Lets Be Reasonable As Well As Moral On The Economy

I watched expectantly last night the second presidential debate between Obama and McCain. I worked to view the debate as my Minnesotan friends and neighbors might see it. Were their concerns, spoken aloud or privately guarded, addressed last night? I would guess there were words spoken by both candidates that, if true and preceding effective action, would be a great comfort. Obama spoke extensively and thoroughly about the need to change focus from top-down tax policy where very wealthy people and corporations are taxed at disproportionately low rates to a tax policy that promotes economic prosperity in the middle class. McCain had an unexpected moment where he advocated the use of the federal government as watch dog and negotiator with the banks on behalf of Americans in home foreclosure. Both men had some ideas about reforming government and the economy, I would argue Obama had more ideas and was more thorough in communicating them. But I doubt if many of my fellow Minnesotans were comforted much by either candidate. Further, I doubt if it was humanly possible for either candidate to allay their fears in a presidential debate.

Last week I went out canvasing for the DFL the evening after the senate passed the bailout. It seems a long time ago now. My partner in street-pounding was the Obama organizer for my district, a friendly young woman just out of college. We had several minutes to talk when walking the several blocks from where we parked our cars to the addresses on our list. She told me the canvasing the previous night had been a veritable Demo love fest. She told me she personally spoke with four Republicans-turned-Democrats who were happy in their transition and willing to talk, a remarkable thing among many tight-lipped Minnesotans. For some reason, I doubted we would have the same reception this night, though this feeling was vague and not connected to a particular line of reasoning.

What happened, or rather didn't happen, over the next hour and a half was eerie and deeply uncomfortable: no one would talk to us. And by no one, I mean no one. The young woman and I worked our list up one side of the street and down the other. Many people were either not home or refused to answer the door. Most of those who we were able to get to the door refused flatly to talk. One woman who was mowing her lawn seemed to be trying to avoid eye contact with me as I approached her home with a clipboard and donning an Obama sticker on my shirt. Unable to avoid me finally as I stood on her doorstep and stared at her for some time, she turned off the mower and looked at me. No matter my coaxing, which included extensive use of my training as a mental health counselor, I was unable to disarm this woman. With a pained and grim grin pulled across her thin face, she said she could not tell me who she supported.

This encounter was uncomfortable but the one I had shortly afterward was a bit scary. I knocked on the front door of an aging, modest home in adequate repair and could see and hear the TV going in the window immediately beside the door. An older man with pure fury contorting the aging features of his pale face came angrily out of a side door. He spoke to me sharply from behind where I was standing and startled me. I was taken aback as he told me to get off his property. I quickly left and mercifully, had only a few more houses to stop at before the list was complete. Whether my fellow Minnesotans liked it or not, it is completely legal to go door to door and talk about politics in this democracy (for now anyway), and so I proceeded though hesitantly as it is also a right to be rude as long as it's not openly threatening.

The young organizer and I were utterly relieved to be done with our canvasing for the evening. On the walk back I wondered aloud what had happened since the night before when she enjoyed the deeply satisfying experience of having people happy to see her and willing to talk politics. Then it occurred to me, of course, the vote. The senate vote passed for the $700 billion bailout. These Minnesotans were likely furious about the vote. Being Minnesotans, they apparently were too polite to be honest and forthright with their feelings about the matter with us, but the logic flows. The only thing that had changed in politics since the night before was that vote.

And, as I mentioned in my previous blog, Minnesotan's contacting their legislators were mostly of one opinion: do not vote for that damn bill! Knowing this and strongly suspecting this opinion was the motivator behind the behavior of the citizens I approached that night, I am still surprised by how angry people were. Don't they realize our economy is diving to depths unknown? Of course the bailout isn't fair, but what about supporting lesser forms of evil? But that's not how many Minnesotans think about these things, at least apparently not in my neighborhood.

I suspect the reaction to the bailout has to do with the strong belief among many Americans generally, and Minnesotans specifically, in doing the morally right thing, whether it is politically expedient or economically sound thing to do or not. Many seem to look at these issues with moral absolutism,perhaps even religious absolutism, whereas I tend to try to see these things from a more secular idea of "the overall good."

From my perspective, an utterly gutted economy needs a rescue whether it's fair or not. Sociologists and Psychologists have noted for decades the trends of jumping rates of child, spousal and substance abuse during difficult economic times. There are many forms of right and wrong, good and evil. As I noted in a previous blog, certain conditions exacerbate profoundly evil behavior. I strongly believe there were many, executives on down to homeowners, who acted greedily and stupidly and there needs to be natural and very uncomfortable consequences for these behaviors. But we also need to work as a nation to keep things from getting worse for everyone.

I wonder if many of my fellow citizens feel that all of this is very simple, that if people who have done bad to our economy are punished, and what is "right" is reestablished, a more stable economy will naturally follow. Well, I doubt it. One of the criticisms of the Congress acting at the time of the first Great Depression was that they allowed the banking system to fall apart without intervention. When they chose to act it was too late.

Again, I argue for reason and responsibility. I completely agree with Obama on the issue of the executives from AIG being required to give back the $400,000 of tax payer money they spent on spas for themselves last week then fired. But I also believe it was the responsibility of Congress to make an attempt to keep AIG, the largest insurer in this country, from collapsing and leaving millions of Americans potentially without the insurance protection they paid for.

We have seen over the last eight years the utter failure of the "good and bad," or "right and wrong," dichotomous thinking. Because here's the rub folks, human beings are often wrong about things they were certain they were right about. For example, the Bush administration's concrete belief in the justification of the war in Iraq, the efficacy of trickle down economics, even the adherence to abstinence only sex education for youth (the teen pregnancy rate has jumped more than 25% since Bush took office and gave in to the right wing's position on this). It seems that people most likely to believe absolutely that they are absolutely right are so often wrong.

We need flexible leadership and a citizenry able to bend with their leadership. As the Buddhists have noted for thousands of years, the pliable reed bends with the wind and the stiff stick snaps.