The Gang of Fourteen Million

Some months back, the U.S. Senate was in grave danger of completely breaking down. The Republicans were threatening to use the `Nuclear Option’ to overcome the Democrats use of filibusters to prevent votes on President Bush’s judicial nominees. The Democrats, in turn, were threatening to shut down the federal government if the rule change on filibusters was imposed.

This increasingly dire situation festered for months and only diminished when `The Gang of Fourteen’ stepped in and boxed ears on both sides of the aisle. Seven Republicans and seven Democrats – just fourteen percent of the body - stepped forward and made it clear that despite the clamoring of crazy conservatives on one side and loopy liberals on the other they would propose centrist ground rules that would determine how the Senate would deal with judicial nominees. At least for the time being, the senators on the fringes and the leaders had no choice but to abide by the will of `The Gang.’

Rarely has the country been so polarized. Corruption of the redistricting process has led to a situation in which the vast majority of seats in the House of Representatives are no longer competitive. Sophisticated analytic tools have made `safe’ redistricting of the Congressional districts and has led to great polarization within the legislative body. Instead of having to answer to relatively balanced groupings of citizens, most members of congress are forced to move hard right or left to satisfy the narrowed political spectrum that they now represent.

The legislative changes have driven most moderates out of the Congress and sent the level of discourse in Washington to new lows. This process has tended to highlight the relatively recent phenomenon of Red and Blue states. With the level of comity working its way toward little or none, what are moderates to do?

`The Gang of Fourteen’ has shown us the way. Those of us committed to the center must assert ourselves and become `The Gang of Fourteen Million.’ Surely, those of us not frothing at the mouth at the diatribes of el Rushbo, Sean, and Bill O’Reilly or Michael Moore and Al Franken must realize that to continue to entrust our government to representatives of either group without checks on their behavior from outside the loony bin is a recipe for certain disaster.

The excesses of the liberals during the run up to the darkest days of Vietnam is a perfect example of the left gone wild, and the culmination of the conservative era that we live in today has led to the disastrous situation in Iraq and to the inept response to Katrina that stares us in the face today.

The hubris of Lyndon Johnson whose guns and butter madness led to a massive failure in the welfare state, the horror that was Vietnam, and to the long term run of inflation that wiped out the savings of millions of Americans.

Now, the `starve the beast’ mentality of the right together with an overarching hubris among our leaders has led us into the trap of Iraq and to our inability to respond effectively to disasters such as Hurricane Katrina.

When I was young, I supported the policies and people that brought us the Johnson failures. I switched to the ideas being espoused by Ronald Reagan and actually voted for George W. Bush in his race against Al Gore. I was wrong. And despite admitting to errors that could disqualify me from pontificating – you know that’ll never happen - I’m convinced there is an answer.

`The Gang of Fourteen Million’ must be formed, and it begins with each of us. The policies of the hard right and extreme left are not the answers. That the left arose to save America during The Great Depression and it was answered by the messianic Reagan era means only one thing to me. While the rise of extreme politics, government, and economic policies may be needed in time of crisis, during normal, relatively prosperous times, only moderate leaders should have their hands on the levers of power.

As we consigned the wild eyed liberals to a life of wandering in the desert, we should now be purchasing one way tickets to the Sahara for those pushing us toward the brink of extreme right wing radicalism.

It is time for divided government. I will be supporting Democrats in 2006 not because I love them or believe in them but to punish the incumbents for their massive failures. If neither or either but not both Houses of Congress fall to the Democrats, I’ll support the Democratic nominee for president in’08, again as punishment for the failure of this administration. But I will vote for the Republican if both houses are controlled by the Democrats. I will never again give my votes to a single party in control of the two active branches of government, except in times of crisis such as The Great Depression.

Surely, out of 300 hundred million Americans there are fourteen million of us with a commitment to moderate government, and we must work to find one another and to proselytize from among thinking people who are disturbed by the situation in which we find ourselves. It’s not as if you or I must be the single founder; there are already fourteen of our kind in the Senate and literally millions who voted for them, most consciously. All we have to do during conversations – or rather shouting matches - in which our left and right wing brethren are foaming as others simply listen is to speak up and indicate that we don’t agree with extreme solutions or candidates and indicate how we intend to vote.

In many states, the shift of just a few percentage points would be enough to determine the winner of the presidency. Even in many `safe’ districts, just a few thousand votes could determine control of the House of representatives.

We can do it, and we better!

Whew! After this screed you must be tired. I am. I’m going on vacation for a week or so, and the blog and you will be the better for it.

Blog on!

Wild Bill