Friday, December 05, 2003

My Presidential Endorsement

One day a couple of summers ago, I was wandering with some friends through the streets of Madaba, Jordan, looking for a hotel. We met a man who told us we were on the wrong side of town, but who insisted on closing his shop to give us a ride, saying that he was planning to go to New York in November and hoped people there would do the same for him. On that same trip, I had a taxi driver from Irbid, who asked if it was true than in the United States Muslims, Jews and Christians all lived together peacefully. A friend said it was, and he replied that he wished he could live in a place like that. Later, I went into Syria where I met a politically minded man who had many quarrels with American policy toward Iraq, Israel and the world at large, but who also spoke about American freedom and democracy as among the highest ideals toward which the peoples of the world aspired.

I've always been a bit skeptical of whether that man in Madaba would have gotten rides from random New Yorkers, but he and the others I have just mentioned were onto something about America, something highlighted even more a few weeks later on September 11, 2001. That day, 19 members of a terrorist organization whom many would see as the face of Islam killed 3000 Americans at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

One of my professors was at a conference in Istanbul that day. When he returned, he told us that one thing he had noticed there was that people who had always seen the U.S. through a lens of flashy Hollywood movies and newscasts saw this country in a way they never had before, as for the first time the politicians and action heroes were displaced by police and firemen and medical workers. And even a cursory glance through the media shows that on that day, the world mourned as flowers were left at embassies, moments of silence were observed, and Arab students sitting in a Gulf classroom angrily denounced the attacks as haram, a word the use of which would normally be punished but on this day was not as people who knew very well that al-Qaeda's threats extended to more than just the U.S. wondered who might be next, and as all could see that the victims of these attacks were of a multitude of creeds and nationalities, drawn to these shores by a dream and an idea with which this nation is forever associated.

That idea, the idea touched upon by the Irbid taxi driver, the Madaba shopkeeper, the Syrian idealist and many others I have met over the years is community. All democracy is based on community. At the core of our being, Americans are builders of communities, and all our many debates revolve around one single question: How do we make our communities better. Oh, we have not always succeeded in our quest, and to this day our past mistakes reach ugly fingers into the present as we strive to overcome the legacy of slavery and racism, to aid our Native American communities and to ensure that women have equal oppotunity in all areas of our society. Yet this idea of building communities lies at the core of our national traditions, embedded in such stories as the Pilgrims and the first Thanksgiving, the coming together of the 13 colonies, and nostalgic films like It's a Wonderful Life. It is what Americans celebrate when we take pride in our role as a force for peace in the community of nations or our heritage as a "melting pot."

Today, one candidate has this clear vision of America, a vision which lies at the core of his ideology and agenda and which has survived all the alterations one undergoes in the course of a political career. Indeed without him, I likely would not have articulated it in the same way. It is a vision which will serve as the basis of a far-sighted and responsive government a this key hour in our nation's history, and one that allows us to look beyond the sundry programs and small promises of the present to chart a bold future for the next generation. And for that reason, I have decided to support Howard Brush Dean for the office of President of the United States.

Up until now, I've talked mostly about the outside world, and to that I shall return. But the problems which worry most Americans are closer to home. I just said this was a key moment in our history. Howard Dean said in a recent pamphlet, "Our history has been the story of change. The struggle to live up to our founding ideals—justice and equality—has been an ongoing one. When we have seen injustice and inequality in our institutions and our laws, the American people have risen time and again to challenge them."

Today, change is afoot everywhere we look. The economy is changing. Our manufacturing sector is being crushed between the twin walls of globalization and mechanization, leaving many Americans adrift and out of work. President Bush's policies in these areas have failed. One hundred years after Henry Ford proved that the way you grow the American economy is to lift up the American worker so they can buy the products that make the rich rich, George Bush is waging a war on labor, ensuring that when people finally do find jobs they are low-paid workers with no benefits who spend all their time just trying to put food on the table. And while most Americans struggle to make ends meet, Bush gives a tax cut to the rich to go with the corporate welfare that only increases the tuition and property taxes for the rest of us while CEO's send jobs overseas and take the huge profits to line their own pockets. Howard Dean understands the need for a strong labor movement that will fight for worker's rights, and that the ongoing process of globalization needs to be managed in a way that leaves Americans with opportunities while the system is still adjusting.

Closely linked to the economic issue is one of health care. The richest nation in the world insures a smaller percentage of its citizens than Costa Rica. Howard Dean, once a physician by trade, understands that serious health problems for the uninsured can ruin lives and families. As President, he will extend health care coverage to every American below the age of 25 using two existing federal programs. He will offer use a combination of tax credits and aid to small businesses to move the adult population closer to universal coverage and at long last fulfill the promise of Harry Truman, ending this as a national issue once and for all. He will also address the needs of seniors with a real prescription drug benefit, as well as implement long-needed malpractice reform so that claims are vetted by a panel of experts before trial, ending the burden of frivolous lawsuits while preserving people's rights to a day in court.

At the same time, under Howard Dean, the United States will invest in the American infrastructure. On energy, George Bush believes that we need to drill for oil in Alaska to end dependence on Middle Eastern oil. Perhaps he hasn't heard, but the U.S. isn't dependent on Middle Eastern oil, a region which supplies only about 10% of our needs. And if it's oil itself he's worried about, then he should know that the oil in Alaska is merely a drop in the bucket of the world's supply, and will have no effect on prices whatsoever. We need to stop handing over our environment to the people responsible for our high gas prices and instead invest in truly independent sources of energy - solar power, wind power, ethanol, and biomass - leading to an American energy sector that will create good blue-collar jobs for American workers.

