Corker Corks It

The New York Times’ instant coverage of the downfall of the “take it, b----!” approach to governance by Senate Majority Leader Reid in collusion with President Bush has this corker of the bitterness bottle from Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn.:

”Americans feel that they are losing their country ... to a government that has seemed to not have the competence or the ability to carry out the things that it says it will do.''

Senator Jim DeMint, R-SC, adds:

"It transcends anything about immigration. It has become a crisis of confidence."

That about sums it up, not only for the immigration grand design but also for other grand designs from Social Security to health care to Iraq.

For over a decade, we’ve been fed grand designs, poorly crafted, and full of obvious glaring holes, which have turned off the spectrum of citizens from liberal to conservative.

What’s been most lacking in all cases has been connection with Americans’ actual concerns, indeed even respect for them, because there’s been unwillingness by our politicians to honestly set out the stakes, the objectives, and the real costs, and to openly pursue them. Instead, we get platitudes, excuses, shadow dances, and transparent nonsense that increasingly is seen through by anyone with a modicum of common sense, of which the American people have much.

That’s allowed partisans to critique or snipe, often without much more to offer. Inertia carries us forward to the brinks of national impoverishment and international disgrace. Consequently, we’ve sunk deeper into mires of entitlement swamps we can’t afford or into half-way struggles against vicious enemies that chews up our servicepeople and credibility, and contradicts the recognized importance of the mission.

Most people see right through the shams, from all sides, and are thoroughly disgusted. We cannot be gulled or persuaded anymore by residual confidence in too many of our politicians, who have succeeded in almost utterly destroying it.

Some propose a third-party out from this status quo. That’s a pipe-dream, particularly since the leaders would come from the existing political class, there’s little enough resources, the existing political class have erected high barriers, and there’s no evident consensus among even the few brave ones with integrity.

“When in the course of human events” is again now, and the answer will have to come from below, not above. That’s what 2008 will tell us, whether there’s enough groundswell now evident for those who want to represent us to step forth and be honest, clear, and detailed, and have the track-record to be trusted.

In many races, most hopefully for the presidency, that will be what it takes.

This healthy skepticism is, essentially, conservative: Move forward based on solid evidence, means, plans, purpose, and competence. That is what Republicans will have to require of themselves, and most other Americans also require. We have a real opportunity ahead to save our American course of greatness, through greatness.