Lake Heights along the Jersey shore. The sheer volume of continuous traffic and noise on and near NJ highways is frightening and a complete deterrence to my ever living there.
MY LATE FATHER
The last time I visited New Jersey was in 1994 when I attended my Grandmother’s funeral with my father. We also went to New York City where he spent many of his formative and some professional years – even dining at the top of the World Trade Center. My father died in December 2001 following a long battle with the ravages of Parkinson’s disease. He was an extremely intelligent, gentle, well-read and well-traveled man – an architect who graduated from Columbia University – and he was well respected by his colleagues and peers. After the 9/11 attacks, I suspect that he could no longer live in a world that so radically changed his positive global perspective. Our country has not fully healed from that national trauma and we might not until we cut loose our involvements in Iraq and Afghanistan. I miss my father and our country’s lost innocence.
VIRGINIA
The new governor of Virginia is a conservative who ran as a centrist Republican. He had no problem beating a fairly unknown Democratic candidate who ran a pretty lousy campaign. And history shows that Virginia generally goes for the opposite party of the prior year’s Presidential winner. This was not a victory for the far right wing of the Republican Party even if FOX News and other conservative Media mouthpieces continuously scream otherwise.
My personal visits to Virginia can be counted on one hand, consisting of the suburbs of Washington DC, Virginia Beach, Williamsburg, and the pleasant College of William & Mary during the 1980’s and 1990’s with various close friends, family members and business associates. The last two times I visited the Nation’s Capital were for business in 1991 and 1994. The Southern, Western and rural parts of Virginia are much more conservative than the DC suburbs. That intra-state geographic and urban division is repeated in many other states such as New York, Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio – all of whom are very familiar to me.
TRAVEL IS GOOD
In 1991 I took the overnight sleeping car on the Amtrak train from Chicago and Cleveland to Washington. The dome car views of the mountains and Potomac River in the morning section of the trip into DC were particularly beautiful and memorable, similar to the stunning Hudson River Valley in New York, which I have also traversed by Amtrak. Given the opportunity, I prefer to take the train but European rail service puts our country to shame – and so do many other Asian countries, including China. Our “uniqueness” is sometimes just stubbornness by denying that we are falling behind all our major international competitors in a myriad of fields. Only 8 to 13 billion dollars for high speed rail is not anywhere sufficient to close the gap.
All Americans need to travel more domestically and internationally to open up their minds and outlooks to the views of other people and on all aspects of our lives. Doing this virtually over the Internet is just not an adequate substitute. Unfortunately as more Americans lose their middle class status, they cannot afford to travel to many places. This may be a plot by our leaders to keep us ignorant and placated by not knowing directly what is really going on elsewhere in the country or world.
TOLEDO & DETROIT
The independent and moderate Mike Bell was elected over the Democratic Party’s endorsed candidate in Toledo, Ohio – where I lived for 14 years between the ages of 7 and 21. Fortunately I only had to later deal with the long-time chimerical, unpredictable and finally retired Mayor Carty Finkbeiner on two public issues back in the 1990’s when I was already a practicing attorney in Cleveland. There was no Republican candidate to speak of in this struggling industrial city. It is still a good place to raise a family if you still have a good job – which are very hard to come by today. The GOP holds little sway in Northwest Ohio except in the city’s suburbs and surrounding farm areas.
In 2004, while still living in Cleveland, I went back for a week to visit Toledo, Detroit and Windsor, Canada with my spouse and our young son. They were pleasantly surprised by Toledo and Windsor – and completely shocked and saddened by Detroit – which was no surprise to me. I had visited those two nearby cities frequently while living in Toledo. Nothing describes America’s numerous economic, political, social, ethnic and urban disasters over the past 30 years better than Detroit. My family and I moved to sunny and growing Phoenix almost 4 years ago to escape the worsening economic situations in Cleveland and Chicago that I sensed would go nationwide in a few years. The growth and prosperity ended in Arizona with the epic burst of the housing bubble but at least the weather is still always warm and sunny.
