I came into this world as a Republican, and I still veer to the red side of international issues: Although I believe there is much to appreciate about and learn from other societies, I’m an unabashed American-firster. But when it comes to domestic issues and building prosperous communities in a globally competitive, knowledge-intensive economy, I don’t see that the Republicans have any more clue than the Democrats of what to do.
Indeed, in the aftermatch of the 2006 elections, I find myself questioning how useful the Republican/Democratic labels are when it comes to confronting the challenges of state/local governance. I’m sure I come across as “Mr. Republican” to many readers of this blog because of my steadfast opposition to higher taxes — taxes that have emanated primarily, though not exclusively, from the Democratic Party and have been opposed by elements of the Republican Party. I remain convinced that raising taxes is the first recourse of those too intellectually lazy to find more creative ways to address public needs.
But I find much to admire in the “reinventing government” focus of former Gov. Mark Warner and, to the extent that he embraces it, Gov. Tim Kaine. In other words, I like my government small — but what it does, I want it to do well.
Likewise, I share the views of many in the environmentalist/ conservationist lobby, most of whom are Democrats, that Virginia’s transportation system is broken, that our land use policies are dysfunctional, and that our human settlement patterns are not sustainable. We are depleting our natural capital, and we are perpetuating energy-intensive forms of development even as we enter an increasingly energy-constrained global economy. (Indeed, with the way things are heading in the Middle East, I believe that we need to protect ourselves from the risk of oil cut-offs that will make the Arab Oil Embargo of 1973 look like a picnic.)
The ability of Virginians to adapt to new realities are constrained (a) by our tribal loyalties as members of the Donkey Clan or the Elephant Clan (as Ed Risse calls them), (b) our mental frameworks for understanding the world that we inherited from the past, and (c) the defense of the status quo on the part of those special interests who benefit from Business As Usual.
Richard Florida, the author of the “Rise of the Creative Class,” argues that there is a fundamental realignment going on in American society. The emergence of the Knowledge Economy, and the rise of a “creative class” comprised of individuals who own their means of production, i.e., their own brains, creates an entirely new constituency in American politics. While the elephants wage the culture wars, while the donkeys still sound the class warfare rhetoric of a century ago and the Civil Rights movement of a generation ago, the most critical issues for our future go undiscussed in the political arena: How do we increase the creativity, productivity and capacity for innovation of our workforce, our businesses and our communities?
At some point, Florida speculates, a new political party may emerge to articulate these concerns. We need to be asking ourselves: What old institutions much change? What new institutions must we invent? How do we make our communities more liveable?
I have endeavored to use Bacon’s Rebellion as a forum for re-thinking the way we approach transportation and land use. But we also need to fundamentally re-think how we educate our children, indeed, how we continue re-educating ourselves as adults. We need to fundamentally re-think how we deliver health care services. We need to fundamentally re-think our energy and environmental policies. We need to fundamentally re-think the very meaning of economic development, and how we Virginians will compete in a global economy in which 1.3 billion Chinese and 1.0 billion Indians, and assorted other nationalities hungry for progress and uncorrupted by an entitlement mentality, are educating themselves by the millions and doing high value-added jobs we once considered our exclusive preserve.
No one running for office as a member of the Donkey Clan or the Elephant Clan addressed these issues. The Senatorial race in Virginia was an absolute travesty. The attack ads were a disgrace. The level of discourse was sub-literate. If there’s any lesson to be learned, it’s how bankrupt the two-party system has become. As we survey the wreckage, perhaps it’s time for members of the Creative Class to articulate a new set of principles and priorities.