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October 31, 2008
Exclusive: Countdown to November 4 – Should Economy Trump National Security?
In terms of national security and the protection of the democracy called the United States, I cannot think of anything more fundamental to the preservation of our nation than individuals participating in the political process, taking time to understand the critical issues and holding those we elect to a performance standard that is truly subject to employer (that’s us) review. In theory, every two to six years, we have the opportunity to “fire” those we have hired to run the company called America. Yet how effectively do we do that? And do we really have the opportunity to replace those we hired in a prior election? Do we as citizens consider the election the beginning of our responsibilities or the end?
We are in a sad state of affairs given most consider their job done when exiting the voting booth. Perhaps that is why we have a Congress with a job approval rating worse than the Administration; and challenges abundant across domains – Federal and State. We stop paying attention after the election. And elections have become theater more than civics lessons – seemingly overnight. And theater is best when it focuses on one theme. While it can be argued many of our politicians are a “one trick pony,” running on a predominant theme or issue, now is not the time to view candidates for what they are capable of doing on one issue – the importance of that notwithstanding. One issue focus may be fine when it is a consuming and unique challenge – say war, terrorism or a depression. But when multiple challenge abound, we cannot be so naïve or narrow as to elect someone who has a better idea on one issue alone.
In the 2002 and 2004 elections, the winning hand was held by the Republicans in a post-9/11 United States. The Bush victory underscores the fact that most Americans when faced with a threatening world opt for Republicans over Democrats. They trust that the GOP will be tough on enemies including terrorists and aggressive in defense. Even in 2008 that notion would hold true as the Democrats project pacifism, tepid support for the military at best or outright anti-war sentiments at worst, and a reluctance to acknowledge Muslim extremism as a threat to democracy or the U.S. – IF the American public still believed the world, their world was dangerous.
But the very absence of an attack on the U.S. since 9/11 belies the notion of danger. Add to this Americans have a short attention span, as does the media. Consider the lack of coverage on the energy issue. One would think we have solved the energy crisis given gasoline is around $2.60 a gallon, and oil is no longer a front page topic. Pain at the tank has been replaced by pain at the bank. As the media opt for less coverage on Iraq or other terrorist events in lieu of focusing on the election and an economy (led by an abundance of bad guy CEOs that have approval ratings even lower than Congress or the President) have distracted our focus from security, it is easy to see why Americans, our collective attention span, the mentality of crisis management and political campaigns trumpet one topic loudly.
A great story always has to have three elements – villains, victims and heroes. Wall Street and Main Street supply that trio and then some! Not that the financial crisis isn’t a major security issue or unimportant. Eating, having a place to live and a job are critical and basic necessities that clearly trump security in the mind of the average American, especially if those three fundamentals to survival are in jeopardy.
But….the world remains a dangerous place even though Americans are feeling less vulnerable since the combined efforts of homeland security, a strengthening of our intelligence community, aggressive anti and counter terrorism efforts world wide as well as Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom. Perception is power. The fact that the U.S. home front and most of our foreign interests have remained safe over the last seven years pays tribute to – and at the same time undermines – the electability of the Republican ticket. The age old phenomenon that once the crisis is over, vigilance, concern and preparedness efforts abate, holds true. The world of competing demands and the latest crisis predominates. And to date, that would be, as James Carville once opined…”the economy stupid.”
What we most of the public fail to see, and what the McCain ticket has failed to present effectively is the inextricability of foreign threats to our domestic economy. Not just in terms of the trillion dollar war going on in the Middle East, but the China and Russia effect on energy , weapons and import…as well as:
- The India, Mexico and China effect on outsourcing U.S. labor. Or terrorism as a destabilizing effect on tourism, trade, human rights.
- The emerging power of gangs, illegal aliens and drug cartels, the virtual conquering of border cities in Texas and elsewhere as criminals cross into the U.S. and control towns.
- The lack of a viable energy policy and strategy to ensure the home heating security of us, our poorest citizens and our global allies. Or food security as agri-energy farming supplants agriculture for food.
