We the People

The Democratic National Convention begins tomorrow, and I'm glad that it's taking place virtually.  While the coronavirus renders this format necessary, traditional conventions have also become outmoded.  Throngs of impassioned delegates filled with adulation for one man feels out of sync with the democracy we profess to cherish.

Though Donald Trump's political rallies epitomize this idolatry, so do Democratic ones.  I'll never forget the thrill of seeing Barack Obama at a huge rally in Greensboro, North Carolina, in September 2008.  The excitement and energy of the crowd electrified the event in a way that I'd never experienced.  It was great.  And yet I wonder . . .

Every four years, it seems, we cast about for that one candidate--usually male, usually white--who will singlehandedly save us.  In fact, George Washington's inaugural journey from Mount Vernon to New York in 1789, as described by Ron Chernow in his book Washington: A Life, began this American tradition.  Despite the new president's wish to keep celebrations simple, "Before long," Chernow writes, "it was apparent that Washington's journey would form the republican equivalent of the procession to a royal coronation."

A royal coronation indeed.  It's not what our Constitution prescribes, but it's what our conventions and inaugurations have become.

Moreover, we hold unrealistic expectations for the presidents we've elevated.  Washington captures this sentiment in words written over 230 years ago:  "I greatly apprehend that my countrymen will expect too much from me."  He's right.  Those of us who revered Barack Obama expected societal change that never materialized.  Those who worship Donald Trump don't live in an America made great again.

We've lost the "We" in "We the People," though it seems we never had it in the first place.  But it's the goal, it's the idea.  It's all of us participating in democracy.  It's scrapping the Electoral College.  It's getting money out of government.  It's overturning Citizens United.  It's eliminating voter suppression.  It's rethinking presidential power.

It's Make the United States Better for All.

Protests That Matter

Watching people march this weekend across the country and around the world brought to mind the protests in April against coronavirus restrictions.  Remember those?  Angry, white, gun-toting Americans descended on state capitols carrying signs that read "End the Tyranny" and "Land of the Free," wearing MAGA hats and waving Confederate flags.  Their macho display sought to intimidate as they demanded their rights to work, to get a haircut, and to buy grass seed as the country reeled from a dangerous pandemic.

Now, barely a month later, a tidal wave of revolt has unmasked those feeble protesters--for theirs were the protests of white privilege, of people who stroll through city streets with AK47s and know they won't be arrested.  Theirs were the protests of men long accustomed to swagger and violence, met with little or no consequence.  And theirs were the protests of people who know police officers won't step on their necks until they die.

The protests sparked by George Floyd's murder are the protests of voices long denied, of injustice and inequality.  Theirs are the protests of people demanding an America that fulfills its promise.  Theirs are the protests of fundamental human rights and not of temporary inconveniences.

I take heart in the fact that one of these protests has swelled into an international movement and that the other has petered out, its impotence clear for everyone to see.

Just Two Guys

Thursday's news that President Obama and House Speaker Boehner will conduct fiscal negotiations alone (without Mitch McConnell, Nancy Pelosi, or Harry Reid present) reminds me of an old song by Grover Washington, Jr., and Bill Withers, "Just the Two of Us."  The breezy romanticism of the original song provides a nice contrast with the brinkmanship currently taking place.

I see ahead a fiscal cliff
That I want so hard to miss but I don't know if we will
To make a deal is hard to do when there's no one else to blame
And I must report back to the Hill.

Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us

Just the two of us
Building bridges in D.C.
Just the two of us
You and me.

We look for cuts, no time for tears
Deficits are all that is and they don't make no jobs to grow
Good things might come to those who wait, not for those who wait too late
We've got to generate more dough.

Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us

Just the two of us
Cutting deals across the aisle
Just the two of us
No more bile.

I hear the tax pledge signers sigh I am simply not their guy
It's Grover Norquist they prefer
And, Barry, when that date arrives and I see the cliff in sight
I want to be with you, dear sir.

Just the two of us
We can make it if we try
Just the two of us

Just the two of us
Trying hard to compromise
Just the two of us
Just two guys.

Over the Cliff

Here's one for our feckless Congress.  Sing to the tune of "She'll Be Comin' Round the Mountain":

We'll be jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we will,
We'll be jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we will,
We can't ask the rich to pay more
'Cause they'll end up being too poor
So we're jumpin' off the fiscal cliff, we are.

Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is,
Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is,
Boehner still wants all those tax cuts
Keep in line all his right-wing nuts
Prez is drivin' a hard bargain, yes he is.

