Top questions for the Active Voter

ILLUSTRATED: Ask questions about the fundamental roles of their office. Issue scorecards are not as important.

My favorite questions to ask of candidates:

President: Describe your leadership style.
What type of person should be Secretary of Defense? (the most demanding job in the Cabinet)
Who is your favorite member of the Supreme Court? (a president's longest lasting domestic legacy, and best insight into their real ideology)
(Personally, I am very concerned about crisis leadership ability. As I write this, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown has had three terrorist incidents in his first three days on the job)

US Senator: What is the duty of the legislature vis-a-vis the Executive and Judicial branches?
Who is your favorite member of the Supreme Court? (a president's longest lasting domestic legacy, and best insight into their real ideology)

Governor: Describe your leadership style.
Who is your favorite member of the US Supreme Court? (a governor's longest lasting domestic legacy, and best insight into their real ideology)

School Board: What concrete steps will you do to help teachers in the classroom inspire children?

The Executive Candidate vs. The Legislative Candidate

ILLUSTRATED: A candidate for executive office must have a decisive, take charge persona. A legislative candidate must identify with the people.

Until January 24 of this year when he dropped out, I was still in John Kerry's camp after four and a half years. That said, Sherrod Brown made an interesting comment that in Ohio, if Kerry ran against Bush for the Senate in '04, Kerry would have won. But Kerry just didn't have the "Commander in Chief" persona.
At this writing, I am still undecided about who to support next time, but I will relay a positive article about Hillary Clinton. David Yepsen praised her debate performance last night and in doing so, wrote an interesting summary of how to run for executive office: Mayor*, governor, president, DA, state Attorney General etc. Specifically he said:

• Clinton was crisp, cogent and methodical in her answers. She understood better than any of the other candidates the need for terse answers when so many candidates are given so little time in which to answer questions.
  It’s more than just a debating skill. American presidents lead the nation through television appearances and Clinton’s performance Thursday night suggests she can do that. She showed she has mastered the ability to put a lot of information into a few seconds on the tube.
  She did that by talking more about solutions instead of yammering about how bad the problems are. Some of her opponents, who’ve had careers in the U.S. Senate or House, couldn’t get to their point before their time was up.

That skill is why I write this blog!
If I were advising a candidate, particularly one who is switching branches, I would make this sports analogy. Imagine you are a pro athlete in the NBA, WNBA, or NFL. Think of the qualities you want in your agent: your advocate, your friend, negotiating your contract, shoe deal, writing your prenup, etc. Now think of the qualities you want in your head coach: not necessarily your friend, but someone you trust to run drills and execute a game strategy so the team wins.

* By mayor I assume you are running in a "strong mayor" city, not one where the mayoralty rotates among city council members (legislators).

Three word slogan: "The Supreme Court"

ILLUSTRATED: JUDICIAL Opinions are what ultimately count.

THE LAW- OK I admit, I’ve only skimmed the 185 page decision and read some reports, as the opinion is less than 4 hours old. Basically, it seems to gut minority rights as a groups, without overturning Grutter (the 2003 U. of Michigan case) that race can be a factor in sizing someone holistically. All affirmative-action is now threatened, indeed largely dead I think. I look forward to lawsuits on how boys now have preferential treatment at many liberal arts colleges.

THE POLICY- More continued structural segregation. Education, housing, and economic opportunity will now be calcified in different social-economic groups. The court may ban racial integration, but not racist real estate agents, home sellers, loan officers, and others that contribute to continued segregation patterns. We need a federal reformation of education, a national healthcare risk pool, and more civil rights enforcement.

THE POLITICS- Where do I start?

1) The parties are indeed different. For all sophists and demagogues who play off of people’s alienation from the system, and claim the two major parties are the same: just say “The Supreme Court! 5-4 one way before the Roberts and Alito, 5-4 the other way now”.

2) Elections matter. Many young lawyers, other professionals, and wealthy people think they are above licking envelops and knocking on doors. First, I’ve licked envelops with a lot of such people because they know that’s how close elections are won and money is raised. Compare to football. Most pre-game shows talk about strategy and the star players. Any game within a touchdown going into the fourth quarter is won on the line of scrimmage. Any election within the margin of error in the final week is won by volunteers in field offices. As I alluded to before, when Alito was being vetted by the Senate, there were several smart young Democratic staff-attorneys searching in vain for some terrible decision Alito wrote. They were not as powerful as a bunch of average Americans licking envelopes in a GOP headquarters before the 2004 election.

3) Judicial opinions are what count. For a more sophisticated audience, remind them that the real way to describe the difference between Democrats and Republicans is not brochures or convention speeches. It is in the court decisions written by Democratic-appointed judges and Republican-appointed judges.