Getting a high-paying job today means forking over thousands of dollars in tuition, an amount increasing faster than ever thanks to George Bush's failed budget policies. We need to make it possible for every qualified American to get a college degree, which Howard Dean will do by guaranteeing access to $10,000 a year in financial aid and placing limits on how much income can be taken up with student loan repayments. This way, poor and lower middle class parents will understand that college is a realistic option and encourage their kids on the path to success, rather than being intimidated by the "sticker price" of high tuition rates like too many I knew in high school. He will also endorse a voluntary early childhood intervention program so that young parents will understand their child's needs and the available resources, sharply limiting those problems which have their roots in early childhood experiences.

These are just some of the issues which we can address under a Dean administration. But the most important duties of any President lie in the realm of foreign policy. The next President of the United States will take the helm of a nation at war. This war did not begin on September 11, but years earlier when terrorists first targeted this nation and its people. It is not George Bush's fault that they broke through during his watch, but that breakthrough brought the war home to the American people. George Bush did the right thing by choosing to pursue it vigorously in Afghanistan, but too quickly became side-tracked by think-tank advisors into pursuing long-held foreign policy goals under its guise.

I supported the war in Iraq, because I said I had faith that it would not hurt the war on terror and that the administration had adequately planned its aftermath. This faith was betrayed, the misjudgement terrible, the consequences horrendous. As the most powerful military nation the world has ever seen, we could not help but win our way easily to Baghdad, but since then out policy has lurched around blindly while Pentagon planners admit things like they didn't realize the Shi'ites would become a factor after the war. The administration's failure to understand and maintain our international alliances forced us to go it alone, and now our soldiers are performing nation-building duties for which conservatives long insisted we not train them.

As a result of this short-sightedness, patriotic American soldiers are dying on an almost daily basis while Iraq hovers on the tip of a rifle between a responsive government and total chaos. Meanwhile, the Taliban are growing stronger, threatening to emerge again if corruption, warlordism, and outside meddling again tear the nation apart. Al-Qaeda has not struck again on American soil, but it has been linked to an unending series of attacks from Morocco to Kenya, Indonesia to Turkey, attacks which threaten our allies and point to an increasingly dangerous cooperation among formerly disparate militant groups. And among our putative allies from Egypt to Uzbekistan, dictatorial governments step up their oppression under the guise of the American war on terror just like in the 1970's the last Shah of Iran stepped up his under the guise of our war on communism.

This is not a recipe for making Americans safer. George Bush began the war on terror, but he does not know how to fight it, and he has largely abandoned his duty to do so, hiding behind pretty speeches and photo ops and relying on Americans not to notice his real policies. He did not have the patience or the skill to bring to our side those angry students in that Gulf classroom I talked about earlier. He has damaged our relationships with many of our oldest allies. Even those first responders whose fame reached Istanbul on September 11 still lack much of what they need to prepare for terrorist attacks of the future. This President has got to go. Howard Dean does not have personal foreign policy experience, a reason I initially ruled him out of serious consideration. However, Dean does have a quality Bush sorely lacks: judgement. Dean has shown judgement in his choice of advisors, such as Danny Sebright, who reported directly to Donald Rumsfeld as a coordinator of the war in Afghanistan, and more recently Bill Richardson, one of the most experienced foreign policy hands in the Democratic party. As President, Howard Dean will pursue a course of wisdom rather than brashness, working to repair our tattered network of alliances while providing the leadership skills necessary to rally us again to the virtues which have made this country great.

I began this post by talking about community, a vision of America which Dean has made the moral centerpiece of his campaign. As he once wrote, "The American people have a capacity for great things. We must once again set ourselves on a course to achieve them—based on those values that have sustained America throughout the centuries." Over twenty years ago, Ronald Reagan called upon Republicans to remember the values for which their party stood, and force the American people to choose in a contest of ideas. Today, Howard Dean challenges Democrats to do the same thing, to remember who we are, why we believe the things we do, and go confidently before the American people and ask them to choose.

Many insist he cannot win. Over 200 years ago, Thomas Paine wrote, "A long habit of not thinking a thing wrong, gives it a superficial appearance of being right, and raises at first a formidable outcry in defense of custom." Howard Dean is tough, articulate, and politically skilled enough to win this election. He won my vote despite my emphasis on foreign policy experience and my frequent, too often ill-fated run-ins with his supporters. It is time we tried standing on our principles with a strong candidate at a moment in history when the choices have never been clearer. Arrayed on one side will be fear and anger toward the outside world and the core elements of a social darwinism which consigns too many Americans to a reject pile if they can't get in on Bush's corporate game. Arrayed on the other will be hope and friendship as we strive to promote our values of community at home and abroad. This is the way America has always succeeded.

My favorite Thomas Paine quote has always been, "We have it in our power to begin the world over again." My friends, there are no more worthy values than those we stand for. In the political history of the earth, there has never been a cause greater than this American experiment, which has shone like a beacon of hope and possibility for over 200 years. During the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln said, "Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. The fiery trial through which we pass, will light us down, in honor or dishonor, to the latest generation." I believe this generation of Americans can acquit ourselves with honor, bearing our message of hope to the world and inspiring those people I mentioned in the first paragraph by living out our ideals while rising to the challenges of the present age and opening the gates to our exciting future. And Howard Dean is just the leader we need to take us there.

Dean-Blogging will henceforth become a regular feature of this site.

UPDATE: Matt Bruce has the stats on this post.

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