"Washington, Are You Listening?"

Sydney M. Williams

Thought of the Day

“Washington, Are You Listening?”

September 16, 2010

Candidate Obama, two years ago, wanted change. As the primaries on Tuesday showed, so do the people. The problem for the President is that the change the people want is not what he desires. The problem for traditional, ensconced Republicans is that the change people want is not on their agenda either. “It is a year,” as Gerald Seib writes in today’s Wall Street Journal, “of deep alienation.”

The President has, through the passage of healthcare reform and financial reform, moved the country toward statism, a direction that goes against the grain of an individualistically-inclined people. At the same time, Washington Republicans, like their Democratic brethren, have grown too comfortable with a Party that has served elected officials well, but not the people they represent.

The “anti-Washington” mood is not new and is not solely aimed at Democrats, as voters in Delaware and New York learned on Tuesday. Eighteen years ago Ross Perot garnered 19% of the popular vote for his Independent Party. An increase in spending and deficits in Washington disturbs a lot of people, and the “Tea Party” is its most obvious manifestation. People instinctively know that the financial crisis, which precipitated the deep recession we are now exiting, was not solely the fault of large, greedy banks and unscrupulous mortgage brokers. They know that a culture that encouraged consumption over savings and materialism over moral values certainly helped. They also know, that the federal government – through legislation such as the 1977 Urban Development Action Grants, the 1995 Empowerment Zone and Enterprise Community Program Enactment and the untethered increase in the balance sheets of the GSE’s – abetted reckless borrowing. Additionally, promises by government to public unions have been fiscally unrealistic for decades.

There were no mea culpas on the part of those in Congress for the role they played in the collapse of the housing market. In fact, the GSE’s were not included in the finance reform bill. And the installation of a new (temporary) Czarina, Elizabeth Warren, to lead a new consumer protection watchdog agency, looks to protect members of Congress from consumers, while attacking banks.

While the President rails against the “rich” and corporate interests, he should remember that those are the very people who funded his campaigns and helped elect him. In 2008, Goldman Sachs gave twice as much money to Mr. Obama as it did to Mr. McCain. In the 2004 Presidential election, the richest counties in the country voted for John Kerry, and in 2008 they voted for Mr. Obama. If one looks at a map of the country, for decades the two coasts, home to the wealthy and the educated elite, have been dominated by Democrats. Their claim that they solely represent the indigent and the helpless has not been true for decades.

Lost in the morass of political gibberish has been the backbone of America, small business people and the aspirational young. Warren Buffett and George Soros, pontificating from their bastions of billions, have theirs. The young want an opportunity to get theirs.

Election time is always a period when tempers flare and differences become accentuated. It is important to keep that in mind as we listen to the harsh rhetoric from both sides of the aisle. There was a time when politicians ran for office from the fringes – inciting their bases to get out the vote – but then governed from the center. That time seems to have passed and the rise of the “Tea Party” suggests that people are mad as hell. It becomes easy to demonize the members as “extremists”, but from what I have read, they seem to be an uncoordinated collection of people of diverse opinions and backgrounds with only one thing in common: they are frustrated by a federal government which is concerned with expanding its reach, perpetuating its life and lining its own pocket. When, for example, was the last time you saw a member of Congress in a Sears & Roebuck suit? Congress, with an approval rating of 23%, has a “no confidence” vote from the people.

Tuesday’s primaries may make the fall elections more difficult for Republicans. But the fact that 31 Democrats in the House signed a letter yesterday asking him to, at least temporarily, extend the Bush tax cuts for all income levels indicates a disenchantment with their party leaders.

The time has come, as I have advocated in the past, to impose term limits on those in Congress. Forty years in Washington enriches the members, makes them too comfortable and serves to insulate them from their constituents. Voters are frustrated and angry. Washington, are you listening?