Colin Powell – A member in good standing of America’s political class.
Tuesday, May 26th, 2009
Colin Powell: It was a pretty exciting moment, pretty challenging moment. I had made it clear that I wasn’t interested in a political career, but I wanted to be active in the discussion and debate of issues in the country. People came to me, asking me my opinion on various issues. I identified myself as a Republican who was very conservative fiscally and with matters of foreign policy and national defense, but who was quite moderate to liberal on a number of the social issues of the day. So I was going into a convention where I was received as a popular former general, but I was also going into a convention that collectively was far more conservative politically than I was.
Americans do want to pay taxes for services,
and:
Americans are looking for more government in their life, not less.
GEN. COLIN POWELL: What I’m saying is that we see – we don’t agree on abortion. He’s pro-life and I believe in a woman’s right to choose. But we can stand side by side and both of us give our opinions. I don’t think it should be a litmus test to being a good Republican that you have to be pro-life. Some others in the party would disagree with me. And I think what Governor Bush is saying, is that’s our party platform. We believe in the right to life, but there are many members of the Republican Party who believe in the philosophy of the Republican Party who don’t agree with that. Let’s not cast them in the darkness just because they don’t agree with that particular position of the party. Let’s have a big tent party that welcomes then in. There are lots of Republicans who will not be terribly happy with what I said tonight, but then let’s have a debate about it. You know, I believe in affirmative action. You don’t, let’s argue about it, and let’s not just say that you have got to be an anti-affirmative action person to be a good Republican in good standing. I don’t agree with that.
He blasted radio commentator Rush Limbaugh, saying he does not believe that Limbaugh or conservative icon Ann Coulter serve the party well. He said the party lacks a “positive” spokesperson. “I think what Rush does as an entertainer diminishes the party and intrudes or inserts into our public life a kind of nastiness that we would be better to do without,” Powell said. He also said that Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, McCain’s running mate last year, is “a very accomplished person” but became “a very polarizing figure.” He said the polarization was created by Palin’s advisers.
The Political Class Index is based on three questions. All three clearly address populist tendencies and perspectives, all three have strong public support, and, for all three questions, the populist perspective is generally shared by Democrats, Republicans and those not affiliated with either of the major parties. We have asked the questions before, and the results change little whether Republicans or Democrats are in charge of the government.
He then goes on to say:
The questions used to calculate the Index are:
– Generally speaking, when it comes to important national issues, whose judgment do you trust more – the American people or America’s political leaders?
– Some people believe that the federal government
has become a special interest group that looks out primarily for its own interests. Has the federal government become a special interest group?
– Do government and big business often work together in ways that hurt consumers and investors?
Generally speaking, Populists will respond with answers of “American People”, “Yes”, and “Yes” respectively, while the Political Class will respond to the same questions with answers of “political leaders”, “No, and “No”.
It doesn’t require a lot of imagination to envision Powell standing with the Political Class on all three questions. And therein lies his real problem: he’s a member in good standing of the Political Class, of the elite, a Washington political insider divorced from the reality and perspectives of the people who have made the Republican Party and Colin Powell himself successful: its Mainstream or center-right base. Over the past eight years, Republicans gave America the Colin Powell version of more government in their lives, and America (including much of its center-right base) responded with visceral disgust in 2006 and 2008. Moreover, the party’s 2008 Presidential nominee, John McCain was supposed to be the embodiment of moderate appeal Powell says he wants. Why Powell insists on asserting that the reason Republicans lose is because they aren’t liberal enough is tedious and unfounded. Republicans do well when the base of the party (conservatives and libertarians) is happy. Both groups have been unhappy, and with much justification, for some time. Powell needs to attune himself to this reality and stop whining.