Wadeusaf:

I wish I were wrong. I wish I were horribly wrong. Sadly, I think I’m horribly right.

The American military is professional. It is the last part of American society that polarizes along partisan lines and that is as it should be. I wish America had political leadership on both sides of the aisle worthy of the service of our fighting men and women. The polarization in Washington is reported to be as severe as the domestic tensions of the late 1850’s. That concerns me.

I wish what I wrote were not true. I really wish that. America’s progress on most non-military fronts has been anemic. In particular, America has been lacking in leadership in promoting alternative fuel; we need to think of getting off hydrocarbons as a means to achieving victory against petroleum despotism, not as a utopian means to “save the planet”.

True, the Bush administration has conducted low-key diplomacy throughout the world when under pressure from Congress to do so. Still, America’s ability to project an alternative vision to al-Qaeda is shockingly weak. Part of the fault lies in Hollywood, but part of it also lies in the Bush administration’s apparent inability to promote its message in Hollywood. In cultural warfare and propaganda, Denmark seems to be far ahead of the United States. Denmark??

Nancy Pelosi doesn’t see our war as something to be won, but as something to be “managed”. Yet, American conservatives have not been much of an improvement. Where is the money for repairing our roads and bridges, for a massive expansion of mass transit, for promoting wind and geothermal energy everywhere that is feasible? Where are America’s plans for converting existing cars to battery power? Our electrical grid is not merely a pocketbook issue, but a matter of national security. We need to promote alternative energy as a means of hitting Iran and the Saudi Kingdom in the pocketbook, drying up their funding for terrorism. So far, we have baby steps, if that.

Decades ago, party caucuses in Congress were held every week, if that often. Nowadays, they are held every day, with congressmen on each side of the aisle conspiring on partisan tactics. I want what I wrote to be false, but for that to happen, we need senators and congressmen who are willing to socialize with members of the other party on an informal basis. These bonds of affection among our political leaders from opposite parties are the bonds that keep our nation together more than any laws of our land.

Democrats need to call this war their own. Republicans need to embrace progressive means of fighting this war when there is good reason to think those policies will be successful. The oil industry is not a free market and we must not treat it as such. Our military needs to put an end to hazing, which scares off many good men and women from our armed forces. We need to find a way for homosexuals to serve openly in our military with honor. And despite my strong disagreement with the politics of Pat Tillman, his kind of “friendly fire” death under suspicious circumstances is the kind of behavior that frays our social fabric. I think he was probably “fragged”. Our military has performed admirably, and it is a dishonor to those who have served America so well for the Tillman Affair to cause lingering damage to our military’s image. Remedial action is necessary to ensure that a repetition of that sorry episode never happens again.

Hope is all too often the flip side of gloom, and while I may partake of that gloom at times, I think the real hope for America exists not in any one man but within ourselves. As it is, I wish I were wrong in the statement you quote and utterly wrong at that. America’s political leadership needs to prove me wrong.