The Ethical Realist

BY M. PORTA

Continuity is hard to come by, but for as long as I can remember I’ve always been a free agent. Not what you’d call a joiner. And so when everyone here in New York was falling in love with Obama (whom I had initially preferred over Hillary), I started to wonder. When people start to flock it gives me that “uh-oh” feeling. The fervor with which he was being embraced gave me pause, just as the vitriol over George W had done long before. Could Bush really be the root of all evil? And could Obama really be the answer to all our prayers?

My husband and I are political moderates, though he feels a greater affinity for the left, while I tend to be more understanding of the right. You’d never know it, probably because I am socially very liberal. When it seems to me that someone on the right is making sense, I just keep it to myself.

From the beginning both of us had respected McCain, primarily for his work in campaign finance reform. This is an issue that was extremely important to us, believing that nothing will ever really change until politicians stop being bought. From our perspective, McCain staked his career on this, and was extremely unpopular with members of both parties for having done so. We also liked that the Republican orthodoxy was at odds with him; Bush and the neo-cons had strayed too far from real conservatism, so McCain’s pragmatic, bi-partisan approach seemed to be the injection of reason that the Republican party needed.

We knew it would be an uphill battle for him. All the charm, charisma, and natural speaking ability contained in Obama was lacking in McCain. Obama couldn’t stop talking, yet the substance of his words eluded me. Still, he was so likeable, so decent. McCain, for all his accomplishments, experience, and renowned sense of humor, could sometimes appear flustered, irritated, and crotchety. And, of course, we were so tired of Bush that it was difficult to find a more diametrical opposite (we thought) than Obama: young, biracial, smooth and elegant—though not at all entitled. He excited and inspired us. We were only too happy to see Bill and Hill getting thrown under the wheels of the bus by their own kind.

At a certain point in the campaign, my husband and I felt the usual gravitational pull: I started veering to the right, while he characteristically went left. Every night we spoke about the candidates and the issues that were closest to our hearts—the environment, how money and power have corrupted the political process, education, and the nation’s defense and the threat to the West from fundamentalist Islam. We bantered and cajoled and hollered and rolled our eyes, and ended by canceling out one another’s vote. He agreed with me that Obama had promised too much to too many, which could translate into a business-as-usual agenda or even a make-it-up-as-you-go-along plan. Either way, we can’t afford it. I agreed with him that the time wasn’t really right for McCain, not only because he was old and a hawk and had run a lousy campaign, but because people were so angry that no matter what he did—even if his performance was excellent—they’d never give him credit.

I was actually relieved when Obama won. I hope he puts all my suspicions to bed, that he can live up to even a quarter of what we’re all expecting from him. What might it be for us to undergo real change? That, for me, is still the question.

M. Porta is a freelance writer and editor who lives in New York City with her husband and two sons.

One thing I like that the President-elect and his transition team have done is to ask us, as individuals, to participate in the new government. After Tom Daschle was nominated for Health and Human Services Secretary, I received an email from John Podesta, co-chair of the Obama-Biden Transition Project, requesting that Americans hold small local gatherings to discuss a new health care plan.

“When you sign up to lead a discussion, we’ll provide everything you need to make your conversation as productive as possible… and, when it’s over, tell us how it went. The Transition’s Health Policy Team will gather the results of these discussions to guide its recommendations.”

This appealed to me, but unfortunately the program ended too soon. I was too caught up in other things to get it organized on time, but hopefully the new administration will sort through all the initial findings and do another round of Health Care Community Discussions, because it’s a good idea.

Obama’s people have been encouraging this all along, asking for more active citizen participation, and having read about the characters in Matt Bai’s book The Argument, I wasn’t surprised that someone like Podesta is behind such an innovative project.

A couple of weeks later another email arrived from Podesta. “We recently launched a new feature on change.gov called Open for Questions. Thousands of you responded, asking 10,000 questions and voting nearly a million times on questions from others.” This program continued to a second round, and I’m hopeful there will be a round three.

On New Year’s Eve, I received an email forwarding an idea someone submitted to the change.gov website. The idea was that Obama should revive the WPA-era Federal Art Project and Federal Writers Project. Another good one, and when I visited the website there were other good ideas and ways to get involved.

Last week, one more Podesta email came, this time outlining Obama’s American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan.

“…it’s going to take a lot of work to get the plan approved, and your involvement is essential. That’s why we asked some leading members of the Transition’s policy teams to sit down and talk a bit about it — why it’s necessary, how it will work, and how we’ll make sure it’s as efficient and effective as it is bold…”

You can see from this video clip that they really need our input!

And yesterday came an email announcing another new feature on change.gov called the Citizen’s Briefing Book, in which ideas will be rated, printed out and handed to the new President after the inauguration.

I’m glad the computer has made it so much easier to participate, through emailing and writing letters and signing petitions online. It got me questioning though how I ended up on Podesta’s email list and who else is on it. Who isn’t on it? I asked a couple of friends and they weren’t on it. How about all the people who don’t have Internet access? Where do they fit into this new model of grassroots lobbying, and is it really effective, or are we just sending our opinions into the same black hole our resumes are going into this year?

It got me wondering if the many people who don’t have Internet access will have any say in this new government, and about the people who don’t have computers. The statistics I found were from 2007, but they were telling. {America Offline… By John P. Mello Jr., TechNewsWorld 03/30/07}

Thirty-one million households were offline. More than 40 percent of households who did not have Internet service had incomes of less than $35,000, while households with incomes of $75,000 or more had non-subscription rates in the single digits. Education also played a role. More than 84 percent of non-subscribers did not have a college degree. Age was another big factor. The two age groups with the highest percentages of non-subscribers were 55 to 64 year olds, and those 65 years old or more. Twenty percent of U.S. households did not have a personal computer. With the age of digital TV approaching, and the economy tanking, I wonder how many people in these groups will be left even without basic television from which to get information.

I’d like to know if Podesta and the Obama-Biden Transition Project are also making phone calls, house calls, or passing out handbills in low-income neighborhoods or to the elderly, telling them how they too can participate and have a say. Or is this an Internet-only revolution, or some savvy marketing ploy? This remains to be seen, but to me, the more involved people are the better.

The Internet has made grassroots efforts much easier, but we still have to hold our government responsible, and we’ve not been doing that these last eight years. With a new President coming in indicating that he wants our input, we should take advantage. And it’s most important that we represent those who don’t have the Internet as a resource. It is essential that those voices are heard just as loud and clear as the rest.

As a friend said recently, “Just because it doesn’t affect you personally doesn’t mean it isn’t happening.”

The first day of this new year, I went to Coney Island to protest the destruction of our beautiful rough diamond by the sea and ran into the polar bears lumbering down the beach into the water, and King Neptune on the boardwalk, which turned into an impromptu outdoor disco like it had on all those more festive occasions. The destruction of my favorite place in NYC despite much effort had me feeling quite hopeless, like nothing we do really effects change any more. But in the end, all of this has only strengthened my resolve to work more diligently toward just causes and keep trying to make a difference.

So whether answering the President-elect’s calls, spreading the message to those who might not otherwise get to hear it, signing online petitions, writing letters, making calls, marching on the streets, or starting a new political party, I’d say, start somewhere. Get up and do something to help make America a better place this year.

–Hope Dascher