“Can We Ever Expect Sanity From Our Government Again?”

August 27, 2012 in Excerpts, Politics | Permalink

“How about this: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, in a freeform talk-show-type discussion. “

That excellent James Fallows of the Atlantic has just done a lengthy Ask Me Anything on Reddit. A few segments follow.

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Question:

If you could have any two presidential candidates from any of the recent elections (2000-now) debate, which two would you pick and why?

James Fallows:

How about this: Bill Clinton and Barack Obama, in a freeform talk-show-type discussion. That would be fun.

Fun in a different way: Bill Clinton and Dick Cheney.

Bonus point: I submit that Dick Cheney has become the most malign major figure in modern American politics. Which is interesting and disturbing because at an earlier stage of his existence he was “moderate,” open-minded, pleasant, non-vindictive, and so on. He was chief of staff under Ford, and was in charge of the transition to the Carter team (which included me as an underling). An entirely different kind of guy then. For later discussion.

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Question:

What’s your whole view on the upcoming election? How different do you think the candidates are? (They both seem to be similar to me with their plans, Romneys health care plan etc.)

James Fallows:

How different are the candidates? They (Obama and Romney) are actually more similar, as human beings, than in some previous elections. (Clinton v Dole, Clinton v George HW Bush, Obama v McCain). Both Harvard Law guys, both more introverted than classic-pol extroverts, both “left brain” rather than right brain people.

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Question:

I’m just curious, can we ever expect sanity from our government again? Even if they only consider it the last option… if they run out of options, if they run out of steam on this consensual reality kick they’ve been on, I can see a little old-fashioned honesty swaying a huge chunk of the populace, regardless of which party it comes out of. Traditionally though, or at least over the last century, the Republicans did their fair share of straight talk… I’m curious if I can expect to see that again in my lifetime or if it is more likely they become a marginal, religious, party and a new party, of a necessity, rises to replace what they’ve left behind.

James Fallows:

This is a good point and a really major question, and one that I have seen debated quite a bit among Republicans.

There has been an active theme on the right this year, arguing that the 2012 election is the GOP’s “last chance” for a while. The argument is that if Romney wins the White House, the party will have some leverage for a while. It wil probably have a few Supreme Court appointments; the modern vetting process is such that people will be chosen young, and for “reliable” views; other changes with some carry-over can be made. Meanwhile, the rural-state skew of the Senate also magnifies GOP influence there.

But if Obama is re-elected, by this argument, the Republicans are in trouble. Their recent positions have weakened them among the following voting blocs: women, Latinos, blacks, gays-lesbians, Asian-Americans, the highly educated, the young. All the growth in the electorate is in these groups. The nightmare vision from this point of view would be California — reliably Republican a generation ago, now the other way.

I would hope that if Romney loses, especially if he loses big, it would be the occasion for systematic re-thought in the party — like what happened after Goldwater (though that led to Nixon) and what happened after the Carter and Mondale defeats in 1980 and 1984, leading to Clinton. My fear is that the hard-liners in the party will say that the problem was that the 2012 GOP was not conservative enough. If only Paul Ryan had been at the top of the ticket.

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