Whose fault?

I've probably done more railing against the Republicans in the last couple weeks than I have in the entire rest of the three years I've been writing this little blog. One big reason for that is because of election season (so expect another month of the mouth-frothing). Another big reason is the financial crisis. Both of these things are big, big events that force us to sit up, look around, and think:

Who is leading this country?

and

Are these leaders advancing our national interests?

In the past 28 years, we've had 20 years of Republican presidents. In the 80s and 90s, they seemed to be doing OK. Deregulation and tax cuts arguably helped the U.S. economy get back on its feet after the 70s. The Soviet Union collapsed, and America became Earth's undisputed top dog nation. Teen pregnancy, divorce, and (later) drug use and crime all went down. The economy boomed, and boomed again. For all the complaining we liberals did about Republican culture wars and neglect of the poor, their governing approach - strong army, laissez-faire economy, traditional values - was sort of working (though Clinton and some Democratic Congresses probably had a lot to do with all that as well).

So when you look back on the last three decades, it's small wonder that people kept voting Republican. Gay-bashing meanness and homeless schizophrenics in the streets were a small price to pay.

But contrast this to where we stand now. Thanks largely to tax cuts and military spending, we're trillions of dollars in debt to China. Who has the power between debtors and creditors? If you said "debtors," I'd say you need to watch more CNBC. We are up to our ears in debt to our main national rival, and it's entirely because of Republican policies.

In fact, we're in general seeing a big shift of power from the U.S. to China. Five years ago we were called a "hyperpower"...now some are questioning whether we're even the most powerful nation.

What has weakened our national power so much? Two things: Iraq, and debt. The first one is entirely a Republican undertaking. The second is a direct result of Republican economic policy - both tax and pending policies (always less taxes and more spending), and deregulation. It's fashionable to blame both parties for these problems, but someone who doesn't see that 95% of the blame lies with Republicans is either an ideologue, or refusing to look at the facts.

Which is not to say Democrats didn't make huge mistakes - our mistakes were political in nature.We have failed to craft a coherent alternative and sell it effectively to the American people. We abandoned American nationalism (stupid) and embraced socialism (double stupid).

When they criticize Republican economic policies, for example, Democrats still reflexively fall back on arguments about "fairness" and "compassion" - as if the problem with endless-tax-cuts-and-endless-military-spending is that it doesn't throw enough money at poor people. Americans don't want to throw money at poor people. By and large, they don't think it's "fair" and they don't really think it's "compassionate." Americans just do not want socialism-lite. They want a strong national economy with plentiful jobs, income mobility, and opportunity for themselves and their kids.

So the smart argument for why Republican economic policies are disastrous is that they hurt our country. But ever since Vietnam, Democrats have thrown American nationalism right out the window. We scoff at people who wear flags on their trucks. We call our country a "third-world nation" and a "banana republic."

This will not work for us. First of all, how do we expect Americans to accept a bigger role for the national government if they don't believe in the nation? Instead of telling Americans that "we're all in this together," as we did in the days of FDR, we've acted as if our government's purpose is to help some Americans at the expense of others (and if you don't believe that, recall that Al Gore's 2000 campaign slogan was "the people vs. the powerful"). We've been culture warriors and class warriors, and it just hasn't been selling.

The need for the Democrats to become America's majority party has never been greater (or at least, not for 80 years), because the Republicans aren't going to change their national-suicide policies until we boot them the heck out of power. We've got to change back into the nationalist liberals we used to be, before we decided that fat cats and rednecks needed to be taught a lesson. Earth to Blue America: the culture wars are over (we won), and the class wars aren't coming and never will come.

Fortunately, we seem to be realizing this. Obama is arguably the most nationalist Democratic candidate in half a century, and he's also solidly liberal. There is no contradiction there. A lot of people don't trust Obama because he's black. A lot of people don't trust him because he's a little nerdy. He's not a messiah who will singlehandedly put America back on the right track, but he is exactly the kind of leader we need to start electing - not just once, but for the next few decades. John McCain, whatever he once was, is now just another helpless mouthpiece of a failed Republican approach to governing. His motto - "country first" - is actually Obama's philosophy, not his. He must not be allowed to win.

But if McCain does win, and our nation spends another few years sliding down into has-been status, then we'll have another chance in four years. That what makes democracy the best system of government ever invented by humankind.