Column: Notes from Home

This was not my idea. Last week NPR played a selection of audio memos from people across the political spectrum. (Check them out, Mr. President, they’re available at NPR’s website — because I think you might learn something about the mood of the country.)

As I listened to people like Jerry Falwell Jr., I wondered what I would have to say to President Obama if I had the chance.

So here it is, Mr. President; what I think you should do in the aftermath of the “shellacking” Democrats underwent two weeks ago.

First, embrace your President Spock persona; don’t get caught up in messy emotions. Yes, I realize you were given the nickname by your detractors, just as I was back in high school, but there’s strength in that identity. Don’t lose your temper or weep. Stay focused on the challenges our nation faces.

Thinking like Spock, review your hopes and intentions for the rest of your term. Come January there will be a new Congress, with 84 freshly elected opponents sitting in its seats. You have to deal with them. This is not to say that you throw out everything you worked on or simply disappear from leadership. It means you’ll have to shift priorities. It means you will have to be more aggressive, at times, but also that you learn to meet the other sides partway.

Part of that will mean throwing out the State of the Union speech. File a report instead, and then come to Congress to answer questions from both parties for two hours.

The Bush Tax cuts? Abandon them. Republicans made them temporary, and you shouldn’t get in the way of that decision. After paying for two wars plus a Wall Street bailout, we can’t afford those tax cuts. If we’re going to get out of this mess, all of us have to share in the pain of balancing our nation’s bank accounts.

So you shouldn’t be surprised when I also say you need to embrace the budget balancing ideas the bipartisan commission comes up with. Oh, they’re going to hurt. Things I like will lose. If a bipartisan majority of the commissions members support the recommendations, adopt them as your budget blueprint. Stick the plan in the face of your opponents in Congress. Make them reveal their real priorities.

Health care reform is going to be difficult, but the legislation you signed is flawed. You’re only going to earn back my respect if you admit it and find some Republicans willing to work with you on reforming the reform.

Remind people — including Republicans — that we have the most expensive health care in the world. We need a system that spreads the costs out, so nobody has to go bankrupt or turn into a public spectacle at community fundraisers to pay for medical care. Don’t be shy about criticizing the system as it has been and its defenders; the evidence is there to prove that we don’t, in fact, have the best medical care in the world, despite all the money we throw at it.

I realize, of course, that in many areas your hands will be tied by the Senate. The rules there make it possible for a majority of one to put the brakes on anything that comes up. Those rules used to help slow the process down, to give us all a chance to look more closely at things. But the Senate Republicans’ stated purpose now is to defeat you no matter the cost, and beyond that, to humiliate you, lest the progressives in the country dare think of electing someone to lead the whole country again.

What can you do about the Senate? Probably not much, so you’ll need to plan for gridlock, and resist the temptation to act unilaterally. You’ve already picked up enough bad habits from Lord Cheney when it comes to the imperial presidency.

I think you can find success, if you keep the nation’s interests ahead of political gains and losses. Only time will tell if I’m correct in that belief. At any rate, live long and prosper.

Albert Lea resident David Rask Behling teaches at Waldorf College in Forest City, Iowa, and lives with his wife and children in Albert Lea. His column appears every other Tuesday.