- The Wal-Mart effect on small businesses, reflective of trade agreements guaranteed to protect the politicians who created them and the international companies that benefit from them.
- The patchwork called the U.S. Health Care System which guarantees insurance companies windfall profits while the average citizen plays Russian roulette buying medications over the Internet because of decreased benefits that nearly always accompany increased premiums.
- The likely increased number of homeless – including veterans. It isn’t just tax rebates, redistribution of wealth or the mortgage issues that Americans need to be concerned about but the dynamic interplay of complex and important threats to the U.S. that directly and indirectly impact the nation.
Then of course there is the enormous waste and profligate purchasing of local voters through earmarks – something Congress has turned into an art form. Earmarks or appropriations are pork – they are the bribes politicians pay their best supporters or largest employers with back home. Given that many such payoffs go to unions for bridges to nowhere, ice skating rinks in crime filled neighborhoods amidst non skaters, gardens where roads should be, and projects to save wooden arrows or other ridiculous campaign rebates to cronies – clearly politicians understand that for the average American, democracy ends at the ballot box. Our elected officials are fortunate most voters don’t go beyond that.
But voting is only the beginning of what a democracy demands of its people. Of course, given the anemic voter turnout historically, perhaps we should be glad people at least vote. At the very least it is the entry level to responsible citizenry. But we need to do more if we are to prevent history from repeating itself. We have the government we asked for and tacitly approved of by not being engaged in the process. And the press was a willing accomplice. Democracy depends upon a free media – but not an irresponsible or ideology driven one…..Investigative reporting, even among the liberal media rooting for Obama if it is to retain even the smallest semblance of integrity and moral value should and must be the guardian of the people – liberals, conservatives and independents. If we don’t want to declare that journalism died in 2008 as Sean Hannity and others have proclaimed, then the media must be a watchdog regardless of which party member broke the law, abused their office, failed to live up to campaign promises or fails to do the public good.
If he wants to win, the McCain campaign must, in the last days of the election, find a way to remind the American public that we live in a dangerous world – but with specifics, not generalities. For example, this week Russia announced it will be helping Cuba develop an advanced air defense system. This is on top of their vast military commitments to Venezuela. Even the village idiot ought to be able to look at a map and realize our influence in the region is eroding.
Global Jihad, though temporarily stunned, is not out of business. It is right here in our back yard as a functioning fifth column of Muslim extremists. South America is becoming a training ground and haven for Latino as well as Jihadist terrorists and criminal organizations. Al Qaeda must love this! They’re out of the basement in 2008. But they are not gone…far from it. Our adversaries will take advantage of our current challenges. They will capitalize on our internal woes and leaders who focus more on mortgages for folks who can’t afford them. What is stunning is that many foreign leaders are pro-Obama, including our adversaries.
A significant number of Americans somehow feel the U.S. needs the world’s approval and forgiveness for our actions. Really? I wonder if Ahmadinejad worries about his approval ratings after supplying weapons that kill Iraqis? Or Russia invading a sovereign nation –do you think Putin loses sleep about approval ratings? Oh what am I saying, the world loves Vladimir (fear is more like it). Clearly we live in a global world and it would be nice for nations to be able to work together…but approval? I’d settle for respect, thank you very much. It does give one pause for concern when radicals, terrorists (domestic and foreign) are rooting for, supporting or hanging out with a candidate.
Speaking of an emerging threat to the U.S., Russia, the recent decline in their economic indicators and global partners notwithstanding, is still led by a ruthless, charismatic ruler who wields power buttressed by oil and natural gas at a time when Europe and other regions are vulnerable and extremely dependent upon his resources. Add to this their gold reserves and other valuable assets. Russia or better to be referred to as “Putin and Company” has a strengthened armed forces and renewed military industrial enterprise ready willing and able to assist, even arm adversaries of the U.S. with advanced weapons, and more than eager to undermine our interests from Asia and the Middle East to South America. In a few years, Russia will also be one of the few nations capable of launching manned space vehicles since the U.S. took its eye off the ball and let NASA have a window without such capability as projected will occur in 2010 or 2011. Talk about “Star Wars” – the U.S. will have to start hitch hiking into space – and in the absence of our own proprietary capability to get up there, will our satellites become vulnerable targets that we will not be able to fix? Will Russia put things up there that we cannot examine?
