{"id":3386,"date":"2008-06-18T07:35:00","date_gmt":"2008-06-18T13:35:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/undoing-dubya\/"},"modified":"2009-08-22T14:09:44","modified_gmt":"2009-08-22T20:09:44","slug":"undoing-dubya","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/2008\/06\/undoing-dubya\/","title":{"rendered":"Undoing Dubya"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>By Carter Bundy<\/span> <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

One of the trendier things people say in politics is, \u201cWell, I guess I don\u2019t care who\u2019s in the White House, as long as the other party is in control of at least one house of Congress.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

It\u2019s perfectly cool, because it implies a certain disdain and aloofness from politics, while at the same time making a statement against the extremes. It makes one a maverick. An independent. Non-partisan. A thinker. Everyone can nod and take another sip of Cabernet.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Being pretty trendy myself, I\u2019m sure I\u2019ve said it too, or some variation thereof. Gridlock is good. Checks and balances prevent totalitarianism. Absolute power corrupts absolutely. The status quo is preferable to extremism.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

So long, Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> soirees<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s truth to all of it. If you have divided government, it\u2019s hard to get things done. I first got to Santa Fe<\/st1:city><\/st1:place> in 2002. The feeling I got from other lobbyists was that being a lobbyist during the Gary Johnson<\/a> years was a great gig — if significant conservative bills came up, they\u2019d get killed by the Legislature. If significant liberal bills came up, the governor was there to veto, with little chance of override. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In other words, as a lobbyist, as long as you were paying a bit of attention, nothing too bad could happen to your clients and nothing too good was ever expected from you. Off to Rio Chama and the Bull Ring for some schmoozing and adult beverages!<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

But as soon as Governor Richardson<\/a> got in, and had a Dem House and Senate still in place, things started moving. Name an issue, something was going to happen. Tax policy. Health care. Labor rights. GLBT rights. Even \u201cconservative\u201d issues like concealed carry moved with the House, Senate and Fourth Floor all being run by the same party.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Eradicating extreme<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Problem is, what if the status quo is itself extreme? What if you have a foreign policy predicated on preemptive war? What if you have a fiscal policy that\u2019s putting the next three of four generations in hock to China<\/st1:country-region><\/st1:place>? What if your trade policies result in hundreds of billions of dollars of trade debt each year? What if the dollar falls to record lows and gas prices triple in a few years?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

What if you have decaying education and health care among your citizens? What if you\u2019ve blown the opportunity to shore up crucial government programs like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid? What if you\u2019ve permanently ruined 40 million acres of wilderness by virtually giving away federal land to extractive industries who donated tens of millions of dollars to your party?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When the status quo is as extreme as the current American status quo is, gridlock isn\u2019t good enough.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Divided we fail?<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

AARP is currently running a series of ads titled \u201cDivided We Fail,\u201d<\/a> blasting legislators in both parties for gridlock. But isn\u2019t that exactly what should happen when you have power diversified? Take health care for example. The Dem solutions generally run toward more regulation and requirements of the insurance industry and a greater role for programs like Medicare.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Why would the GOP go along with that, when their health solution is to eviscerate government programs and regulation and to propose savings accounts (which largely act as tax shelters for people who already have sufficient health coverage)?<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The AARP has it all wrong. It\u2019s not that the representatives of the parties are bickering — it\u2019s that they\u2019re standing up for their positions, and the status quo is preferable to each than the other party\u2019s solutions. As long as both parties have significant power, don\u2019t expect any change to the status quo.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Ground Zero: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.<\/st1:address><\/st1:street><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This year, it is exceptionally unlikely that the Republicans will take control of the U.S. House of Representatives (we have two GOP seats just in New Mexico<\/st1:state><\/st1:place> that are in serious jeopardy due to Dems Martin Heinrich<\/a> and Harry Teague<\/a>). It\u2019s even less likely that Republicans will take back the U.S. Senate. <\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

In fact, in part due to Tom Udall\u2019s<\/a> strong campaign, there\u2019s probably a better chance of Dems getting to a filibuster-proof 60 votes than there is the GOP getting to 51 seats. That\u2019s an important part of ending the current gridlock, and the GOP minority has filibustered more bills than any other minority in history.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

That leaves the White House as the Republicans\u2019 last chance to preserve divided government and the status quo for the next few years.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

There\u2019s one way, and one way only, to make the big changes this country needs. And that\u2019s to give the Dems a chance to at least undo some of the massive damage wrought from one-party control under the GOP from 2000-2006 (minus the few months right after Jim Jeffords<\/a> abandoned the GOP for becoming too extreme).<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

The chance of Dems pushing through an entire liberal agenda in two or four years is still going to be slim. Giving Dems in Washington<\/st1:place><\/st1:state> a shot to at least undo Dubya\u2019s<\/a> policies over the next few years will at least pull the status quo back from the fringes of economic, foreign-policy and domestic-policy insanity.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

This year, we need to buck the trend and ask the mavericks, independents, moderates and other advocates of gridlock to get the status quo back to good by working for a Democratic White House to match the Democratic Congress.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

When things get more in balance, then the trendies can advocate for gridlock again.<\/p>\n

<\/o:p><\/p>\n

Bundy is the political and legislative director for AFSCME<\/a> in New Mexico<\/st1:place><\/st1:state>. The opinions in his column are personal and do not necessarily reflect any official AFSCME position. You can learn more about him by clicking here<\/a>. Contact him at carterbundy@yahoo.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Carter Bundy One of the trendier things people say in politics is, \u201cWell, I guess I don\u2019t care who\u2019s in the White House, as long as the other party is in control of at least one house of Congress.\u201d It\u2019s perfectly cool, because it implies a certain disdain and aloofness from politics, while at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bundy-columns"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3386\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nmpolitics.net\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}