As we move from Labor Day into the rough and tumble of the campaign year ahead, some significant events recently occurred that crossed all party lines. Parents brought their children back to start the school year, young adults returned to their college semesters, the Department of Labor announced not a single new net job was added in America in the month of August (not a good way to go into a holiday weekend honoring workers in this country), and we all anticipated with somberness the 10-year anniversary of 9/11.
All these events affect and involve a convergence of Democrats, Republicans, and independents, and a shared emotional arc of hope, nervousness, concern, and community, but will they show the folks running for president the way citizens want our leaders to govern? Two big moments this week will make it clear whether the candidates are listening to the anxious majority or the angry minority.
First up will be the Republican presidential debate at the Reagan Library in California on Wednesday -- a significant moment since this will be the first debate involving the leading Republican candidate, Texas Gov. Rick Perry. My expectation is that the debate will involve many attacks on President Obama, some attacks on fellow candidates, and lots of talk concerning the troubled economy. Today there is a consensus on the problem: A vast majority of Democrats, Republicans, and independents believe we are already in another recession.
Will Republicans offer a new array of innovative solutions to move the economy forward? Unlikely, since all we have heard thus far is standard Republican rhetoric about budget cuts combined with tax cuts and deregulation. And there is no real evidence that this array of policy points will actually add jobs to this economy. This isn't the early 1980s, and a solution from 30 years ago is probably not the "new" solution in a 21st-century world.
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