Over the next few years the U.S. will face significant security concerns. For a nation that successfully and safely placed several people on the moon, one has to wonder why our ability to get into space was ignored. Satellites, space based weapons, even just considering space as “the final frontier” – it is unsafe for the U.S. to be on the sidelines. It is ludicrous that we have been the primary founder and supporter of the International Space Station, only to cede it for all intents and purposes to the Russians, as is likely to happen when our shuttles are retired. It is small consolation that their replacements will be new and improved; fact is they won’t be ready for use immediately, as of current NASA reports. If Russia wanted to tamper with our satellites, could we stop them?
Obama is banking on the key question…Do these issues matter when you are behind in your mortgage? Obama read the memo from Carville! The economy is trumping security. Can McCain play to his security strengths in the days? Will it matter? The economy will hit all of us one way or another – either directly or societally.
From a campaign perspective, it is very difficult to compete with bribery, which is what you might call redistributing wealth and playing “Robin Hood” with the U.S. Treasury as Obama seems wont to do. By promising money for most Americans he is leveraging policy to get votes. Of course, how does he intend to do this with our economic woes and the likelihood that the other shoe hasn’t dropped (translation – some other company or industry will have to be bailed out) short of printing more money in the basement, is beyond me. But given people often will behave at the lowest common denominator, and won’t care where the money came from as long as it ends up in their wallet, is it any wonder why Obama resonates in certain communities? Self-reliance, like discipline is much harder to sell than “give a way” programs. Why earn it when you can get it for free? Except we all know there is no free lunch. Someone has to pay but Obama, against the backdrop of Wall Street, is selling class warfare as his solution to the “who will pay” – answer “the rich folks.”
We’re all angry – this time at CEOs who got rich, even while their companies were in trouble. They leave with golden parachutes while the average American worries about their pensions. And the liberals are capitalizing on it as the conservatives did in 2004 concerning terrorism. Only then it was al Qaeda. Creating or having an enemy class is good politics. Most people don’t vote for but instead vote against people or things. In2004 it was voting against folks who Americans didn’t think could protect against “the enemy” – al Qaeda. In 2008 it will be the same thing – will the public vote against a party that doesn’t seem too engaged in protecting against al Qaeda or will it vote against a party that they perceive gave us Wall Street? Since most voters don’t look beyond the headlines and clearly with a liberal media it is unlikely much criticism of Barney Frank and his ilk will appear above, below or near the fold – the economy will rest in the blame game mostly at the feet of the conservatives.
So it comes down to which enemy does the average American fear and dislike most – al Qaeda or our own failed government? Greedy CEOs and the party they associate with the Wall Street bailout or global adversaries like Russia that surreptitiously is infiltrating our nation through conventional investment, organized crime and collaboration with corporate and national competitors to America’s interests? In the end, people vote against more than for. Punishing the wealthy in some Pol Pot economic tax redistribution policy will not undue the evils committed by many of the Wall Street CEOs and senior managers
If Sen. McCain wants to win on November 4th, he must channel the voters’ tendency and focus Americans on what to vote against – bigger government as nanny state, the very real enemies of our nation and the party that had banking oversight, jammed unsound lending policies through surrogates like ACORN down the throats of banks which helped cause the mortgage debacle, while oblivious to external dangers and unwilling to support a strong military. He must remind America that there are lots of threats out there – it is not a zero sum game. And he will have to convince voters that in both the short and long run – he is the right person and his policies are sustainable solutions to the domestic and global threats that will impact us as a nation.