And we'll go into recession when we jump,
Yes we'll go into recession when we jump,
'Cause our Congress made a bad deal
One we wish that they could repeal
So we'll go into recession when we jump.

Some will kill negotiations when they can,
Some will kill negotiations when they can,
That's the problem with our Congress
How it functions no one can guess
Some will kill negotiations when they can.

We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump,
We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump,
For we know no one can save us
So let's not create a big fuss
We'll be shoutin' Hallelujah when we jump.

Taking a Stand

In his new book A Nation of Wusses, former Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell decries the lack of courage and conviction among American politicians today.  This weekend three leaders deserve recognition for standing up for what's right:

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg for challenging both Barack Obama and Mitt Romney to explain their plans to address gun violence in America.  "What do they stand for and why aren't they standing up?" he asked on Face the Nation.  "It's time for both of them to be held accountable."

Penn State President Rodney Erickson for ordering the removal of the Joe Paterno statue from the university campus.  Leaving it up, he said, would be a "recurring wound to the multitude of individuals across the nation and beyond who have been the victims of child abuse."

Massachusetts Senate candidate Elizabeth Warren for speaking out in the Washington Post about the Libor scandal and the rigging of interest rates.  "With a rotten financial system once again laid bare to the world," she writes, "the only question remaining is whether Wall Street has so many friends in Washington that meaningful reform is impossible."

All three of these people stand to lose for taking a stand--whether they lose stature or alumni support or votes.  How refreshing to hear their voices rise above the timidity we've come to expect.

America

Sing wistfully to the tune of "America," as if you were Paul Simon, but with a Wall Street edge:

Let us be bankers, we'll marry our fortunes together
I've got some corp'rate debt here in my bag
So we traded with a mutual fund, and hoped to hedge our bets
And drove out to rip off America.

Jamie, I said, as we boarded our limo on Wall Street
Derivatives seem like a dream to me now
It took me four years to become a billionaire
I've come to rip off America.

Trashing Dodd-Frank rules, playing loose with our money
You said the man in the gaberdine suit was a spy
I said be careful, I think that he's really Paul Volcker.

Forget Glass-Steagall Act, we don't need more regulations
We zapped the last ones ten years ago
So I looked at my portfolio and smiled a sly smile
And the moon rose over two billionaires.

Jamie, we're lost, but I know that we've got them all hoodwinked
Those suckers in Washington give us a pass
Countin' the cash for their campaigning coffers
They've all come to rip off America
All come to rip off America
All come to rip off America.

Taking the Heat

Now that we've had a week of gay marriage hysteria, I wonder what cultural war we'll fight next.  We've lurched from one controversy to another these last several months.  Contraception, mommy wars, Planned Parenthood and the Komen Foundation, even American nuns have found themselves under an unfortunate spotlight.  Interesting, isn't it, that women and "women's issues" lie at the heart of so many of these storms.

I can't help but think that our financial crisis, largely managed by men, fuels this female feeding frenzy.  It reminds me of a family where the dad is having a hard time and takes out his anger on his wife or daughter or the sissy younger son.  Marginalized figures take the heat every time.

If our financial leaders--whether they're in Congress or at the White House or on Wall Street--would lead in a responsible way, perhaps we wouldn't descend into these debates with such ferocity.  The way they're fought becomes diversionary, taking everyone's eye off the central economic crisis before us.  And more often than not, they deteriorate into attacks on women.

But we don't get leadership.  Even President Obama reacted this week to the debacle at JPMorgan Chase by praising Jamie Dimon as "one of the smartest bankers we got."  (See Robert Reich, "The Dog That Didn't Bark: Obama on JPMorgan.")  One man winking at another man is what we got.

And when this happens, women get screwed.

If I Only Had a Maid

What will we do on Sunday nights at 9:00 now that Downton Abbey is concluding its second series? Order up a household staff? Get a footman to brush off our lint?

It's been fun, this romp through British aristocracy, and I look forward to Series 3 this fall. Nonetheless, I ask myself why--like so many people--I'm hooked. Lots of reasons, I've concluded. It's an excellent plot. It has the same elements that made Victorian readers await Charles Dickens' next installment of The Pickwick Papers and, more recently, children (and often their parents) await Harry Potter's next adventure. In all our pseudo-sophistication we forget sometimes the power of a well-told story.

Downton Abbey is also great theater. The acting is excellent. Watching Maggie Smith skewer an opponent or Hugh Bonneville dispatch a threat satisfies at the deepest level, while period costumes and views of the British countryside create a visual delight.

