American Kadima

By Crispin Sartwell

 

What America needs is Kadima.

    The new political party founded by Ariel Sharon instantly and permanently transformed the politics of Israel. To say that the United States could profit by a similar shakeup is an understatement.

    Here are three figures that might make a new political landscape: John McCain, Russell Feingold, and Colin Powell. These are smart people, people of integrity, and people with tremendous leadership ability. Any would make a fine president.

    And I think the case can be made that they - along with perhaps a few others, such as Wesley Clark, Chuck Hagel, and Olympia Snowe - owe it to their country to destroy the two-party system.

    First of all, I think it is unlikely that McCain can get the Republican nomination in 2008. Barring an even more dramatic political meltdown of the Bush administration, the party establishment will anoint an heir (Condoleezza Rice or Jeb Bush, perhaps), and bring them through the primaries with a devastating combination of infinite cash and vicious Karl Rovean machinations.

     What McCain needs to ask himself now is this: is he willing after his defeat to hold up the hand of Jeb or whomever and lend his wholehearted support to secret torture facilities? It's a long way from torture victim to torture enthusiast, but as a Republican McCain is making that journey, whatever he may say or whatever he may want.

     McCain surely in his heart understands the extent to which the Republican establishment has negated basic moral principles and fundamental American liberties. If he does not want to endorse this debasement, he needs to leave now.

     Russ Feingold is the brightest and most principled man in the Senate: the only Senator with the guts to vote against the Patriot Act.

     The establishment of the Democratic Party in 2004 nominated a man who stood for absolutely nothing, who endorsed virtually all the policies of the Bush administration when they were polling well, and has jumped ship only because the poll numbers have waned.

     At least George Bush thought that invading Iraq and compromising fundamental American liberties were the right policies to pursue. John Kerry knew they were the wrong policies and endorsed them anyway. And when the Democrats nominate someone in 2008, it will be someone without guts or even opinions: a Hillary Clinton or John Edwards.

     So I'd ask Feingold: do you think there ought to be a principled opposition to the administration's aconstitutional abuse of power? Then you need to provide that opposition.

     Colin Powell surely understands that he was abused by the Bush administration: they stood him up there like a marionette and worked his mouth. They made him a chump and ended up in a deeply futile war. So I'd ask him: Are you satisfied to leave it at that and withdraw into a seemly retirement?

     I'm sure all three of these men feel a certain loyalty to their parties and a reluctance to make radical changes in the political system that has nurtured their careers. And they might, as well, fear being marginalized, as third-party candidates - Perot, for example, or Buchanan, or Nader - in recent American elections have been.

      But such fears, I think, would be groundless: a party led by McCain, Feingold, and Powell would instantly be central to American political opinion. These figures have far more credibility than the Democratic and Republican leadership, and are far less polarizing to boot.

      Of course, they disagree in various ways among themselves, and their respective roles would have to be defined. But I think these matters are within the range that can be negotiated in the context of a political party.

     Otherwise, we're going to again face a choice between Republican evil and Democratic emptiness. So Russ, John, Colin: don't you hear the call of duty?