America is seeing, and the press is admitting, what people around here have known for a long time: We have an incompetent president.
But now is not a time for partisan advantage. Now is a time to save our country. With two cities devastated on his watch, I don't want to risk Bush making another trifecta as the clock ticks slowly toward Jan '09.
We, the citizens of this country, in both parties, need to demand new leadership. We need to make our demands clear to our congressman, and hold them accountable if they don't listen.
It's time for John McCain and Al Gore to become president and vice president.
Some obvious questions.
Is this constitutionally possible?
Of course. Dick Cheney can be impeached, or he can resign. John McCain can be named his replacement. George Bush can be impeached or he can resign. Al Gore can be named vice president.
I imagine that a resolution by two-thirds of Congress demanding their resignations would have the desired effect.
Isn't this unprecedented?
Of course. But so is presiding over the devasation of two major American cities.
Why McCain?
Because he's the only Republican I can think of not deeply in bed with the Bush regime. Because he was willing to admit that Bush drove "into a ditch" on Iraq. And because he understands the role of Congress... and the willingness of Congress to cede authority to the Administration while dismantling internal checks-and-balances is part of the disaster that led to babies and grandmothers dying on American streets last week.
What about McCain's support for .....?
Yeh, he's a Republican. And a Senator. And a politician. Personally, I'd be quite happy to have the ghosts of Abraham Lincon and Martin Luther King take control of the country, but that's not going to happen.
Congress is Republican. And nearly all the people who voted for the present administration are Republican. We can only hope to depose Bush if we get lots of those people on board... which means, one way or another, the president of this country for the next 3+ years will be Republican. McCain is a hell of a lot better than the incumbent -- but I'm open to suggestions for popular Republicans who would be better than McCain.
Why Al Gore?
Because he was more popular than Bush in the '00 election. Because he knows what's involved in being veep. Because -- and this is important -- part of his portfolio under Clinton was "reinventing government" -- in other words, figuring out what works and what doesn't work in the executive branch. The thousands of folks who died these past few days in New Orleans died because Bush saw the executive branch as a tool for cronyism, corruption and cynical politicing. It's time to take government seriously.
And because what this country needs -- and what I think it has wanted for at least the past four years -- is a bipartisanship that is neither date rape (as Grover Norquist would have it) or acquiesence to the rape of children in the Superdome, which is what any bloodless bipartisanship, of the sort now be proffered by pandering Joe Liberman, will inevitable become.
Won't this hand McCain the 2008 election?
What makes you think Bush plans on holding elections? More to the point, what do you think the odds are that you won't be a victim of Bush policies, whether from a preventable terror attach by a government for whom security is a pretext not a concern, or by North Korean nuke spawned by Bush's hatred for democracy, or some other collossal fuck up only imagined by the likes of Tom Clancy and FEMA bureacrats.
What about the '06 elections?
That's part of the beauty of this plan. It gives Democrats something to be for. It also gives Republicans a way to distance themself from this administration -- and have it count.
What about Iraq?
Another wonderful thing about a McCain/Gore administration. Everyone except Bush and his enablers agree that situations are royally fucked up in Iraq. Withdrawal now leads to a civil war and a fundamentalist state. Withdrawal later leads to more dead Americans, a civil war and a fundamentalist state. The choices are rather dismal.
The good thing about handing over the reins to McCain and Gore is that they're not invested in defending the decision to go to war and how the war was launched. Bush will continue to lie to himself and the nation. A new administration can at least try to figure out what the fuck to do.
Haven't you been watching too much West Wing?
Sadly, no. I haven't watched enough. Feel free to mail me DVDs of this past season.
If I'm on board, well, now what?
I'm launching the idea here (and on a couple of other blogs) to answer a couple questions:
- Is there any support for this idea at all here on the left?
- Are there any better candidates than McCain & Gore?
If you think this is a good idea, indicate so here, and stay tuned as I figure out how to turn a crazy scheme into a movement. If you think it sucks, well, here's the place to tell me.
Could you leave us with an inspirational rallying cry from Phil Ochs?
Gladly: "This country is too young to die!"