At the same time, it's interesting that this show arrives in America just as we're learning that we're not the Horatio Alger society that we thought we were. As Paul Krugman writes recently in The New York Times, "Among rich countries, America stands out as the place where economic and social status is most likely to be inherited." Hmm, we thought that's what England was all about.

So it turns out that in watching Downton Abbey we're watching a version of ourselves, albeit from the comfortable distance of time and space. In this spirit, I've composed a piece that kept bouncing around in my head, based on "If I Only Had a Brain," from The Wizard of Oz:

I could be a one-percenter
And pay a tax rate lower
Than all the folks downstairs.
I could be a hedge fund owner
All those loopholes, all the better
If I only had a maid.

I could be just like Lord Grantham
And live inside a mansion
Commanding everyone.
But the British do it better
Here I'm only a jet setter
Oh, I wish I had a maid.

Yes, I could be a Lord
I'm sure I'd not be bored
I could think of things like capital gains
And then I'd sit and earn some more.

I'd make all that unearned income
That guarantees a big sum
I'd be a lot like Mitt.
Here I come, oh Downton Abbey
With my tax-exempted plenty
Yes, I found myself a maid.

Wanted Desperately: Leadership on All Fronts

It feels like the calm before the storm. These last weeks before Labor Day have everyone hunkered down, quiet, recovering from the fury of Irene. Ten years ago we learned in horror what could happen after Labor Day, when airplanes flew as they pleased and took down a nation unaccustomed to such assault.

Our troubles now seem more far-reaching than they did then and cry out for leaders to lead. Will President Obama stand up boldly for jobs creation in his speech next week (see Eugene Robinson, Washington Post) or will he cave to his instinct for compromise? Will Democrats, reasonable Republicans, and Independents stand up for balanced approaches to our financial woes, or will they continue to let extremists set an extreme agenda?

The times call for those who don't normally view themselves as leaders to lead as well. Will scientists remain in their labs while Governor Perry and his ilk make false statements about climate change and evolution, or will someone stand up? Will ministers hide behind their pulpits while politicians turn their backs on the poor and disadvantaged, or will someone stand up?

And will our press and our people do their jobs as well? A media that constantly inflames rather than educates does a disservice to all, and a population of apathy where so few people vote emboldens demagogues.

A nation where no one leads is a sorry nation indeed. The resulting vacuum leaves opportunities for the worst sorts to exercise power. We need only to read history--or to observe the behavior of ourselves and colleagues at work--to understand this simple lesson.

Random Thoughts on President Obama. . .

on the occasion of his 50th birthday.

1. He gives good speeches, often excellent ones.

2. He caves to his opponents.

3. He negotiates from a position of weakness.

4. He defers too much to Congress.

5. He betrays his base.

I don't know what to make of this guy. Most of the time I agree with what he says, but somehow what he says doesn't translate into action. Is he getting bad advice, or does he have some larger plan in mind?

Whatever's going on, I'm discouraged. I feel like we're all drifting along towards catastrophe--financial and environmental, especially--and the captain still doesn't grasp his job.

Unfortunately, his opponents have spotted the vacuum and they've taken control of the ship, steering us in the wrong direction. The iceberg looms, it's not even hidden, and we're headed right for it.

A Pox on All Our Houses

Our government in Washington is a disgrace. Whatever comes of this charade doesn't begin to address the problems we face. Pervasive ignorance and selfishness at our highest levels demean all of us.

In the words of all of our presidents--whenever they address us--"May God bless the United States of America." We couldn't need it more.

Let the Revolution Begin

Last week on The Diane Rehm Show, Republican Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana made the following statement: "We've evolved to a situation where the privileged, the elite in American society, really, are government unions."

Really, Governor Daniels? Public employees who happen to belong to unions are the elite in our society? Last time I checked the elite were those wealthy 2% of Americans who enjoyed yet another round of tax breaks.

The divide in America keeps growing, which is one reason the protests in Madison persist. My brother-in-law Al, from Milwaukee, was there this weekend with 70,000 others, himself a non-union, private-sector employee. Signs of solidarity spring up in the most unlikely places, as people from around the world continue to call Ian's Pizza shop to donate pizzas to the Wisconsin protesters.

Has the revolution in America finally begun? After all, we are hardly the democracy we claim to be. Our wealth is concentrated in so few hands and in so few businesses that we can't make progress in controlling health care costs, rebuilding our infrastructure, reducing our oil addiction, eliminating pollutants, protecting ourselves from predatory bankers, or regulating guns. In each case the people with the money dictate the policy, and in each case, we--the people--lose.

