POSTING #14

The Icewine Guru is Depressed

Gloria and I had been out of town for a week. When we got back I called the Guru to get his latest views on the US presidential election.

“To tell the truth”, he said, “I’m feeling a little depressed about it.”

“What”, I sputtered, “You no longer think Obama is going to win, probably by a landslide?”

“No, no, he’ll win, and he’ll win big. My problem is that I have spent 2 or 3 years worrying about how and whether Obama could accomplish his two goals: first, being re-elected and secondly, restoring the Republican Party to its adults. It is clear to me that he is well on his way to accomplishing both goals. He will of course make some mistakes in his second term but his ideas and instincts are just what the US and the world need right now. We will see four years of great progress on the big issues of: debt/deficit, employment, health care, inequality and climate. I need another big problem that I can get my teeth into, and I am having trouble finding one. That’s why I’m feeling a bit depressed.”

“But isn't it a bit optimistic to believe that the GOP in Congress is going to roll over and allow him to pass solutions to the problems you mentioned?”

“I don’t think so. Here is what I think will happen between the end of the election and Inauguration Day on January 20, 2013. I may have some of the details wrong but I believe the substance is right. The CEOs of the major businesses in the US will jet into Washington for a meeting with key representatives of four groups: the Congressional GOP leadership; the conservative media, including Fox owner Rupert Murdoch; conservative think tanks, and K Street lobbyists. They will start off by saying something like this: ‘Aren’t you a sorry bunch of losers!  We gave you all that money and you couldn’t beat Obama despite all the economic problems the country is facing. You should be hanging your heads in shame. Now, listen up. Here is how you are going to behave between now and the Inauguration, and for the next four years.

1. You are going to accept that Obama has won, and is our only president for the next 4 years. There will be no secret meetings to plan strategies to obstruct the President. The problems facing the country and the world are too serious for childish games.
2. You will comport yourselves as a Loyal Opposition---that’s the term used in a Parliamentary System for the opposition party, You can question proposed policies but you always have to remember that you have to be Loyal: to the constitution; to the nation; to all its people (not just the 1%); and, to the facts (accept that Charles Darwin was right, that Keynes was right, and---suck it up---that Al Gore was right).
3. You are going to solve ‘The Cliff Problem’ before January 1st in a balanced way that gradually brings the debt and deficit problems under control but does not jeopardize the fragile economic recovery and does not worsen the social inequality that now exists.
4. If you choose not to do what we have asked, the following will happen. Campaign contributions to the GOP will be cut dramatically; advertising dollars to the conservative media will be cut severely, and funds for right-wing think tanks and lobbyists will be dealt with in the same way. In addition, there will be no cushy, well-paid jobs for any of you in our companies after your stints in Washington. Now get back to your offices and get to work. And remember the old army maxim: ‘Lead, follow, or get the hell out of the way’.”

“I’m impressed”, I said. “You rattled off all stuff without seeming to take a breath.”

“It’s all from my next newsletter that I have just finished. It’s fresh in my mind. “

“Well, I hope that prediction is as prescient as the ones you have been making about how this election campaign would unfold.”

“When both the public and the corporate community are fed up with Washington, great things can happen.”

“I agree, the political environment is ripe for problem solving.”

“Look", the Guru said, “about my depression and a new problem for me to gnaw on, I have been thinking about making it the future of China. Your son is still in Shanghai with that Canadian Bank?”

“He is. And I am sure that he and his Chinese-born wife would be delighted to help you with background information on China.”

“Great! Let me think some more about it. Perhaps you and your wife could accompany me and my wife to China on a fact-finding mission. No country, apart from the US, is going to be as important as China in the coming decades. And no country has bigger economic, social, climate and governance problems as it tries to deal with 1.3 billion people all of whom have rising expectations.”

“Let me know how your thinking evolves. We would certainly be game for a mission like that.”

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If you have any comments, please leave them below or drop me a line at johnpathunter@gmail.com. The next Icewine Guru posting will appear in the fullness of time. My other blog, The Letter from Virgil, (http://letterfromvirgil.blogspot.com/)  appears on a more regular basis.