After Barack Obama’s victory on Tuesday Paul Krugman wrote that the election wasn’t “just a victory for tolerance; it wasn’t just a mandate for progressive change; it was also, I hope, the end of the monster years.” Krugman seemed to suggest that people like Karl Rove are monsters because they contributed offensive ideas to the American political discourse, like the notion “that liberals wanted to offer ‘therapy and understanding’ to terrorists,” and that this election repudiated such tactics. I think Krugman is right that this election signified the willingness of the American people to renounce a certain type of politics used by much of the GOP in the past eight years. But I also think there is a more precise formulation than the “monster years.” I would like to suggest that this election brought an end to the “adolescent years,” a time when politicians spoke to the American people like kids, and the discourse and decision-making reflected it.
In an interview with TIME magazine Joe Klein asked Obama about the speech he delivered on race in response to the Jeremiah Wright drama. Obama explained, “My gut was telling me that this was a teachable moment and that if I tried to do the usual political damage control instead of talking to the American people like … they were adults and could understand the complexities of race, I would be not only doing damage to the campaign but missing an important opportunity for leadership.” Obama’s decision to talk to the American people like reasonable adults was, believe it or not, a revolutionary political move. In approaching a complex situation Obama gave the American people a choice between playground libel and levelheaded reasonability, and we (thankfully) chose the latter.
Unfortunately this was not the case in 2000, 2004 or a host of other times. Whether it is the idea that you have to torture someone to make America safe, or that drilling for more oil will solve our energy problems, or that supporting diplomacy casts doubt on your patriotism, the GOP has become quite adept at taking intricate topics and making them insultingly simple. This tactic has done a tremendous disservice to our politics, conservative values, and the country. America finally decided that our problems had become too severe to risk any more of this nonsense. We decided to approach our problems like adults.
Call me an optimist, but I believe that if our politicians talk to us like intelligent adults then we will make intelligent decisions. My hope is not only that President-elect Obama will facilitate just that, but also that the GOP will be a part of it. The Republican Party is not void of good ideas; the monsters Paul Krugman indicted have just thrown them aside. If even a California liberal living in Massachusetts like myself can find appeal in GOP support for policies like school choice and free trade, then I think most anyone can. Our country is in too precarious a position for only part of the political spectrum to be thinking about things seriously. It’s time to wrap up our game of tiddlywinks and have a series of long and complex conversations. I’ve never felt this was likely, but after Tuesday, I’m starting to think it is.
Will Leiter, Covers Editor