To paraphrase George Bush, of all people, I say, "Bring it on." Let the revolution begin.

Turkey Pardons

It's fine that President Obama pardoned a Thanksgiving turkey this year, but it's not fine that he continues to pardon the other turkeys in his midst: Congressional Republicans. The President has offered so many olive branches to John Boehner and Mitch McConnell that I think even Jesus would say Obama has turned his cheek too many times.

The Bush tax cut extensions offer President Obama one more chance--and perhaps one final chance--to speak on behalf of the majority of Americans and on behalf of the people who elected him. He needs to say forcefully, and to say every day, that he does not support extending tax cuts for the wealthiest among us. Millionaires don't need a tax break, and many of them agree. This is no time for compromise.

If the President's opponents in Congress outnumber him, so be it. He will have stood up for what's just and right.

This year's lucky Thanksgiving turkey will spend the rest of his days at Mount Vernon, waddling where George Washington once walked. If Barack Obama sells out poor and middle-class Americans on this issue, he may find himself going the way of the turkey: into early retirement, living among ex-presidents. For such a sell-out runs the risk of opening up the presidential field to a third-party candidate, splitting the Democratic party, and alienating once loyal supporters for good.

Get Off the Couch and Support Elaine

It's easy to feel discouraged about the coming election. Predicted gains for naysaying Republicans, who consistently block legislation to help ordinary (meaning non-rich) Americans, make me want to sit this one out.

But there's hope in North Carolina in the senatorial campaign of Elaine Marshall, our current Secretary of State. I first became aware of Marshall in 2002, when I contacted her office to establish my new business. Her staff couldn't have been more helpful in guiding me through a complex process. If there's one thing I've learned about office staffs, it's this: the treatment you get by the front-line people reflects the attitude of the boss. I knew then that Elaine Marshall was topnotch.

When I started receiving emails earlier this year about her campaign for US Senate, I was struck by her direct, straightforward tone. No games, no bragging, no stretching the truth. She lays out our problems and provides solutions. Check out her website. She proposes a fee of .25% on certain stock transactions to fund a comprehensive jobs program. She advocates aggressive Wall Street reform, having addressed investment and securities fraud in North Carolina. She believes it's time to end the Afghanistan War and to redirect our resources (1) to protect our borders and ports and (2) to disrupt terrorist activity wherever it occurs, rather than mire ourselves in unstable nations.

Marshall's opponent, Richard Burr, has been an automatic vote for the powerful and well-to-do. He opposed legislation that kept state workers employed--teachers, fire fighters, and police officers. He currently opposes a bill to help small businesses, which even the North Carolina Bankers Association has endorsed. He supports continued tax breaks for millionaires, and his campaign is bankrolled by Washington lobbyists.

Elaine Marshall is a vote for the future. A future where we all have a voice, regardless of how much money we make. We're lucky that Marshall hasn't given over to doubt and cynicism, the way so many have. She's tough, and she'll act on our behalf, and--if anyone can--she'll begin to change the elitist culture of that club that calls itself our United States Senate.

I'm putting my money, and time, with her.

Elizabeth Warren for President

Not really.

But our current president needs to appoint Professor Warren to head the new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and to do so immediately. The agency is her idea, after all, and she is our leading consumer advocate in these times when those who should be protecting us aren’t.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Larry Summers have long shown themselves too tied to Wall Street. Indeed, one of Warren’s main contributions in recent years is her role as Chair of the Congressional Oversight Panel, which investigates the big bank bailout. You need to watch only one YouTube video to see that she isn’t afraid to take on Geithner and to hold him accountable on our behalf.

As one who has long studied and published on consumer spending, debt, and bankruptcy, Professor Warren understands better than Obama’s elite circle the financial challenges facing middle America. She knows the predatory behavior of credit card companies and mortgage lenders and is willing to take them on.

Moreover, she resembles us. A Harvard professor, yes, but she graduated from Houston University and took her law degree from Rutgers. Finally, someone with non-Ivy League degrees. Someone, as she told Newsweek, who has “worried about money from the time [she] was a little kid.”

With her appointment we would finally have someone representing us. Isn’t it about time?

