Joseph Wiseman died back on October 19. He was 91. You’ll be forgiven if his name isn’t top of mind. After all, he was only what they call a character actor. It’s a label that has always mystified me. Isn’t playing characters exactly what all actors do? Whatever. Wiseman’s career spanned almost seven decades, and he was superb at his craft. I remember taking note of him first in Elia Kazan’s classic Viva Zapata. But his best known role came ten years later when he played Dr. No in the first, and some feel best, James Bond film. So we may not all remember his name, but who could forget that emblematic 1962 performance? Despite Wiseman’s demise, an invigorated Dr. No remains with us, especially these days.
As we approach the final weeks of 2009 and await a vote on the Senate healthcare bill, I don’t think of Ben Bernanke, Time’s Person of the Year, but of Dr No. When we looked toward the inauguration of President Obama last December and of a widened majority for Democrats in both the House and Senate, we had high hopes for the year to come. We had a leader who seemed bent on ending divisiveness and a Congress that finally could address some long smoldering problems and do so with decisiveness. That hasn’t quite happened. This is not to suggest that there weren’t significant accomplishments across many fronts, but each has fallen short, been less (sometimes much less) than it might or should have been.
Yes we can. How quickly a euphoric chant can fade into distant memory, or more accurately be forced off the stage. As controversial as he was, George W. Bush could count on a few Democrats, often more than a few, to support The President on matters of national interest, including his budget busting tax cuts and ill conceived venture into Iraq. That was not to be for Barack Obama. Considering that this President came in with a decisive popular and Electoral College victory compared with Bush’s disputed elevation, that’s really astounding. In some measure of course it reflects the unintended consequences of the Democrats regaining power, much of it at the expense of the few moderate Republicans that were still around. In fact, while the now majority party is even more diversified, the GOP is increasingly homogeneous; a party that is ideologically right of right.
It’s been clear from the early votes on rescuing a tanking economy to this moment that Republicans have made a strategic decision to play Dr. No. They have always been better than Democrats at finding the right battle cries and preemptive self-serving descriptors – partial birth abortion, death tax – but now they have imposed a single voice rule that is truly impressive and equally disquieting. It demands lockstep adherence to the party line with an ever-present threat of primary challenges to any elected official to strays from their now clearly defined reservation. It’s a calculated gamble that may pay off ideologically in the short term and perhaps even at the polls in 2010, but a high risk calculation nonetheless. It’s a stance that in the end is neither good from them or, I would argue, for us.
Thoughtful opposition and alternative ideas are a necessary component in making democracy work best. It isn’t merely checks and balances that are required but a broadening and enrichment of legislation. By catering to their so-called ideological base, it has been said that the Republicans are marginalizing themselves and embedding their minority status into concrete. Predictions like that are often the product of wishful thinking or one of those media inventions aimed at hyping and insuring the drama of those critical revenue-producing election cycles. What astounds me and challenges credulity is that there is not a single Republican Senator ready to vote for better healthcare. What’s going on with Snowe and Collins from Maine or the otherwise non-ideological (onetime mayor) Lugar of Indiana? One has to wonder how these people, and probably some unnamed others, really feel about their actions, how they can look themselves in the mirror. It’s truly hard to forgive them for seemingly thinking more about their own reelection than the good of their fellow citizens, so many of them lacking healthcare. No Profiles in Courage here.
And Dr. No is not limited to Republicans. The duplicitous arrogance of Joe Lieberman and the personal religiously motivated stance of Ben Nelson who have used unvarnished blackmail to gain their 15 minutes of fame is equally reprehensible. The pious Senator from Connecticut may deny influence by the fat cat Insurance companies that make their home in his state. Yes and there is a Santa and the Red Sea really parted at the raising of a staff. Nelson’s stance, in this case used for his own leverage and display of self-importance, represents yet another assault on the wall of separation between church and state. These two men apparently are not going to stand in the way of passing a bill, but must be held accountable for a bill that is significantly less than it should have been. In that Lieberman may be the worst offender because his stance denying a public option or an extension of Medicare affects the underlying structure of the system, delaying the inevitable and destined to hurt a lot of people in the interim. Nelson’s draconian abortion funding restrictions may well be Unconstitutional.
Come let us reason together. These words have faded even more into history than yes we can. They were spoken by Lyndon Johnson, a man who knew how to reach legislative consensus but who in the end may be responsible for sewing the very seeds of division that plague us now. It’s not too soon to suggest that the poison of mistrust in this country began with Viet Nam, a war that absolutely tore us apart. It was a time of hardening positions for both citizens and politicians, something that now has morphed into an environment driven and characterized by conflicting absolutes. He was Vice President at Dr. No’s release, but assuredly could never have dreamed how enduring the idea embodied in the villainous Ian Fleming named character could be. Watching this year’s events has truly been experiencing a movie in real time. Don't expect an Academy Award for this one.