Over lemon chicken at Nooshi, a swanky East Asian restaurant in Washington’s Foggy Bottom district, and at neighboring George Washington University, I caught the latest political gossip: conservatives are pumped.
The Conservative Political Action Conference, the right wing’s biggest get-together of the year, was “awesome.” Glenn Beck’s speech was Okay, but what really excited my conservative friends was the chance to witness the rising tide of disenchantment (and fury) with the Obama administration and the corresponding grassroots mobilization. Republicans are clamoring to get back in power.
Liberals are not so pumped. Perhaps cognizant of the White House’s failure to craft a coherent narrative for this presidency, they are searching for PR internships — not community organizing jobs. If not seeking a PR gig, they are licking their wounds together at spots like Nooshi.
Over on the West coast, in Oregon, with its blue skies, green grass and surf, only the weather is sunnier. Anti-incumbent candidates’ lawn signs litter the suburbs where swing voters live. Oregon isn’t the Democrats’ biggest headache this year, but trends from elsewhere are visible on the ground.
What’s the most prominent of those national trends? Frustration. It’s a feeling I got at Seaside, Ore. where I went to hear the roar of the Pacific crashing on the beach, to breathe the misty, clean air, to write in the sand with driftwood and relax. Instead, I spent 45 minutes on hold, trying to make flight arrangements. It was a battle of wills that consumed all my available time at the beach. Instead of admiring the power of the incoming surf, I listened to Delta Airlines promos. This bureaucratic, unsympathetic, irritable and impersonal institution exasperated me.
That battle on the beach encapsulates how many Americans feel about institutions right now. They are mad because those institutions all failed spectacularly.
Wall Street failed miserably, taking huge, irrational risks in a mad dash for bigger houses, cars and yachts. When their delicately-built house of cards collapsed in a heap, taxpayers ended up paying the price. Washington failed, too, by dropping the ball on regulation and oversight. The sweet nectar of campaign contributions flowing from Wall Street’s coffers was too much for politicians to resist and the people’s institutions failed them.
How do we frustratingly live now? Overhead luggage compartments on airplanes are overflowing because the airline industry’s sky-high checked baggage charges. When people have to cram (or pay extra) they get mad. The state of Oregon has been reduced to advertising its own usefulness. At idle construction sites, signs read “Your tax dollars at work.” The state government uses these signs to validate its existence and make it marginally less unpopular.
Some Americans are just moving on. My seatmate was reading a book about a “Post-America world.” Another was perusing an article about Shanghai’s upcoming World Expo, which promises to be the largest since these exhibitions started in the 19th century and a coming-out party for the Far East’s thundering economic engine.
“Up in the air” this past week, I saw Americans united in their doubt and disappointment. The Establishment failed the American citizenry in field after field of endeavor. They are no longer sure our political systems can solve our problems at all. And yet people still have slivers of hope left. What options are we confronted with?
On one side stand the Republicans, dead set on drowning government in the bathtub. Theirs is an ideology that promises to solve all your problems by letting you solve them alone. It’s a “ so long” to government itself. Will the electorate choose this?
Or will they choose the Democrats and President Obama? They promise to tax the fat cat bankers, get your money back and spend it to end the recession, whatever the cost to fiscal health. Shoot first, tackle giant deficit later.
Many voters want neither. They are balancing their own budgets, expect government to do the same and are worried about growing our debts to foreign creditors. This ill-disposes them toward the Democrats. And the Republicans are still tainted by their disastrous tenure at the helm: Iraq, Katrina and the unpopular bailouts. These blunders left a lingering, pungent conservative aftertaste.
What we’re doing now is what we often do — negotiating our divided political consciousness. We are a small government, rugged individualistic country with a history of cooperation, socialized services and government involvement. We want Washington to mind its own business, but we know deep down that although anti-government ideology feels good, it doesn’t solve problems and hasn’t made the country strong.
What is uncommon now is the lack of decision emerging from this negotiation. Usually this process enables one party to fall, the other to rise. This time, we are frustrated with everyone. The painful irony for Democrats is that they are now the incumbents and will bear the brunt of the country’s fury and wrath.
From coast to coast, frustration is king. Woe to those who wear a crown.