Thursday, April 30, 2009

The decline of Chrysler and the GOP



My Dad drove a Chrysler whenever he could. He was also a Republican — and damned proud of it — back when it wasn't cool to be a Republican in Texas.

Those two character traits have left me with a certain cognitive dissonance. How would he have reacted to what's going on right now? Two of his life's most important — possibly even iconic — brands are on the brink of oblivion.

Dad didn't always drive a Chrysler product, and he wasn't a straight-ticket Republican, either. But he learned about Chryslers and Republicans at his parent's kitchen table. Chrysler New Yorkers and Pylmouth Furys (and, in later years, even the occasional Colt, Neon, or, in Dad's case, Sebrings) dominated the driveways of our family gatherings.

That's not to say there wasn't the occasional Ford or Chevy around — I drove Volkswagens of various stripes throughout most of my formative years — but, in my family, there was always something magical and desirable about Chryslers.

Maybe it was the pushbutton transmission, or the futuristic look, imbued with the promise of finned rocket ships and personal jet packs and blasters, only a 1950s Chrysler could attain.

If we thought about it at all (I can't speak for my cousins but, truthfully, my brothers and I didn't think about it, not very often) we all thought Chryslers were cool and all those other cars were what you drove if you couldn't drive a Chrysler.

No, Mr. Buick, we'd really rather drive a Chrysler, thank you very much.

Politically, well, Dad felt betrayed by Richard Nixon. He supported the man to the bitter end. I don't know how his brothers regarded Nixon but it would not surprise me if they were solid Nixon Republicans because, in 1969 — which is where my brain goes when I consider my Dad's politics — everyone over 30 supported Nixon, right? Right?

To be fair, I'm not precisely sure my Uncle David completely supported Nixon. His son, Jon, is decidedly left-of-center — you might even call him militantly liberal — and they say the acorn doesn't fall far from the tree. But the rest of the family ... well, they were, and still are, pretty conservative.

In fact, Dad's oldest brother's family attained the Bush campaign rank of Pioneer — or was it Ranger? Jon's sisters — two of 'em, anyway — tend to hold right-of-center opinions and my younger brother remains a proud ditto-head to this day. Staunchly conservative, all of 'em.

Dad was proud to be a Republican. He was as proud to represent Republicans from Bell County to the state convention, back when there were maybe 125 Republicans in Texas, as he was of his 1969 Plymouth Fury III powered by the fabled 457 Police Interceptor, the one my Mom called an old lady car because it was metallic blue and only old ladies drove cars that color.

Still, Ronald Reagan knocked the luster of the Republican shine for Dad when Reagan co-opted social conservatives in order to assure the defeat of Jimmy Carter. For the first time in his life, Dad broke with the Party. He couldn't bring himself to vote for a Democrat, despite the fact that he sorta liked Carter, a fellow preacher, so he voted for John Anderson.

Further, Dad was anything but sold on Bush II's so-called compassionate conservatism and preemptive war, though you will find few who hurt more for the victims of 9/11 or who was more of a patriot. Still, as a scholar of the Establishment Clause, Dad was quite disturbed when everyone sang patriotic songs in church the Sunday following 9/11. And he was the preacher; he selected those hymns.

That, combined with his up-close-and-personal experience with America's medical care delivery system, soured him on Republicans and prompted him to look hard at nationalized health care. In fact, before he died, Dad said if he had to be pigeon-holed, he would say he was a Conservative Socialist, whatever that is.

Today, only 21 percent of Americans describe themselves as Republicans and the venerable Chrysler Motor Company hangs by a slender, frayed thread. The car company might not last the summer and, unless some prophetic leader emerges soon to lead it from the wilderness, the GOP may disappear, at least as a national party, by the next presidential election.

I can't help but think that Dad would be very put out with the Republican's purge of political purity and profoundly disappointed with the implosion of a once-proud US manufacturer.

And, even though I never cared for Chryslers (ironically, I drive a Buick) and seldom ever vote Republican, I, too, am saddened.

(Cross-posted at http://open.salon.com/blog/richard2456)

Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Republicans can't deliver the votes

... so why should we pay attention to them?

