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Excerpt “Who am I? Why am I here?” Insiders laughed when Ross Perot’s running mate, Admiral James Stockdale, blurted out those words in the 1992 vice presidential debate. Yet in his own bumbling way, the late admiral had stumbled upon two of the most important and overlooked questions in American politics. As a newcomer making his primetime debut, Stockdale can be forgiven for wondering who he was and why he was there. When we look around at the current political landscape, we wonder, what’s Washington’s excuse? Most Americans think people in Washington have no idea what they’re doing. From the budget deficit to Iraq to Hurricane Katrina, the Bush administration did a heck of a job calling government’s competence into question. But as two politicians who have spent most of the past two decades in Washington, we have encountered a more disturbing truth. Although Washington has its share of screw-ups and incompetents, most politicians here are pretty good at what they’re doing. The trouble is, they’re not always sure why they’re doing it. We’re both dyed-in-the-wool,
lifelong Democrats, but we can’t help but notice that in recent
years, both parties in How could conservatism—which even with its many shortcomings was once a rigorous doctrine—have come to such a small-minded, unsatisfying demise? Republicans who rode to power on conservative ideals turned them into a hollow faith. Conservatism became a strategy for winning elections, not leading a nation—for staying in power, not respecting its limits. Conservative leaders forgot what made them conservatives in the first place: a recognition that rigid ideology has always been the God That Failed, and that no idea is good if it doesn’t work. Ironically, conservatives made government bigger, not smaller. In Senator John McCain’s phrase, Washington Republicans spent like drunken sailors—a conservative administration leading the biggest domestic spending spree since Lyndon Johnson. No wonder Republicans are confused of late: They say their purpose is to get government off our backs, but they have little interest in or intention of doing so, and years of conclusive proof show that left to their own devices, they’ll do just the opposite. With Republicans confused and corrupted by being in power, Democrats became so desperate to stop the damage that we often forgot to show where we’d like to lead the country instead. In the 1990s, Democrats began to define a new mission for the country and the party, with impressive results. But in recent years, our anger and frustration with the other side steered us away from our real strength: America hires Democrats to help solve problems, not to listen to us whine about them. If all this were just about politics—one confused party somehow outmaneuvering the other—it might not matter that so many Republicans and some Democrats lost their way. But what’s at stake is far more important than momentary partisan advantage. Today, America cannot afford to stumble. Our enemies are few, but after September 11, 2001, their intentions are clear. Our rivals also are few, but the rapid economic progress of competitors like India and China suggests that their aim is clear, too. Lack of purpose comes at a heavy price. When the greatest
superpower can’t decide whether it even needs friends,
the world is a more dangerous place. When the White
House and Congress set out blindly to tax less and spend
more, they literally mortgage the country’s future to
emerging economic rivals like China, which is all too
happy to help us go deep in debt. When politicians in
Washington care more about holding onto power than
about what to do with it, they invite a culture of corruption
that raids taxpayers’ pockets and saps the nation’s
strength. |