A Nation Off Balance

During the same week that Goldman Sachs announced its record-breaking 2010 first quarter earnings of $3.3 billion, The New York Times reported that school districts across the country were planning to lay off teachers: 22,000 in California; 7,000 in Illinois; and 600 in nearby Charlotte-Mecklenburg school district. Quoting Superintendent Peter C. Gorman, “We are doing things and considering options I never thought I had to consider.”

Interestingly enough, that same week brought the news that a military commission of retired officers concluded that our national security is at risk because we have too many fat people. Yes, you read that right. Twenty-seven percent of all Americans between the ages of 17 and 24 are overweight. “This is the future of our Army we are looking at when we talk about [this age group],” Recruiting Command’s Mark Howell said. “The sad thing is a lot of them want to join but can’t.”

I also heard that same week a radio report about Senator Jim Webb’s commission on the state of our criminal justice system. Intrigued, I read more and learned, among other things, that though the United States comprises 5% of the world’s population, we house 25% of the world’s prisons. Moreover, four times as mentally ill people are in our prisons than in mental health hospitals.

What do these stories have in common? A nation off balance.

A nation where one company earns $3.3 billion in 3 months while schools are closing their doors cannot lead the world in education.

A nation whose citizens are too fat to serve cannot lead the world in national security.

A nation that imprisons 1 in every 31 adults cannot set the standard for criminal justice.

I’m reminded of a boat tilted into the water because too many people are standing on one side. It’s as if we’ve mindlessly accepted a state of affairs that’s now reached a tipping point, or perhaps has already passed it.

It takes more than the captain to correct the problem. We’re all in this together.

Whose Comeback?

So Newsweek is telling us that we’re "The Comeback Country"; according to a recent cover story, America’s financial woes are overstated and we’re on our way back to the top. Does it seem to anyone else that many of our major media outlets present news from the elite, well-to-do point of view? Stocks are up, some companies are doing well—like the big banks that we rescued—no worries.

Huh?

What these kinds of reports continue to disregard is the jobless rate in America. The latest statistics show that 4.64 million Americans receive regular jobless benefits, and an additional 5.97 million people stay afloat with the help of federal emergency and extended benefits. The national jobless rate is almost at that magical number of 10%, and in North Carolina it hovers at 11.1%. These are not numbers that make us a “comeback country.”

Moreover, our state and local governments keep hemorrhaging money. Durham County faces a $10.6 million deficit, forecast to grow. Durham Public Schools expects to make $20 million in cuts, as we await dire budget figures from Raleigh. A community that has to lay off teachers, increase classroom size, and eliminate services and supplies is hardly participating in a comeback. And we’re not alone. Local governments across the country face similar scenarios.

Good news comes, though, from JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon. “There is clear and broad-based improvement in the economic factors in the United States and around the world,” he says in BusinessWeek. As a result, his company plans to hire about 9,000 new employees. So if you live in New York, or wish to move there, you can give this option a shot and compete with thousands of others looking for work.

But if you’re a teacher or a librarian, hold on to your hat. A strong wind is blowing, and it’s coming your way. It’s kind of like that volcanic ash from Iceland—the sky might look bright and blue to some, but way up high is a dark cloud that’s hard to see or understand. And it’s messed with the lives of people on the ground.

The current economy of “the comeback country” is doing more than messing with people’s lives on the ground. It’s outright ruining them.

He's Ba[ra]ck

He’s back. The tall, skinny guy I voted for in November 2008. You know, the one from Illinois, who brought to mind comparisons with that other tall, skinny president from the Prairie State. Yes, he’s back, and not a moment too soon.

With his health care legislation adopted a week ago, President Obama managed in just a few days to issue new protections for mortgage defaulters; to negotiate a new arms control treaty with Russia; to confront—in person—Afghan president Harmid Karzai on corruption and mismanagement; and to appoint 15 new government officials, whose nominations had been blocked for months by Senate Republicans.

Instead of yet further efforts to work with his recalcitrant opponents in the misguided hope of bipartisanship, Barack Obama seized the power bestowed on him on November 4, 2008, and restored his promise to work on behalf of ordinary Americans.

Now, can he build on this momentum and back the cause of financial reform? To do so, he must be willing to take on his friends in Wall Street and not worry that they won’t like him anymore. And he needs to call out the Republicans for where they stand: on the side of big banks and unregulated financial gluttons.

He’s moving in the right direction. The health care legislation, however flawed, signaled a government that finally recognized and acted on the needs of every-day citizens. Financial reform needs this same level of recognition and passion on the part of President Obama.

Let’s hope that he keeps his boxing gloves on and doesn’t retreat into that passive place of his that doesn’t do any of us any good.