There has been a fairly steady drumbeat from the right asserting that the Democrats really aren't much interested in being bipartisan.

This is a problem, they say, because the health care debate is important and, at least, ought to represent all portions of the political spectrum.

I heard one of the chatterboxes make that claim the other morning on the television thingy and, frankly nearly spilled my coffee and here's why.

A couple of months ago, President Obama asked the Democrats to work with Congressional Republicans on the stimulus bill. Republicans insisted they could not vote for the bill if certain issues weren't addressed — specifically tax cuts (their answer for everything).

Well, tax cuts were added to the bill. In fact, one-third of the package consisted of tax cuts of one form or another. Tax cuts aren't "direct spending" so aren't as stimulative as, say, building another bridge or wifi tower but, okay ... if that's what it takes to win your vote, fine.

Not one Republican voted for the bill. Not one.

With that kind of track record, why should Democrats defer to Republicans on anything? If you're not going to vote for it, even after we change it up to answer your concerns, why should we pay attention to any of your concerns?

In general, I'm a middle-of-the-road kind of guy. I like consensus and try to avoid conflict, when I can. Pres. Obama made a big deal about his desire to cross party lines and get things done and I really liked that. I think most of this nation felt the same way.

But, if the last 100 days have shown anything, they've shown that Republicans don't really want to get anything done, not if that means Obama will get credit. And, with all the Party Purity Purges going on right now, I'm not sure Republicans can be a Loyal Opposition.

That being said, I was gratified to hear, from the NTY this weekend that the administration has pretty much given up on bipartisanship.

That's not true. It saddened me. I think healthy debate provides the creative friction that makes our democratic republic function. Without it, we are in danger.

Here's the deal: if Republicans — any Republicans — can deliver some votes on major, controversial legislation, we (meaning the rest of the country) should listen to them and grant them input into the process of rescuing this country.

That's what it is about: votes. Deliver the votes — any votes — or shut up.

Until then, until some conservative prophet appears to lead them out of the wilderness, we should pay them no more heed than we do any other extremist political fringe group.

(Cross-posted at http://open.salon.com/blog/richard2456)

Monday, April 27, 2009

How we spent our summer vacation

Somehow, those Jeep commercials looked a lot easier on TV.

... or, we'll be falling off the mountain when we come ...

I've been looking for a copy of this column for some time. I finally ran across a copy while researching something completely unrelated. I wrote, and originally published, it in the Taylor Daily Press September 1999. It won first place awards for commentary from the Texas Press Association and a slew of regional press groups. It's one of my all-time favorite efforts. I post it here as a way to preserve (and share) it.

Gently, very gingerly, I lifted my foot off the brake just enough to let Jeep bounce over another rock, then quickly re-applied the brake.

We rocked gently.

“Don’t look,” Tia said nervously as she stared over the tops of towering pine trees just outside the passenger window. She couldn’t see the middles or bottoms of the trees — in fact, she couldn’t see the bottom of the ravine at all.

“I won’t,” I replied, my sweaty hands gripping the steering wheel, eyes locked on anything but the plummeting, impossible descent falling away from my peripheral vision. The right tires of the Jeep were finely balanced on the keenly-sharpened edge of the trail sending little bits of gravel skittering off the edge and into the ravine. The left tires bounced on boulders, a full two feet higher than the right.

We went forward — and downward — another foot. Two. “Not far now,” Tia muttered.

Grimly, tersely I sucked on my teeth and answered, “Yeah.”

Our brief bursts of conversation were laced with stark, gibbering terror as we maneuvered around another washed-out switchback on the trail which winds down the tree-studded western slope of Red Top Mountain in the heart of the San Juan range of the Rockies.

Off in the distance, I could probably have made out California landmarks, had my attention span extended to unnecessary fripperies like the magnificent view or awesome mountain ranges just ahead.

I glanced up at the perpendicular, red-streaked cliff towering above then off the side and down, down, down to the shiny river shimmering through the trees, far, far below.

That’s when we saw another Jeep headed our way and my heart actually stopped for a couple of beats as I realized that there simply wasn’t enough room on that narrow rocky shelf for two mountain goats to pass, much less two full-sized Jeeps, unless I repeated our recently completed balancing act, this time in reverse.

