Imagine two mountains straddling a desolate valley far below. The mountaintops are crowded with loud voices only growing louder. The valley’s population is waning, its power neutralized long ago. This vignette is akin to America’s political landscape today. One mountain represents the Left, disappointed in President Barack Obama and confused as to why everything has gone so wrong, so fast. Another peak shelters the splintered, yet resurgent Right, comprised of an odd assembly of small government reformers and Tea Party enthusiasts. Far above the scene, a jubilant media caters to the partisan mess with shouting heads and dubious “no spin zones.”
Then there is the valley, otherwise known as the vanishing consciousness of the country’s ideological center. That’s where you’ll find me. If I could make a career of calling people down from those mountains, I’d start today. While most of the political class paints in black and white, I articulate the shades of gray. Messaging ploys like hope and change and “Country First” might work well on the mountain audiences, but valley dwellers respond to detail and substance. We value those brave enough to work across the aisle and counter extremists in their own parties. I won’t tell you that Republicans deserve to recapture a congressional majority (their lack of policy specifics is troubling) or that the Democrats’ legislative achievements are underappreciated (I just can’t endorse that much spending). I will tell you that America is worse off everyday politics are put before policy.
From health care to financial reform to the controversy surrounding the Islamic cultural center in Manhattan, every unfolding development is framed for maximum media exposure and partisan dissection. The accompanying questions have grown predictable: Is Obama wasting his political capital on health care legislation? Will voters punish Republicans who defend Wall Street? How will the mixed response among Democrats on the cultural center affect the midterm elections? Turn on the television and you’ll see media outlets trot out supposed experts to answer such questions. However, a fundamental problem remains. Where are the questions on preventive care or medical malpractice or religious freedom or property rights or … you know, the important questions. Instead, we are treated to coverage of death panels and horserace projections and the president’s apparent Islamization (really, people?). As the public becomes accustomed to digesting its news in a strict political context, the risk of increased partisanship grows.
The debate over the impending expiration of the Bush-era tax cuts crystallizes the nation’s trouble with reality. Allowing all of the cuts to expire would revert rates to where they were in the 1990s. New revenue sources — ending high-income cuts would bring in $700 billion over the next decade alone — are pivotal in tackling both short-term deficits and the long-term national debt. Here’s where politics get in the way. Obama’s popularity is slipping and his party is headed for imminent danger. Of course, taking money from the struggling middle class won’t make him any friends. Republicans want tax cuts for everyone. Democrats ask the rich to take on a larger share, but can’t muster the courage to tell that to the other 98 percent of taxpayers. No one budges. A solution lies somewhere in the middle. Let the cuts to upper-income earners expire permanently. Extend the tax cuts to individuals earning less than $250,000 a year for a short period while the economy finds its footing. When families are on sounder financial ground in 2012 or 2013, allow the remaining cuts to expire.
The ideological segregation of America is a deepening crisis. One can look at the 2008 presidential election as a decisive victory for Obama. He won 53 percent of the popular vote, after all. Look closer and you see that the traditionally Democratic states took on a deeper blue shade at the same time the reliably Republican strongholds became crimson red. People are congregating with likeminded neighbors. The political environment is one of entrenchment and scripted sound bites. Anyone who dares to venture off their mountain is scorned and disowned. The consequences of these trends to constructive public policy are horrifying.
Michael Stubel is a senior in the School of Public Affairs and the School of Communication and a moderate Republican columnist for The Eagle.
edpage@theeagleonline.com
