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4.08.2003
Gary Hart responds to Little Ol' MeBruce asked what kind of non-violent cause or causes might unite America and why Democrats have not proposed it. I can suggest at least three: homeland security, energy security, and national productivity. Americans should be enlisted in an urgent national effort to secure our neighborhoods against terrorist attacks. We can volunteer for training in emergency medical response in case of mass casualties and assume auxiliary police and fire duties. Our people would also rally around a national project to make us sufficiently energy efficient that no American need die for foreign oil in the future. And we can all participate in shifting our economy from one of consumption to one of saving, investment, and productivity. my question? : People crave action in response to attack. The media love action as fitting to their medium. The question is: what action do we take? Is it something like war that pulls an individualistic society together for common cause, if only briefly? Or is it something like the Apollo Program, that brings us to common goals, but without the killing, alienation and jingoism? The Republicans are unapologetic about serving the needs of their benefactors. Why should the Democracts not do likeways? There is a depth of people that would rush to a worthy cause if only one would be proposed. Instead we get tax cuts and poorly conceived wars? In a battle of ideas are the Republicans the only ones with a horse in the race? Is Democratic Boldness an oxymoron? While I think the response is a little.. vague, I still think that Hart might see that the next Democratic candidate has to offer an alternative to what the Bush people have done. Bush has offered up war as the answer to the question "What do we do now?" that was a response to 9/11. We as Americans feel the need to respond in some way. I hate that the oppurtunity was used to further violence and American powergrabbing. It was a crucial time in the history of the U.S. and as we all stood at that moment we were a blank slate. Unfortunately for us the neocons already new what they wanted to do and they used the desire of Americans for action to further their own ambitions. For this I will always be saddened. We could have taken off in a bold new direction, understanding that violence brought us to where we are, and that leading the charge to help create more global security and stability meant opening ourselves up to the world. We needed to become part of the world, share the pain that we have been insulated against and create a sense brotherhood. In the moments after the attacks nations declared their sense of shared grief, meaning the pain was shared as only people that have suffered likewise can share pain. Terrorism has inflicted the world for decades, but Americans were like the friend that has never been dumped by the love of his life, proclaiming that it would never happen to us. But it did, and we took the disasterous approach of declaring that we have suffered more than others, that our pain is more important than what others have felt. Then we threw aside the sense of world solidarity that had built and tramped off in a murderous rage. The next leader needs to redirect that sense of action and make it work towards something noble, something beyond securing global markets and positioning ourselves as the world's power broker. In this I hope that the next Democratic leader will work towards. | |
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