Greetings, Friends. I am launching a blog to keep in touch about a wide range of issues I care about – from the workforce development problems and opportunities I struggle with in my work for the State of Michigan to health care, foreign affairs, and the meaning of public service.
With just five days left before Election Day (please remember to vote on Nov. 4!), I have been thinking a lot about what kind of Congress the next president will have to work with. But first, a word about that next president. . .
I have to pinch myself when I say it, and I have been unwilling to say it in public until recently, but I truly believe that Barack Obama will be the next POTUS! I have been hesitant to say it because I don’t want to lead myself or any of us to stop working –Obama will only win because each of us does everything we can to bring about the change we need, right up to 8:00 PM on Election Day.
And I have been hesitant because who can really say that our beloved country will elect an African American man president until it happens, what with our troubled history of slavery and racism and with the unreliability of polls when it comes to race?
But I have been an Obama supporter from early on because, to me, Barack Obama IS this moment in American history. He is black, he is white, he is Kansan, he is Hawaiian, he is Kenyan – he is globalization incarnate, the global village, individual merit and opportunity for all, an intellectual and a tough South Side politician – the quintessential American. He is an African American man who, by his own smarts and interpersonal skills, not only got into Harvard Law School and not only made Law Review, but became its president.
He represents Americans voting for someone we understand to be really smart at a time when we have really big problems.
He represents an open embrace of the shrinking global village at a time when we desperately need to repair our relations with the world and to create a foreign policy appropriate for a new, instant communication century, in which soft power will be more important than military power in shaping a just course for the denizens of our planet.
And he represents the hope and possibility of thinking beyond and outside of the stale polarizations of the “Great” and Baby Boom generations. I remember arguing with my dad during the primaries (he supported Hillary, I Barack) about what he considered Obama’s questionable post partisan rhetoric. Dad had, as ever, strong arguments to marshal. He pointed to the extremely partisan Republican leadership in the House he has to deal with. I responded that Obama is not running for the House or Senate, but for President – to lead us all.
My idea of a President Obama problem solving outside the old boxes is him calling the CEOs of major U.S. corporations to the Oval Office. These men (sadly, they are virtually all men) are symbols of a core GOP constituency. But their chief job is practical, guarding their companies’ bottom line. I picture a President Obama saying: “Look, there’s no way you can compete successfully with German and Japanese and Indian companies unless we take sole responsibility for health care off your books and set up a rational system that provides good care for all of our people. We can figure this out together – with your workers’ unions, with the pointy headed experts – but it’s up to you to make the deal with me. Who’s in?”
Which brings me to what kind of Congress a President Obama will have to work with. Given the generational shift and intellectual rigor Obama represents, the multiple crises facing our nation, and the earthquake of dissatisfaction rumbling through the American electorate just as the election approaches, we face an opportunity to make 2009 the greatest year of legislative accomplishment since the presidencies of the Lyndon Johnson and Franklin Roosevelt.
Michiganders and all who love Michigan have a chance to play an outsize role in shaping the next Congress. For Michigan is a state Republicans shamelessly gerrymandered after the 2000 election. They moved us from having nine Democrats and seven Republicans in the House to nine R’s and seven D’s in one fell swoop – despite the fact that we have elected a Democratic governor and two Democratic U.S. senators and voted Democratic in four straight presidential elections.
Well, now that house of political cards is about to fall down – if all of us do our part. Both Gary Peters in the 9th District and Mark Schauer in the 7th District are great guys I know personally. They will both be reliable allies and creative thinkers to help Barack Obama tackle the big problems: health care, retirement security, the growing gap between the very wealthy and everyone else, creating a sustainable economy, America’s tattered image abroad.
And both have a real chance to win!
So I want to ask each one of you to do two things.
First, in the spirit of mass democratic financial giving that has helped Obama turn the presidential race upside down, I want to ask everybody to give both Mark and Gary any amount you can afford – whether it’s maxing out at $2,300 or giving $5 – really, $5! The point is for all of us to give.
Give to Mark by visiting http://www.actblue.com/page/schauerforcongress
Give to Gary by visiting https://secure.actblue.com/contribute/entity/18229?refcode=web
Please do it right now, so Gary and Mark have all necessary resources to battle the lies being told about them in these final days.
Second, if you’re planning to knock on doors or make calls this weekend to elect Obama president, do it in Pontiac, or Jackson – or elsewhere in one of these two districts. You’ll be getting a twofer – doing your part to make history by electing Obama, but giving him a chance to alter history with a Congress ready to take bold action.
Volunteer with Mark in the 7th by visiting http://www.markschauer.com/action/volunteer.
Volunteer with Gary in the 9th by visiting http://www.petersforcongress.com/volunteer.asp.
Together, we can take back our country and repair our world.