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American Family, Key To The Ballot Box

“If you look deeply into the palm of your hand, you will see your parents and all generations of your ancestors. All of them are alive in this moment. Each is present in your body. You are the continuation of each of these people.” Thich Nhat Hanh

“As states subsist in part by keeping their weaknesses from being known, so is it the quiet of families to have their chancery and their parliament within doors, and to compose and determine all emergent differences there.” John Donne

What a treat! After reaching an age where much that the world has to show has been revealed, the past two weeks of coventioneering have been a personal surprise. Who would have foreseen the selection of Sarah Palin and the transformation she has wrought on the national scene? Most of the accolades that exist have been used to depict the shock and dismay, incredulity and anger on the one hand and the joy, optimism and renewed energy for the electoral fight on the other. Temporarily at least, one candidate appears shrunken and the other invigorated and ennobled by the simple act of her nomination to serve on his ticket as the vice presidential candidate.

It is as tempting for conservatives to gloat at this state of affairs as it is premature. While 6.1 percent unemployment is hardly dire news, it bespeaks a situation our normally full employment society finds shocking and reflects the real pain felt in many households rubbed raw by the sharp edge of the unprecedented cost of oil and the consequences of a financial sector that President Bush described as having “gotten drunk.” Together the two situations have placed an otherwise healthy economy on the edge of tottering into serious decline. Is it any wonder many in our society think that new leadership means selecting someone from the other political party to set us on the road to recovery?

My initial response when I viewed the recent twists in the election road was to puzzle over how callous and partisan the press was revealed to be, but there is hardly any surprise there, nor is it worth wasting time over. In this age of cable and Internet, the major networks no longer have the oligopoly on the attention of the public. One is better advised to quote Oscar Wilde, “How clever you are, my dear! You never mean a single word you say, and be done with it, but there are intriguing questions as to why we act as we do, and what it means as to the national election which at publication is less than 40 days away.

From our earliest days, our view of the world is conditioned first by family and then by tribe. Tribes are really a form of extended family and have within them all the tools of reward and punishment to evoke a predictable response to what happens to us on our road through life. In my view party affiliation is largely a result of those family and geographical influences we all experience and the filter placed upon them by tribe and family.

As an academic exercise there are lots of exceptions to this working theory, but as a useful tool to describe the recent feeding frenzy over Mrs. Palin, it is, as my friends in Washington say, “good enough for government work.” We relate to our family and our enlarged circle of friends, teachers, business associates, fellow students in a way that reinforces our niche. We draw from the enlarged group, the tribe, what we need to settle into our perceived place in the world. Anything which threatens that is rejected and described in the most negative terms to the extent that it forces us from our comfortable perch.

In our American family, the party faithful are probably immune to anything we say regarding the hypocrisy of their position, right or left. They account for close to sixty percent of the electorate and are probably beyond reach, but there is a growing body in the center that I described in an article two years ago as the controlling influence in what I foresaw as this year’s “Bell Jar Election.” And here we are with that gooey center of 40+ percent that wavers from left to right in our national elections, poised to make the difference this year in determining our direction for the next decade.

Mrs. Palin’s entrance on the scene, if it has done nothing else has restored the balance to the left and right. Those on the right who were not going to put their all into assuring the election of Senator McCain are now fully aboard, and it is a race to the finish focused on those core differences between those who prefer an enlarged governmental solutions sector and those who are concerned already about the intrusion of government into what they consider their responsibility to work out life’s dilemmas for themselves and their communities closer to home. These traditionalist voters question the road proposed by Senator Obama as being decidedly the rejected road of yesteryear; too costly, too intrusive, too threatening to our freedom and offering no solution at all.

As our election season rounds the backstretch and heads for home, the candidates have been rubbed to their core. Positions uttered in earnest some few months ago are forgotten to be replaced by a bottom line revealing just how much the candidate is willing to recede from the positions taken at the beginning of the race. The process has ennobled one candidate and diminished the other.

Twice in the week that I write this, Senator Obama has “bargained” with major network anchors over what we thought his position was only to have it changed. Once on ABC with George Stephanopoulos regarding his proposed tax code changes and again in the Senator’s interview with Bill O’Reilly. Bill moved him on the air from 28 percent to an “agreed” 20 percent rate for capital gains. Viewing this I felt that I was back in the Senate Cloakroom. The specter of his compliant body language was to me beneath the dignity of a major candidate for President.

One was left with questions of just who was this man. Forget the issue of Iraq which appears to be on auto pilot to its removal as a major electoral issue. How will he handle the real challenges of being “in Charge?” On specific issues, how does he conceptualize the tax code and the changes he describes as fitting in with any reliable expectation of increased income for most Americans? What is the connection between taxes and economic competiveness? What is the math to suggest the likely level of economic activity that he expects will be generated in the tax environment he proposes? And I am just talking about his tax proposals. These questions just scratch the surface regarding the economic viability of his proposals on a number of fronts.

To my conservative eyes, Senator McCain, on the other hand, grows in likeability and trust worthiness. His stated positions on foreign policy issues are clear. He is for smaller government and is free market oriented, but his campaign emphasis is on the process he would use to bring about solutions. We are used to The President taking strong positions and staying firm with veto pen in hand. Except as to money bills, Senator McCain will behave differently. He will not insist that his proposals cannot be touched but will instead encourage dialogue. I expect in many cases the Republican position will be issued by the House and Senate Republican Caucuses, and the president will remain uncommitted except as an enforcer of dialogue.

Unlike the change Senator Obama is pursuing which is a radical departure back to big government’s intruding hand; Senator McCain seems to be saying that his change will be in process. As an experienced compromiser, he will lead an all out effort to have those areas of greatest need attended to but as “Broker in Chief” with full intention to bang heads together until a solution is reached that accomplishes what the public wants not just a made at the RNC solution.

This would be a revolutionary change in the functioning of the Office of The President, and in our closely divided body politic, it probably would work better than what we have had for the past 16 years. It is at least worth a try rather than proposals and leadership that are likely to throw us into even more severe gridlock than we currently are experiencing.

Copyright © 2008 by Robert E. Freer, Jr. All rights reserved

About the author: Robert E. Freer, Jr. is President of The Free Enterprise Foundation. He is a Visiting Professor, at The Citadel and elected in 2005 to be their first John S. Grinalds Leader in Residence. A regular contributor to the Mercury, He can be reached by E-mail at The Citadel . Copies of his earlier columns can be found The Free Enterprise Foundation.

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