CEOs and Field Generals beat HR managers and Quartermasters

ILLUSTRATED: Democrats cannot continue to project the image of bureaucratized policy makers. We must look like dynamic leaders moving America towards its ideals.

I just bought The Political Brain after spending an hour in the bookstore spot reading it. I can already tell it is one of the best political books I've read. It begins with a Garance Franke-Ruta quote comparing the Democratic brand to an H.R. department: "Do you have a health plan, your flu shot? Did you apply for tuition assistance? Were you discriminated against? This is the process and the applicable law"...All important stuff, I'm not mocking it. It's just that, that is not a brand that sells.
That quote resonated with me since, for some time, I've compared Democratic politicians' national security rhetoric to a supply sergeant or quartermaster. They answer serious defense policy questions with..."More equipment for our troops! Better health care for veterans! Death benefits for troops, cops, and firefighters!" Again, all vital. But the best thing for morale is having a good field general (Patton) rather than a good quartermaster (Q in James Bond movies). I'd vote for George C. Scott over Q.

With domestic issues: we need to communicate our policies on health care, education, and the environment with dynamism. "Covering all our people is a moral responsibility and is good for business. Everyone needs access to success in a changing economy, that means a 21st Century education system for folks of all ages. Earth is for living, not for profit; we need to be good stewards of the Earth."

On national security: there are plenty of entries on this blog on how to articulate a real defense policy and national security policy. Including here and here. Speak knowing that on 1/20/09, our party will take over these wars (Iraq, Afghanistan, and terrorists). Speak with authority.

We are now in post-Bush politics

ILLUSTRATED: Move beyond Bush, talk about a Democratic future

This first week of June, 2007 will go down as the week GW Bush ran out of political capital. Here’s why: 1) Lt Gen Lute said today that the surge isn’t working; 2) Turkey made an incursion into Iraq yesterday portending a regional war; 3) the administration downgraded its economic forecast; 4) immigration, his only hope at a domestic accomplishment died; and most telling 5) the GOP presidential candidates criticized the administration openly in their debate.
What this means is that in our discourse with people, don’t waste time talking about Bush. Paint a picture of a future under Democratic leadership: governing in the public interest, appointing judges who interpret the constitution as if it is 2007 not 1789, and strengthening America by working with the world community.

Then what?

ILLUSTRATED: Some preliminary answers to some questions for over the horizon.

Joe Biden likes to ask “then what?” regarding those who advocate an immediate, complete pullout from Iraq. There are several issues coming up on the horizon for which there will be excruciating moral dilemmas. As we have learned in the last six years, empty bumper sticker statements without asking “Then what?” leads to disaster. The problem is that I have not been hearing answers to them from our party’s leaders. So here’s a stab at them:

Genetic Privacy- I was told that by the end of the next president’s first term, we will be able to buy our genetic maps for $1,000. If insurance companies (and employers) got their hands on that, it would be like a card dealer who can peek at cards before deciding to deal them. But we do want doctors and researchers to know, usually, what we are vulnerable to in order to treat us. Scientific breakthroughs will shift ethical frames, and we need a major conversation on the implications of this.

Cap-Auction-Trade- With carbon emissions, we have to do this. Namely, cap emissions nationally, auction the right to pollute and use the money for alternative energy R&D. The right to pollute must then be tradable. But like with globalized commerce, there will be major dislocations in smokestack industries. Not unlike candlemakers at the dawn of the electric age, and railroads with the dawn of the automobile. The solution here is federal support for lifetime education and a national, portable healthcare risk pool.

Globalization- Trade deals are ripping apart both parties right now. Globalization will go on, the politicians can only regulate how quickly it happens. Same answer as above, education and health insurance.

Domestic intelligence- I’m calling for more police cooperation with the FBI, and today’s arrest of a terrorist plot at JFK is more evidence that local law enforcement must be integrated with the national intelligence community. There will be civil liberties violations, and the way to control that is to have state governments manage the analysis of intelligence as well as monitor the investigations. While intelligence gathering must be brought down to the local level, it must be controlled at a higher level.

Iraq pullout- I met a senior Senate Democrat (not Biden) this week. He told the group I was in that we must look into a possible future with a regional war on the Persian Gulf Region and ask if the current occupation under Bush is the lesser evil. Colin Powell told GWB that if we break it, we own it. There is a moral component to consider as well as the likelihood of having to return in future years. This is not a sustainable situation currently, and the Iraqi people must civilly come together.

The oil distribution must be settled before we leave. Currently, half is on the black market. Even after that is settled, I predict 50,000 American troops in the region by November, 2012.