51% No More

Last night, I saw Jon Stewart on Larry King Live. He said something that seems to resonate through this primary season and probably through November when we annoint the new president. He was dwelling on what was so wrong with the Bush administration and the way it governed. I will have to paraphrase, so please pardon me if there are any errors.

Stewart had said that both George Bush and Dick Cheney were looking for a "51% government," in other words, ruling for the constituency and no one else. When this is considered, he doesn't seem to be too far from the truth. We saw Republicans blatantly turn their back on their principles from 2000 to 2006 when they were punished by losing their seats in both houses. I seem to remember the conservative appeal of small government and fiscal responsibility. I suppose these were great ideals until the Republicans held both the presidency and the majority vote in Congress.

We saw a surplus in 2000 go to an over $9 trillion dollar debt today (check out the progress). Fiscal responsibility? Last I checked, spending on credit (at least to this ridiculous extreme) is not responsible. It's about as irresponsible as I can imagine.

What about that small government, libertarian-minded ideal that was touted so hard through the Reagan years? Does anyone remember the Department of Homeland Security? To make something smaller, you normally shrink it, right? Maybe I'm confused, but adding an entire department to the government doesn't make it smaller, or does it? I don't know.

The appeal of the prospective candidates, Obama and McCain is their willingness to turn their back on party politics for the greater good. To be fair, this has been shown more for John McCain than for Barack Obama. What has impressed me about both men is their ability to listen to both sides and make a wise decision. The polarity we see today is not a result of listening to both sides and making wise decisions. This country can only move forward when reason and flexibility are traits of our head of state. Thankfully, with either candidate, we can say that that is true, at least in 2009 it will be.