Perspectives

It’s become a cliché but bears repeating: “Don’t show up at gun fight with a knife.” This appears to be how the Democrats approach governance with their Republican counterparts. It’s a metaphor, folks.

I could have conducted better negotiations with the Republicans than President Obama. I don’t say this lightly because politics is a knuckle ball, grab their scrotum, take no prisoners process. But if the first chip you toss on the negotiating table is “the store,” what’s left to dicker over?

I kept waiting for the Democrat’s “end game” to become readily apparent. Alas, I am still attempting to understand how the language of the debate became so focused on Republican priorities. Oh, it is argued that is because of the 2010 elections and the Republicans becoming the majority party in the U.S. House of Representatives. So what? It’s as if all the insightful, politically astute, get-your-game-on Democratic strategists are on vacation. Who exactly is advising Obama? Hello! Time to send in the “ringers.”

If I had the 2008 election to do over — knowing what I know today — I’d support Hillary Clinton. Granted, she badly bungled her Iraq war vote (no inconsequential issue for me), but I’d much rather that Clinton be negotiating our domestic policy.

Facts, for many, are irrelevant today, from how we got into debt to whether economic history supports cutting government spending during such an acute recession to whether a return to Clinton-level tax rates on higher income Americans would “crush” whatever recovery we are experiencing. I have my understanding of these “fiscal” considerations, but many Americans think otherwise, as is their right. That said, “box of rocks” comes immediately to mind, as in, they must be dumber than a box of rocks.

It is argued that Obama thinks that liberal Democrats have no choice but to support him in 2012. For Obama to be re-elected, he must secure sufficient independent voters, and that fact alone explains his actions and policies. For the life of me, what has Obama achieved that particularly appeals to independents?

Anyone with half a brain knows that Obama was handed a horrible economy and two wars. Add drought and his problems are nearly biblical in proportion. It is hard to make lemonade out of any of that.

But Obama’s alleged card-up-his-sleeve was his ability to be “the” great communicator. I’m a scorekeeper, and Obama has been a dismal failure in this regard. I want the debate clearly framed by putting all the cards on the table as to what exactly America confronts. Frame the message and drive it home, day in, day out. According to Republicans, they and Democrats are no longer in the same boat. This “Gilded Age” truism needs to be tattooed on Republican foreheads.

I knew we were had when Obama pursued no malefactors from the 2008 economic meltdown. Too many of America’s premier corporations, banks and financial institutions unequivocally and criminally harmed the nation. Yet, no one swings from the yardarm. No accountability. Bonuses, ironically enough. Business as usual.

Obama, sadly, wasn’t the change we needed.

We require a Burt Lancaster as Wyatt Earp in the “Gunfight at the O.K. Corral.” No more showing up under-gunned for battle with the Clanton-like Republicans. This ain’t no knife fight.

Jepson is a 24-year resident of Florida. He’s fiscally conservative, socially liberal, likes art and embraces diversity of opinion. Reach him at [email protected]