Monday, July 14, 2008
Flip-flops are good, when for the right reasons
Steve Huff
Recent columns
- Leave the oil in the ground
- Tired, old elephant dressed in lipstick and heels
- Time to reshuffle the deck
- Knowing where to draw the line
From the RoundTable blog
Economist John Maynard Keynes once rebuffed: "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"
Somersault, U-turn, flip-flop, back flip: Pejoratives for changing one's political mind can be traced to the 1800s.
Modern examples include George H.W. Bush's ultimatum, "Read my lips: No new taxes," which was followed, of course, by a tax increase. John Kerry earned a pair of gold-plated flip-flops with his 2004 statement, "I actually did vote for the $87 billion [for war funding] before I voted against it."
Today's presidential candidates have outdone themselves.
After promising he would accept public funds for his campaign (thereby restricting his overall spending) Barack Obama recently turned down public funds. After deeming the D.C. gun ban constitutional, he agreed with the Supreme Court's ruling that it was unconstitutional. For a while, he wore a flag lapel pin, then took it off, and now wears it again, sometimes. Many believe he is gearing up to refine his signature policy on troop withdrawals from Iraq.
John McCain voted against Bush's tax cuts, but now features them in his economic agenda. He states he would now vote against the immigration bill that he sponsored three years ago. After lambasting the likes of Jerry Falwell during his 2000 presidential run, McCain pulled a full reversal in an interview with Tim Russert, then gave the commencement speech at Falwell's Liberty University.
Good for McCain and Obama.
After the elder Bush was forever labeled a wimp and Kerry went down as a spineless fish, it must take a lot of guts to change one's political mind. If I were running for office today, I'd be afraid to change my underwear.
But, for whatever reasons, the candidates are changing their minds, sometimes dramatically. Each change gives us insight into the way those minds perceive the challenges that face us all.
Hillary Clinton, for instance, reversed her stance on whether the Florida and Michigan delegates should be seated at the Democratic convention. Most called it desperation; some, tenacity.
President Bush, on the other hand, has ruled with an iron will. At a 2006 presidential roast, comedian Stephen Colbert, tongue firmly in cheek, praised the president for believing "the same thing Wednesday that he believed on Monday, no matter what happened Tuesday."
The way I see it, situations change, perceptions change, minds need to change.
Sometimes.
Hillary's 11th hour reversal on the seating of Democratic delegates was pathetic. Obama's reversal on the D.C gun ban panders to the "bitter" Americans clinging to "guns and religion" he had insulted earlier. McCain's new reverence for fundamental Christianity is a disingenuous olive branch to those he estranged in the 2000 primaries.
Other flip-flops, however, hold merit. Taxes needed to increase in 1990, so George H.W. Bush sucked it up and signed the bill. His son uncharacteristically caved in and negotiated with a member of the Axis of Evil, thereby heralding the end of North Korea's nuclear weapons program.
Kerry and others reconsidered their support for the war when they learned that the push relied on misinformation and on the false assumption that the commander in chief would use his head.
Obama, I think, sees that Iraq is not the hopelessly violent place it was when he started his campaign, so kudos to him if he backtracks on his troop withdrawal plan. If McCain can convince us that it's best for America to extend the tax cuts he voted against, more power to him.
There is a powerful, raucous minority who feel that politicians should stick to their guns regardless of the circumstances. Failure to do so represents a lack of integrity.
Look where that guiding principle has left us.
The true measure of a politician is not his stubbornness, but the reasons he gives for proposing, revising or abandoning his policies. Since both major presidential candidates are flopping like fish, perhaps Americans will look past the flip-flop label to the heart of the issues.
We ought to have a president with the guts to turn 180 degrees, if necessary, to face the challenges that bear down on America. He then must look us in the eye and tell us why.