I stopped, pulled the emergency brake, then just sat there, waiting for the slowly oncoming Jeep, wishing for a cigarette — or, a cup of coffee.

So, how did a couple of mild mannered newspaper people find themselves literally clinging to the side of a mountain only three days into their vacation? Well, it was supposed to have been the easy way out of the mountains, the compromise route that let us see the most of the mountains without getting stuck in the rough and rugged back country for two or three days.

Indeed, the map, which we had purchased from the Silverton Chamber of Commerce the day before, indicated that the road to Ouray was only about six miles away. What it didn’t say was that most of those six miles were straight down the side of a mountain.

The night before had been wonderful, if very c-c-cold. We had followed the Animus River up into the mountains from Silverton and stopped just below a ghost town called Animus Forks. In a previous existence the miserable collection of huts had been a mining town. Today, the town is deserted, possessed of a moaning-wind-through-the-timbers quality, little more than a few piles of shattered, marmot-infested lumber lumped around three or four rickety shacks.

The views were incredible, the air was electric, crisp and cool and filled with the scent of pine and the snap of snow-fed, white water roiling through the valleys. Delicate purple, white and yellow mountain flowers littered the fluorescent green tundra and brilliant snow clung to the shadowed sides of the mountain peaks.

We pitched our tent near the gurgling river just below the timberline and built a roaring fire in a ring of fire-blackened stones, placed there by some previous visitor to this alpine valley. As night fell, the mountains surrounding that little valley were limned with the light of a thumbnail moon reflected off the snow pack. The stars never came out with the forceful brilliance I anticipated yet there was an stunning serenity to the evening which stirred my soul.

In the morning, while striking camp, I tried to make coffee. Water does not boil at 12,000 feet the way it does at sea level. I should have noted the omen. No coffee.

Still, the trek up to the pass was a sight and we had a wonderful time playing in the snow. It wasn’t until we were committed to the descent that we realized our awful, terrifying mistake. Once on that path — a path that any sensible mountain goat would have avoided — we could not turn around, nor could we back track.

For the record:
• Tia never once commented on the poor mountain climbing decision while we were involved in negotiation boulders, switch-backs and vertical drops. Indeed, in our five years of marriage, I doubt she has ever been more supportive. I am very thankful that she waited until we got off that mountain before she found a handy pine pole and used it to beat merry hell outta me. Later she said that she held her tongue during that harrowing descent because she was afraid that I would have simply opened the door and let her slide right out and down the cliff face.
• Cathrin, our daughter, sat in the back seat and read books through the whole ordeal. Later, she was heard wondering what the fuss was all about.
• It took every bit of three hours to get down. At the bottom was the “Million Dollar Highway” which runs between Silverton and Ouray. It is a nasty, twisty strip of asphalt girding the mountain and has been known to strike terror into the hearts of grown men. Though my lungs sucked at the thin air in ragged gasps and my legs felt like Silly Putty, I glanced at that road and sneered. Piece of cake.

Once we got into Ouray, we stopped at the first coffee shop we found. And, no, I didn’t hunt up a cigarette (though I really, really wanted to).

I have been to the mountain — what’s more, I have come off the mountain and lived to tell about it. I’m here to tell you that 4-wheel drive vehicles are real cool and real fun and they can get you places where you otherwise could not go. But, that does not always mean that you should go there.

Cross-posted at http://open.salon.com/blog/richard2456

Saturday, April 25, 2009

Krugman's crystal clear vision

Paul Krugman continues to amaze me. His ability to focus on the core of the problems confronting us is, to me, incredible. Read this:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/24/opinion/24krugman.html?em

Thursday, April 23, 2009

Torturous Logic, Part 2

Okay ... what I just said ...

Paul Krugman's blog:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/22/grand-unified-scandal/

Read the comments, too ...

Last night, on one of the talk shows, some congresscritter insisted that waterboarding isn't torture ... what was done in our name wasn't torture. I wonder if he would change his tune if he were waterboarded six times a day for a month ....

Torturous Logic

So torture was effective.

That's what our former Veep says, and a host of high-ranking intelligence officials back him up.

