Campaign 2012: Living with disappointment

After watching the latest U.S. presidential debate, I still think that few minds were changed and that the race is too close to call. The 5% or so of the electorate that hasn’t made up its mind is less important than the Electoral College and whose partisans turn out to vote. I’ve made no secret of my political preferences here and on various social media. However, I keep hoping that both parties will do better.

Gov. Romney and Pres. Obama point fingers
Presidential candidates point fingers

Following the lead of Vice President Joe Biden in his debate with Rep. Paul Ryan, President Barack Obama was much more forceful in his arguments in the second debate. I still think that he could have defended the liberal and Democrat points of view even more strongly.

I would have liked Obama to clearly and unapologetically state the need for government leadership in protecting health care, the environment, and civil rights. Sure, both candidates paid lip service to the importance of education, veterans, and care for the elderly, but neither proposed significant reforms beyond alternative payment schemes. Neither candidate called for sacrifice, patience, or experimentation in dealing with a recession that’s beyond the president’s direct control.

Instead of bickering over dubious statistics, sticking to their campaign platforms rather than directly address questions, and wrestling over oratorical procedure, the candidates could have laid out their visions for the next four years — not the past four or more, nor some nebulous nirvana a decade from now, when neither would be in office.

Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney also missed opportunities to lay out a compelling set of Republican alternatives. Fiscal conservatives want to cut taxes, government regulations, and federal and trade deficits — all worthy goals — but they haven’t really explained how they’d make up the revenue or continue to properly safeguard the public good. If liberals shouldn’t pick winners and losers in industry, neither should conservatives.

Social conservatives want to restrict abortion, promote individual initiative and responsibility, and eliminate programs they don’t like, but many Americans are more concerned with jobs and the social safety net. I’m in favor of renewing the assault weapons ban, continuing to reform health care, and allowing anyone to be married, regardless of race, creed, or sexual preference. The so-called culture wars have wasted as much energy as the well-intentioned but misguided and costly wars on poverty and drugs.

On foreign policy, where I can claim more expertise than in economics, the U.S. should devise a better strategy for the current and evolving state of global affairs. Both Democrats and Republicans have coddled dictators, misjudged security threats, and needlessly rattled sabers.

Why is it that the U.S., which spends more on its military than the rest of the world combined and is the No. 1 arms seller, has lost its credibility as a peacemaker? How can we help break the nuclear standoff between Israel and Iran without escalation? How can we encourage democracy without getting embroiled in civil wars in Libya and Syria, continue to engage European and Asian allies amid their own economic turmoil, and contain the threat posed by states such as North Korea?

There are no easy answers, but bad-mouthing our creditor, commercial supplier, and geopolitical rival China doesn’t strike me as particularly productive. We missed opportunities to encourage reform and stability in Eastern Europe after the Cold War, and I believe we’re missing our window of influence on the emerging Asian century.

Both Obama and Romney agree on the need to eventually withdraw from Afghanistan, despite the deplorable acts of the Taliban there and in Pakistan. I hope they’ll do more than mention human rights (if at all) in their final debate. Both men say they want the U.S. to become self-reliant for its energy needs, even if they differ on the means and on the need for global standards and environmental protection.

I hope my fellow citizens will try to be informed and get out and vote. Our neighbors, allies, and foes will all be watching. We may have stumbled, but the U.S. still has considerable natural and human resources, traditions of idealism and innovation, and the ability to serve as a positive example of representative democracy. I hope we choose wisely!

2 thoughts on “Campaign 2012: Living with disappointment

  1. I’m not going to argue or debate politics with you on your own blog (that would be rude!), except to say one thing. You talk about the “culture wars” as a waste of energy, but I really have to disagree with that.

    I think they’re far more important, because ultimately the issues that make up the “culture wars” have a huge impact on the shape of our society, on demographics, and on the relationship between the individual and the state..

    Whether or not a same-sex couple has their marriage recognized or not doesn’t affect either of us on a personal level. But on a larger level, changing the definition of marriage on a national level cannot help but impact the way families develop, and it will have economic effects that reach across the whole society. Debating that, whether those changes are positive or negative and to what degree, isn’t a waste of energy.

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  2. Jim, I didn’t mean to trivialize the disagreements that Americans have over issues such as gay marriage. However, I also feel that protracted debates haven’t helped people, and in the case of gay marriage, I do think that the states that have allowed it haven’t suffered any ill effects.

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