Protesting Change

These are hard times for many so you would think we would pull together. Instead protest and dissent are pulling us apart. Unfortunately, the protests at town meetings are noted more for their anger than their effectiveness. We know there is anger and we know specifically what the protesters don’t like. We know far less about what they do like.

To reach out and to get a feel for what is going on, I attended a debate on Medical Malpractice Lawsuits (Tort Reform) sponsored by the Citizens’ Caucus, a conservative group that provided busses for the 9/12 march in Washington.

When I got there, I introduced myself to a big-bodied man with a clean-shaven head who would have been at home in a Harley ad. He said: “I read your columns. I find them interesting." "Interesting" is, of course, a polite code word for: "I don't agree with much you say. But that's all right. It's a free country." His response demonstrated honesty and goodwill. I liked him immediately, even more so when I learned he is running for school board.

This man, like virtually every one of the 100 or so people who were there, cares about our country and community. These people are quite obviously a cross section of my neighbors, people who are committed and involved. They also share a deep concern over what they see as threats to our democracy.

Sincerity is not enough. What I saw did nothing to change my basic feeling that these conservative protesters do not recognize the structural origins of what is happening to our politics and our economy.

America and the world are in the midst of an explosion of technological innovation that is impacting our cultural, economic and social structures. What was set up to serve a simpler time and technology is becoming dysfunctional. That is the pervasive fact that feeds what is bothering conservatives and liberals alike. The force for change is technology and not malice nor ideology nor politics.

Economically, the mass production manufacturing industries are gone. GM no longer rules the roost. Goldman Sachs is now cock-of-the-walk and finance calls the shots economically and politically. It is fruitless to get angry at government for trying to clean up what is left of GM.

What happened to the auto industry is occurring across all industries – energy, finance, military, food, insurance, the media, pharmaceuticals and communications. The free market becomes a myth when the new normal installs a handful of firms that control product, price and distribution.

In banking it was the new technology of securitization and derivatives more than the lack of regulation that blew up our financial system. Our healthcare delivery system with all its paper shuffling is as obsolete as the dial telephone. Those relics are still working, but just barely, as in what kind of confusing options do you want on your mortgage, your cell phone or your health care?

It does no good for conservatives, like the sincere people at the Citizens’ Caucus, to vent their anger and frustration protesting what all this is doing to the Constitution or the concept of limited federal government. Protests that center on ideological differences, political vision or personality are futile when it is technological change that is destroying their cherished institutions.

In healthcare, the “public option” was dead in August. But then the louder the protesters screamed “socialism” and “government takeover,” the stronger the proposal became. Now a public option is in the bill that is going to the floor of congress and some version is likely to pass. Had an alternative been offered, the situation might be different.

You can’t effectively protest change itself, it is like death and taxes. You have to seek something specific to tweak and you have to offer an alternative. The conservatives do not yet have that and as a result the Republicans are being condemned as the party of no.

We are all democratic capitalists and we must admit to the honesty and goodwill of others. No one is in favor of big government, much less socialism. Nor is any one against individual freedom and initiative. We have a shared value system that operates on a mutual respect that is not much in evidence recently.

Our differences arise from the implementation. Conservatives have to come up with specific programs to meet this torrent of change. Venting anger at Obama or frustration at a Democratic congress will not have any useful effective.

The liberals have a plan for healthcare – and for the other problem like energy, finance, and recession that are rushing at us and will demand action.

Right now President Obama is the only game in town. We would all be much better off if the conservatives were part of the process and Obama were tested against a viable alternative.