This election is about the security of our nation. But the American people have to believe it. And whether the Wall Street debacle possesses the magnitude of danger the media suggests or not, the perception on Main Street that there are dark times ahead, has taken attention from other key issues. The public is not wrong to focus on the economy and to be angry at our government. But equally dangerous is the belief that the economy is the sole threat we face or that it is strictly an internal problem. Given every domain is interrelated and interdependent – from trade policies that fail to protect domestic industries (if you can still find any purely American industries or ones loyal to the U.S.) and bizarre immigration rules to illegal aliens and the underground economy, from global piracy, multinational corporations with offshore or Cayman Island post office box headquarters and cyber terrorism to energy cartels and terrorists – the unfettered growth of any pose a direct threat to our economy, national security and well being.
A chicken in every pot is too simplistic an answer for these complex and dangerous times, but when people fear there won’t be much in the pantry, the candidate with the Santa approach looks better and better even though there are a lot of things that don’t necessarily add up with Sen. Obama. And add up he does not – certainly not in the security arena. Some have opined that Barack Obama would have a difficult time getting a security clearance were he not the political luminary, given his earlier activities, and associations. Guilt by association may be unfair but then again when one is campaigning to become the leader of the free world, a bit of judgment is critical – and we are judged by the company we keep and our actions. Fortunately for the liberals, their candidate has a silver tongue, a supportive (adoring) media and a vocal wing of the party – dial a protestor –who are ready willing and able to protest, demonstrate and vocalize the Obama message.
The McCain camp has just days left to remind the public that government is broken and needs to be fixed. Making government the central figure in peoples’ lives – is not the way to repair, reign in or best utilize the institution. The fact that our leaders have marched us toward socialism increasingly over the years; we seem to have the worst of capitalism and socialism these last few years – should not inspire confidence in ceding increased authority to the same folks – democrats and republicans – who screwed things up to begin with. That being said – leopards don’t change their spots. Democrats believe in the nanny state and will endeavor at all cost to vindicate and validate the “great society” of LBJ disastrous though it is. The “security moms” that helped elect Republicans in 2004 are vitally needed in 2008, but are they there? With 401ks looking empty, college funds eroding – “mom” may have another agenda this time around. If McCain, and one could argue the America of the future is to survive this election, it will largely rest upon “security moms” “Joe the plumber” and “working Main Street.” But in order to gain that support, McCain will have to demonstrate that security and the economy are inextricably intertwined; that we are only safe if we continue to be vigilant.
Seven years and no attack on the homeland – with a population suffering from a less money, more bills and a short attention span – McCain has a significant challenge – he has only a few days left to ramp up his message.
This election is about more than the economy; it is about our future and most importantly how we define ourselves as a citizenry. Are we going to be easily purchased? And just how will the expected enlargement of government be paid for? The Federal Government – from the Congress to the President, Democrat and Republican alike broke faith with the American Public. We hired all of them to protect our interests.
We cannot be so foolhardy as to think casting our ballot and electing a new president will start a cavalcade of solutions. The election is not the final act of democracy; it is but a beginning. The right to vote is a mighty weapon but it is not the only charge we as citizens have been given. We have a duty and a responsibility to remind our elected officials – especially the Federal Government that they govern with our consent. Civic illiteracy and perhaps a touch of laziness made us abrogate our responsibility as citizens and ceded our collective authority to folks neither deserving of their high offices nor effective at discharging their duties. After the election, we must be vigilant; communicate with our officials, insist the media scrutinize their activities, and hold our elected accountable. But first we must vote. When it is time to decide who should lead the free world, ask who is most capable of dealing with a dangerous world, holding regulators accountable, responding to the needs of Main Street and with the leadership experience to hit the deck running in January. >From the politicians’ perspectives “it is about the economy stupid” – but are we stupid? Is it more than just the economy?
FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributing Editor Dr. Robin McFee is a physician and medical toxicologist. An expert in WMD preparedness, she is a consultant to government agencies, corporations and the media. Dr. McFee is a member of the Global Terrorism, Political Instability and International Crime Council of ASIS International. She has authored numerous articles on terrorism, health care and preparedness, and coauthored two books: Toxico-Terrorism by McGraw Hill and The Handbook of Nuclear, Chemical and Biological Agents, published by Informa/CRC Press.
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