MEDIA IS SOMETIMES USELESS
The scattered 2009 elections were not about the entire U.S. or any particular region in the country either. The nation’s press and media – unable to concentrate on the real national issues facing us – simply hyperventilate on the trivial as this off-off election effectively was and proved to be. The Media uses themselves and their tiresome pundits to create endless tempests in teapots to entertain us. Instead they insult most people’s intelligence since they no longer inform us about anything of consequence but obsess over their own delusions, fantasies, and narrow priorities. Many Americans have tuned out major news sources in favor of niche sources that comport with their predisposed world views. I prefer to regularly read many different news and blog sources from around the U.S. and world to keep my perspective as wide as possible.
WARNINGS FOR DEMOCRATS
Democrats did not turn out in great numbers across the country to vote in the few elections that were held yesterday. Angry and anxious Americans, particularly some independents and Republicans did turn out and made a difference in New Jersey and Virginia. These elections were not referenda on the Obama Administration or the Democratic Congress, or even on healthcare – but expressions of fear over high joblessness and a bad nationwide economy. People are impatient with the slowness of change or any concrete actions to address many of our country’s economic and political problems. Most Americans still feel ignored by Washington. Senate Majority Leader Reid and House Speaker Pelosi stand warned in this respect.
On Tuesday ostensible moderates won in several elections by wisely concentrating on local issues and avoiding any references towards any extreme political views. The extreme right and left wings-nuts of the political spectrum were not successful. They make for great media entertainment but neither extreme is competent at running anything – least of all major governmental institutions at all levels that must deal with real world problems and meet the needs of the majority of Americans. However, the 2009 voters were angry at incumbents and anyone they perceived as sharing the blame for the economic debacle we have experienced over the past two years.
FACTORS FOR 2010 AND 2012
I have written in prior posts that the 2010 Midterm and 2012 national elections will be determined by the nation’s then-current official and actual unemployment rates, overall economic growth, and whether those numbers are moving up, down or stagnating. The Democrats in Control of Washington must also overcome the influence of powerful special interests and wealthy campaign contributors to enact a majority of their substantial policy proposals into law.
Democrats must also energize their base and independents to come out in the same or greater force than in 2008. Both parties must break their allegiance to Wall Street interests over those of the rest of the country. Otherwise anyone with large campaign contributions from financial and banking lobbyists or a voting history of favoring them may be targeted by the angry electorate.
STAGNANT ECONOMY NEEDS ATTENTION
Our economy faces a severe lack of private sector demand that can only be overcome by targeted public investments in our infrastructures, businesses and households. Private businesses only invest in new employees and equipment when they see more paying clients and their gross revenues increasing. They move positively only if they believe future growth is coming. They do not decide upon their business plans based upon the size of the Federal Deficit.
Those industries that concern themselves with public finance are banks and financial institutions, and we know how they have operated and fared over the past few years. The private growth in the economy is not happening because consumers have seriously cut back on spending and will continue this destructive cycle due to heavy debt burdens, job cuts, losses of major assets, and the fear of the unknown. The best way to get Federal deficits down is to get the economy moving again – but we cannot look to our financial sector for any assistance.
LESS PARTISAN FUTURE
I also wrote a recent post about the possibility of complete gridlock in our nation if we had to be governed by a majority of independent politicians, no longer tied to either political party, but only interested in their re-elections. Some commentators correctly took exception with my musings. Most Americans do not want politicians who are captives to their campaign contributors and who only favor a minority of Americans. Non-partisanship may be a trend that wishes to break from all the old rigid ideologies and the “us versus them” mentality that has so perverted our political, economic and social systems and national discourse for the past 20 years.
What Americans may prefer are pragmatic, competent, open-minded centrists and moderates, who do not just split the difference between widely-disparate policies, but rather those who choose rational, creative, and effective combinations of policies from all parts of the political and economic spectrum without concern for maintaining any old rigid orthodoxy. These leaders would focus on the best long-term interests of the country and the majority of citizens instead of only worrying about their re-election prospects.
I think the transition to such an overall sane and less partisan governmental system – requiring that we effectively disregard the extreme ideologies on the right and left – will also take several more election cycles and more national setbacks to bring to fruition. All the endless vitriol, anger, screaming and 24/7 theatrics from our political extremes are just the ranting of dying and discredited demons from our nation’s past. Real exorcisms are not easy undertakings but eventually they succeed through our own hard work and the Grace of God.
Marc Pascal