Warner Proposes New Course for Economy in DNC Keynote

Virginia Governor Mark Warner has it right on the money: the largest failure of the Bush Administration was his unwillingness to engage the ingenuity and fortitude of the American people. In every corner of our nation, we hear Americans demanding a change that they can not only believe in, but one that they can participate and lead in as well.

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From creating a new economy based on green sector jobs to delivering high-speed internet to every corner of the nation, from relocating manufacturing and other middle-class jobs back to America to making health care available to every American child–if not citizen, Mark Warner has not only challenged the Democratic Party to lead us into a new era of prosperity, but he has shown all of America that ours is truly the Party of the Big Tent. A new American economy that can compete on the world stage well into this brave new century will require more than opportunities for the very rich, the very urban, and the very well-connected.

It will take Americans of all walks of life. It will be built upon the innovation and undying commitment to our nation that lies in all Americans, regardless of class, race, creed, or situation. Barack Obama can set the tone and lead America to change, but that change will be made up of tens of millions of American families each doing their small part, working diligently towards a renewed American Promise, a new American Dream.

Responses

Chronos

August 27, 2008

Lamar,

I would also add, as a corallary to Warner’s comments, that Bush also failed to engage the public properly on the war in Iraq, and more generally for the war on terrorism. How many times have we heard from Buch, Cheney, McCain, Giulliani, etc., that we are engaged in THE epic struggle of our time? I bet you hear it from run-of-the-mill Bush supporters, too. The war in Iraq, and the war against Islamic radicalism is our era’s WWII.

If that’s the case, and Bush and Cheney and McCain are right, then why have we been asked to sacrifice so little (aside from the rights and liberties squashed by the Patriot Act)? Remember after September 11, 2001, and the anthrax killings, we were told to go out and shop.

I guess the sacrifices our society makes come as a result of the gargantuan national debt fueled by huge tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, shifting more of the tax burden to the majority of middle and working class Americans, and bequeathing the paying off of the debt to future generations (I’m sure they’ll thank us for it). Then Americans sacrifice again when they pay skyrocketting gas prices, while oil companies have record profits. Instability in the Middle East does tend to make oil prices go up. I guess these are the ways America, at the beginning of the 21st century, sacrifices for its biggest challenge since 1945.

Call me skeptical, but if we had gone into Iraq and Afghanistan with a million troops, flushed money into the economy to properly equip our troops with body armor and armored humvees, all at the beginning, then perhaps I wouldn’t be so critical now. If this is the great cause of our time, then why not ask the wealthiest to carry their fair share of taxes (you know, it’s for the troops, after all, and defeating the enemy). It’s what was done in WWII. Let’s have a draft too. It was the right thing in WWII, and, again, if Bush and Cheney and McCain are right, then it would be the right thing now.

Oh, and since oil always seems to intrinsically pop up in this confilct, why don’t we have an energy policy with the specific aim to move our economy away from oil? We hear that domestic drilling will fix our dependence on foreign oil. Fine, but since the US only has something on the order of 3% of the world’s oil reserves, and since the oil companies will sell the stuff on the world market anyway, and since demand is growing in India and China, and does not appear to be slowing, won’t we still be at the mercy of the volatility of the global market? Drilling more isn’t the answer (for at least seven to ten years anyway). Adopting a national policy of encouraging energy conservation and developing alternative forms of energy is, at the very least, the best bet to reducing the downside risk of relying on oil.

The sad fact of the two terms of Bush and Cheney is that America has been sold a bill of goods on Iraq and the war on terror. They took the eye off the ball in Afghanistan by manufacturing the half-assed invasion of Iraq. Don’t get me wrong, our troops are phenomenal, and I am grateful for the work and sacrifice each has performed. The politicians in charge, however, are dimwits, cowards, and peddlers of neoconservative up-is-down snake oil.

As Mark Warner said, the Bush/Cheney administration had an opportunity, and they squandered it…. on just about everything.

Reply
Darren

August 27, 2008

OK…I’m really confused now. Did Bush and Cheney decide to run again and not tell anyone? I also heard one of the dems mouthpieices at the Convention refer to the the Bush/McCain foreign policy. Again, I’m confused….I thought McCain was a Senator from Arizona…not the Vice President. I’ll be the first to admit that Bush has failed to effectively lead our country…but don’t try to put him and McCain in the same box just because they are both Republicans.

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Daniel T. Smith

August 27, 2008

I understand your concern, Darren, but other than proposing to expand renewable energy opportunities (which I guess Bush finally acknowledged in his most recent State of the Union address), John McCain’s policies would continue or expand the policies of President Bush.

McCain : I Totally Agree With Bush On The Transcendent Issues–

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