How Bout Dem Elections!

#203, December 6, 2006

Quite an election! Compared to 2004, when I wore black clothes and a black mood the following day, this one was a gid-fest. Yes, it seems the national infection got so bad, so pustulent, that not even Witch Doctor Rove could conceal it. And so a large chunk of corruption and hypocrisy was ejected from the body politic. Not all, but a lot. It’s going to take a lot more scrubbing, good eating, and good living to get our democracy back to health. But it’s an encouraging start.

The Democrats say they want to end the divisive politics that had been driven to new depths by Rove and DeLay. I hope so, as I’m sure do the moderates who fled the elephant to the donkey. Bush and Cheney soooo deserve impeachment for all their law breaking and lie making. But as long as Congress can keep those two from further mischief, it’s better to spend the next two years with a focus on mitigating the Middle East mess, fixing national health care, and/or putting the brakes on greenhouse gas emissions.

To get that bi-partisanship started, here is some equal opportunity fun-poking: I told a friend that the post-election Bush-Pelosi new conference reminded me of the scene from The Two Towers, when where Saruman tries to tough-talk Gandalf despite having lost his entire orc army at the battle of Helm’s Deep. My friend replied that Pelosi’s replacement of Hastert from the Speaker spot reminded him of the Return of the Jedi, when Leia strangles Jabba with her chains. I hope the Democrats can get some inspiration; their campaign suggested something from the Simpson, where their product tagline might read: “30% less corruption than the leading national party.”

Seriously, if the Dems are looking for something to define their recovery, they ought to follow NY Times columnist Thomas Friedman’s enlightened advice about global warming and green energy. It seems our Governor S is headed that way, and that his greening had no small effect on the success of his campaign.

I’m trying hard to figure out what could unite the Petaluma City Council in a good direction. The dominant issue is, of course, the business of growth and development. These terms define Council candidates and Council members alike. There are “no-growth”, “slow-growth”, “pro-growth” and the more recent self-applied label “smart-growth” (exactly what is “dumb growth”?) There are the “business-friendly”, suggesting others are business-hostile. There are candidates who are supported mostly by “developers” and those who are supported mostly by “environmentalists.”

I think these terms are becoming of increasingly limited value, because they make the assumption that growth and development, and the success of business, is fundamentally at odds with protection and restoration of our earth. Climate protection advocates rightly criticize the Bush Administration for setting up that straw man, that reducing greenhouse gas emissions requires hobbling the economy. A better approach, they say, is to recognize that reducing fossil energy expenses can good both for households and businesses, and that the technology to do so is the big growth opportunity for the 21^st century.

A more useful index for politicians at any level is how well they support “the commons.” Historically, the commons described the town-center pastureland that was shared by English villagers. There was substantial social pressure against one family profiting from overgrazing the commons at the expense of the other families. In today’s times, the global climate is the ultimate commons, at the foundation for all economic (not to mention biological!) activity. Chevy and Shell can make large profits from the sale and operation of the top-selling Yukon SUV. But their products contribute to the destruction of the climate commons, and Chevy/Shell shareholders bear only the tiniest fraction of that cost. The fatal flaw of our economic system is that it rewards behavior that is ultimately self destructive.

This “tragedy of the commons”, as ecologist Garret Hardin called it, deserves (and will soon get) another column. Meanwhile, think about what things might make up the Petaluma commons, and how we might best cooperate to preserve and enhance them.