From his Dutch name, I had vaguely assumed that General David Petraeus came off the East Coast elite. But no, it turns out that his father emigrated after the War. No one, however, has yet asked the General to produce his birth certificate. But then, no one has yet fired, and cast into outer darkness, the originator of birtherism, Hillary Clinton.
Petraeus follows Robert Gates, who, while he still had his faults, turned out to be far better as a Republican in a Democrat's Cabinet than as a Republican in a neocon puppet's Cabinet. Petraeus now stands with those who, on the same day as Obama received their states' Electoral College votes, voted in California and Florida to re-affirm traditional marriage, voted in Missouri and Ohio not to liberalise gambling, and voted for Obama from coast to coast while also keeping the black and Catholic churches (especially) going.
Petraeus joins such Obama supporters as Bob Casey, Ben Nelson, Jim Webb, Mark Warner, Tim Kaine, Bart Stupak, General Jim Jones and others of like mind in the Democratic Party, as well as Dick Lugar, Chuck Hagel, Christopher Buckley, and the conservative Catholic constitutional scholar Douglas Kmiec in his own, together with Donnie McClurkin, the ex-gay gospel singer whose presence on the Obama team infuriated the Clinton camp. Petraeus as the Republican nominee in 2016 would therefore be just what the Democratic Party needed, and the election of such a Republican really would not be all that bad, indeed might even be better than the election of one of the more Obama-hating Democrats.
In the meantime, Democrats need to reach out to those who would otherwise be attracted to a candidate who at least now claims to be opposed to outsourcing and to the likes of KORUS, as well as to pointless foreign interventions, and who certainly has a history of supporting single-payer healthcare. But to reach out in terms of the fundamental incompatibility between representative democracy and vast disparities of wealth.
A Democrat is needed with the right views on all four of trade, defence properly so called, healthcare, and the unacceptability of a situation in which Donald Trump can barely vote and yet wield vast political influence by making eye-wateringly large donations to key figures in both parties. Then, in 2016, a Republican like that would also be needed if the GOP wanted to stand a chance. Step forward, David Petraeus?
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Leon Pannetta replaced Gates. The other guy (whose name I can't spell without looking it up) was made head of the CIA.
ReplyDeleteI know, but that wasn't the point. Gates was Obama's token Republican, and he was much better at that than he was as Bush's token Republican. Now it is Petraeus, and he should be good, too. Better, in fact.
ReplyDeleteMind you, I am not sure that having people from across the aisle is as "traditional" as it is now fashionable to pretend. But of that, another time.