What we don't know is if we could have gotten the same (or similar) information using less harsh techniques.

The beef, as I see it, is this: even if the methods we used were effective in gaining "high value" intelligence, at what cost?

I maintain that our standing in the world's community — my "good word" — is much more important than an immediate resort to torture (according to what we're learning, we didn't even try more conventional interrogation techniques).

It's not worth it.

Monday, April 20, 2009

Senate repudiates Perry

Tia Rae just reminded me that the Texas Senate voted last week to accept the half-billion stimulus dollars for unemployment insurance that Perry eschewed.

The measure must still face the Texas House and a potential veto — not that there is any certainty any of that will derail it — so I think my comments about Perry's stand on the state's unemployed remains.

Still, it's appropriate to point out that not all of our state's politicans are whack-jobs.

Who's there?

I went home for lunch the other day to find a barn owl had taken up residence on the one of the trees in our back yard behind the garage. Beautiful bird. He doesn't like cats, unless the cat is small enough to be a snack, and the cats return the affection in full measure.

Who's the traitor now?

For nearly six years, my friends and I were routinely denounced as unpatriotic because we disagreed with Pres. Bush over the conduct of war in Iraq.

We believed it was a mistake, that the idea of a pre-emptive invasion ran counter to the fundamental respect of national sovereignty and that no country can export democracy at the point of a gun.

We believed that the erosion of our civil liberties under the guise of fighting some never ending War on Terror made us neither safe nor free.

For expressing these beliefs, we were branded as unpatriotic and accused of hating our country.

So, why isn't the super-patriotic, Republican, America-love-it-or-leave-it crowd up in arms over Texas Governor Rick Perry's threat last week to have this state secede from the Union "... if Washington continues to thumb their nose at the American people ..."

I beg your pardon?

How patriotic is that? Isn't this traitorous talk, especially from a man who represents the political party that led us down the primrose path of unfettered free market capitalism then ginned up a foreign war so fat cats could pig out on no-bid contracts and the military industrial complex could sell us more expensive weapon systems?

If not traitorous, it's at the very least seditious, right? Right?

There was this fella from West Texas who lived in a compound with a handful of fellow travelers and who, back in 1997, stood off the Texas Rangers for several weeks. He claimed that Texas had the right — and duty — to secede from the Union because of high taxes. Then-Gov. Bush sent in the Rangers and had him quashed but what Perry said last week sounds an awful lot like the bile separatist Richard L. McLaren spouted. (Lest we forget, McLaren is now serving a life sentence in a Texas prison.)

Wasn't Perry the same man who let Tom DeLay (a Washington politician) dictate a purely partisan, controversial, incredibly divisive mid-decade redistricting policy designed to further his goals in Washington?

(Just in case you've forgotten, Mr. DeLay had to resign in disgrace from Congress for things related to that little stunt and four of the five Texas Democratic representatives to Congress who were targeted in those efforts are still in office. Oh, and prison isn’t completely out of the question for him, either.)

Perry doesn't speak for me, in this. He has violated one of the prime tenants Texans hold for our Governor: “Please Don’t Embarrass Us!” Come on ... this guy was re-elected with 39 percent of the vote and, quite likely, would have lost had there not been four people on the ballot.

Perry doesn't speak for the thousands of Texans whose unemployment will run out — or the small businesses in Texas who will soon have to pay higher unemployment taxes because the state is running out of money — because he thinks it is somehow un-Texan to have an effective, compassionate social safety net.

Perry — and the rest of the Republican right — is completely out of step. Neoconservative thought has been thoroughly discredited. Most Americans believe it was that unfettered, free market capitalism that got us into this economic mess. And, most Americans think maybe we ought to try some of that "European Socialism," especially if it comes with health care, a decent social safety net, good public transportation and a shot at a college education for our kids.

Perry is appealing to the worst of the Texas Republican Party ... and, it’s scary how many people actually seem to approve of what he’s said. Fortunately, that may be the only group paying attention to him.

If recent opinion polls are any gauge, most Texans — Republicans, Independents and Democrats — are tired of him, too.

Cross posted at Open Salon here http://open.salon.com/blog/richard2456