Republicans, McCain and the Pottery Barn rule

In 2003 during the run-up to the Iraq invasion, General Colin Powell warned the Bush Administration that military action in Iraq would follow the Pottery Barn rule: “You break it, you buy it.” And so here we are in 2008, bogged down in a quagmire of occupation with the tally of lives lost and dollars spent on this destruction rising hourly.

Similarly, the Republican Party should recognize their responsibility for their current presidential candidate. They may not be overjoyed with John McCain, but he is the product of the morally bankrupt administration they pushed into office in 2000 and 2004 – by any means necessary.

John McCain, once admired for his willingness to buck his party and take unpopular stands on principle, was broken by the Bush Administration, capitulating to their demands in his overarching desire to win the Republican nomination in the future. Now, they own him.

Once against Bush’s tax cuts for the wealthy, now McCain wants to make them permanent. Once critical of the Iraq War execution, now he argues it’s a success. Once against torture, he quietly caved when the President watered down the legislation banning such practices. On so many issues, McCain has abandoned former thinking to embrace the stances of Bush Neo-con Republicans and their extreme agenda. This is only made more evident with the use of the current Karl Rove campaign tactics and talking points McCain was once the target of himself.

So I say to the Republican Party, “Good luck with McCain. You broke him; now you own him.”

Confluence of events

For the last several months, I have been obsessed with the presidential election and the state of our nation. I am fascinated and appalled at the divergence of threats: our crumbling infrastructure, the mortgage crisis, rising gas prices and unemployment, further political breakdown and violence in Iraq, intra-party sniping among Democrats, eroding consumer confidence, and on and on.

What may appear to be an amazing confluence of events to many only reinforces observations I’ve made for years.

First, as an artist, specifically a drawer, I have been trained to observe -- and to observe relationships between objects so that I can reproduce them realistically. Nothing is ever seen in isolation. So I tend to connect events and actions in relation to other events and actions, as well as on the continuum of history.

Additionally, this observation requires an attempt to view things objectively, with as little emotion as possible. In fact, when you are truly observing and drawing with your right brain, there is a sense of detachment which allows you to analyze without making evaluations.

Similarly, when I observe political and current events, I view them as related. Thus for many years, I have observed that America’s economy, based on consumer spending and wall street stock prices, is a teetering house of cards. One stiff breeze would be enough not only to blow it over, but to scatter the cards in all directions.

So how did we think the War in Iraq was going to affect our economy, especially gas prices? When you attack and destroy the production capacity of one oil-producing nation, not to mention the surrounding oil-rich countries, do you really think gas prices will remain stable?

Also, based on the history of war in America, did we really think we could sustain tax cuts and support a sustained military offensive?

Add to these problems our long history of spiraling medical and drug costs, loss of jobs and spiraling education costs.

Yet as a culture, we compartmentalize these concerns. The presidential candidates and campaigns parcel their positions on individual topics: health care, energy, education, the military, the War in Iraq, etc. But the reality is these issues are a great complicated web.

For example, I want the candidates to discuss the possibility that universal single payer health care (yes, socialized medicine!) could provide a great economic stimulus by encouraging entrepreneurship and small business enterprise, as well as freeing capital for existing companies to retool and grow. I have always been taught small businesses were the best drivers for stimulating growth.

In addition, to battle unemployment as well as rebuild infrastructure, why not develop a new Works Progress Administration for the 21^st century? This could dovetail with a new national service requirement for all youth that would include civic as well as military options.

And as we repair our own country with service and shared sacrifice, we can rebuild our relationship with the rest of the world. Because it is not our freedoms that are hated, it is our foreign policy, especially with regard to the Middle East. As a nation, we must step back and observe our own actions dispassionately from another viewpoint if we are to change things for the better.

Viewed on the continuum of history, I see America where we were a century ago. And it will take a similar pendulum swing in the opposite direction if we are to undo the damage of 40 years of conservative greed. Because in historical terms, that what conservatism represents – individual greed and self-serving motivation over the community good. We Americans need to learn from our own history, not to mention centuries of world history.