Unite the Clans

In the classic movie “Braveheart”, there is a scene where William Wallace, the protagonist played famously by Mel Gibson tells Robert the Bruce, the soon to be head of the Scottish nobility, to unite the clans. What he is passionately imploring him to do is to use his leadership and popularity with the nobles to bring them to the same table, to put aside their petty differences and to work together towards a common cause, which in this case is Scottish independence in the early 14th century from the British and their tyrannical king Edward I.
We do not face tyranny from a foreign ruler the way the Scots did back in the day, but we do face a disunited group of clans who threaten our common cause nonetheless, in our case I am referring to our 111th Congress. Of course this scenario is not unique to the current legislature, it is a feature of our two party system of government that has been around as long as we have had such a system.

Lest anyone think that partisan wrangling as they call it is a new phenomenom, I would refer you to the heated and highly partisan election of 1800, where Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican party defeated John Adams and his Federalist party in a campaign full of vitriol and vicious attacks that would fit in quite nicely in the modern era. Partisan politics is as old as the hills, and it won’t disappear simply because of some nice campaign rhetoric and wishful thinking. So we have to work within the system that we have to effect change, to paraphrase former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, you go to war with the army you have. We go to political battle with the system we have, for better or worse.

Congress is a system of fiefdoms, small kingdoms led by the nobility of the modern era, Representatives who would be the vassals in this scenario, and the higher ranking nobles who we know as Senators. Each is vaguely considered with the good of the nation as a whole, but their main concern is with protecting their lands, pleasing their constituents, and keeping their jobs. I don’t blame them, it is human nature and I don’t know that many of us would be any different in their shoes, when you have a good paying position of power and prestige, it takes a pretty unique character and strong will to act in ways that may go against your own interest.

The point is that if we are waiting for Congress to drink the elixir of bipartisanship we are in for a hefty wait. And that is where our Robert the Bruce comes in, the man that the majority of those of us who voted elected as president. We need Barack Obama to step up to the plate, now more than ever, and unite the clans. Hosting dinners for Republicans is fine, and there is nothing wrong with attempting to reach across the aisle, but at the end of the day Obama is the man in charge, the one with whom the buck stops, and he needs to use the considerable power and political capital at his disposal to carry out his agenda.

The biggest mistake with the so-called stimulus bill is that it originated in Congress, it bore the stamp of Nancy Pelosi the House Speaker, and Harry Reid the Senate Majority Leader, well before Obama got to put his imprint on it. As a result, it became laden with, if not pork then pet Democratic party projects that are effectively the same thing. Beef may be what’s for dinner (although not during this Lenten season for all you good Catholics out there), but pork is the special on the menu all year long in Washington, D.C. While there is some real stimulus in the bill, and needed aid to the states, there is too much spending that is non-essential or non-simulative and should not have been included in such a bill. Obama failed to control the process from the start, and that was his biggest mistake. I suspect that he has learned from it and will act accordingly in the future.

He already seems to be using the lesson of the stimulus debacle, as he has personally introduced housing legislation, and promises to do the same with banking. His budget is bold and expensive, but it promotes his agenda, the agenda on which he was elected to lead. The only way that Congress will go along for the ride on the economy and taxes, on energy policy, on education reform, and on health care is if Obama strongly and boldly shows the way. He needs to present the package in such a way that they can’t say no, not out of any sense of doing what is in the best interests of the people at large, but because Obama is a highly popular president who can use his bully pulpit to convince, cajole, and if needed twist a few arms to get members to go along with his ideas.

The people demand it and expect it, and if it doesn’t happen, many of these same members of Congress will be working with a new president in four years, because as any first year Political Science student learns, it is very difficult to unseat a sitting member of Congress, especially a member of the House, where the reelection rate is historically around 90%. By contrast, presidents serve two terms at the most, and the odds of reelection are probably closer to 50%.

Obama has made his share of mistakes so far, as would be expected of any new president trying to figure out what the heck he has gotten himself into. I have criticized him where I felt it warranted, and as an Independent will continue to do so when I belive it to be deserved, but I still have a great deal of confidence in our commander and hope that he will become the great leader many of us believe he can be.

Uniting the clans will not be an easy task, it won’t be pretty, and it will be far from perfect. It must be done though if we are to move forward with a progressive plan of political and social reforms that our great nation needs and clamors for, and it can be done. This may be our last best chance to turn around the ship that Bush and the Republicans have taken well off course over the last eight years, and we need now more than ever the strong guidance of a captain who is swift in action, bold in thought, firm in his decisions, with a strong and steady pair of hands on the wheel, guiding the ship of state.