Democratic Candidates Glib on Iraq, Miss Critical Issues

Even though I’ve always been a registered Democrat, I’m really starting to get impatient and disappointed with the Democratic Primary debates. First of all, in a vain attempt to boost ratings and “create news” during Sunday’s broadcast, George Stephanopoulos resorted to “reality TV tactics,” shamelessly trying to entice any and all of the leading candidates to attack one another, insult yet another unsuspecting sovereign nation or otherwise make fools of themselves, all for the good of ABC.

Given that blacks have voted close to 90 percent Democratic in recent elections, and that there are now 40 million of us in this country, I’m still waiting to hear a meaningful discussion of issues that significantly impact African-Americans, and not just the empty, running debate about whether Hillary or Barack is “black enough.” There are real, lingering economic and social disparities between white and black Americans and, in the main, those issues are not being addressed, with conviction, by the candidates.

So far, I’m not impressed.

For example, much of the time spent during Sunday’s debate was focused on each candidate’s Iraq War exit strategy, and they all tried to outdo each other in coming up with the cleanest and quickest departure plan.

Beyond the ‘competition’ for the best exit strategy, the broader issue, of course, is whether the U.S. should have ever been an occupying military presence in Iraq in the first place, and whether we can expect, in the future, to be able to get away with rationalizing such tactics, when it is commonly understood that the true, underlying issue is our need to have access to Iraq’s oil fields.

If the whole thing has been about oil, and the war hasn’t worked, what should we do now to maintain viable, commercial relations with Iraq beyond the “exit?” We clearly haven’t been hearing enough on that subject.

I don’t know about you, but I’m curious about what the “next President” will actually do to keep U.S. gas stations open, homes heated and factories fueled after he/she rushes to leave that part of the world where 13 of the 24 largest oil fields are located. (Those 13, by the way are situated in Saudi Arabia, Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Dubai). I wonder if the candidates truly comprehend the extent to which the so-called “American way of life” and our national business model is directly linked to having access to the 20.4 million barrels of oil our economy consumes, each and every day. (China, the world’s second-largest, oil-consuming nation, currently ‘survives’ on just 6.5 million barrel per day).

I’m getting impatient with the focus on “exit strategies” because it obfuscates honest discussion about the real purpose of the 2003 Invasion, and because it presumes that the U.S. economy can continue to be viable without access to the 55 percent of our total oil consumption that we import from other countries, including Iraq, each year. I’m growing disappointed because most of the Democratic candidates’ “energy independence strategies” are targeted to such far-flung timelines as: “25 percent reduction in oil usage by 2025” (Obama); “50 percent U.S. oil consumption reduction by 2025” (Clinton); “increase U.S. fuel economy to 40 mpg by 2016” (Edwards) and “20 percent increase in ‘energy productivity’ by 2020” (Richardson). It’s curious that none of these so-called “energy independence plans” are scheduled to take effect at the time we begin the planned withdrawal from Iraq (and other parts of that region), and none is slated to be accountable until years like 2016, 2020 and 2025, well after the “next President” leaves office. How serious are they?

I’m also wondering whether the aspiring Democratic candidates have been paying sufficient attention to the current “pre-exit” performance of our national business model to recognize that it is in need, even now, of a massive restructuring, if the U.S. is to have any hope, at all, of re-energizing its domestic economy.

As has been the case for many years, the current U.S. “business model” is based on the mandate that all publicly traded corporations increase their shareholder value and profitability – every quarter, every year, ad infinitum.

Of course, any interruption, whatsoever, from this desired pattern of never-ending performance improvement subjects the corporation to the risk of public denouncement by securities analysts and media, to reduction of share values and loss of the CEO’s salary, bonuses and job.

Let’s face it, in a world of declining natural resources and growing global competition for them by several, increasingly well-armed, emerging economic powers, it is unreasonable to believe that U.S. corporations will always be able to count on maintaining their profit margins through ongoing, unlimited access to cheap natural resources and excessively low-cost foreign labor supply, as the model has required. In the new, more globally balanced, economic environment, large U.S. corporations have shifted to a new pattern of “profit-margin-through-expense cuts,” i.e., massive, repeated layoffs, quality control reductions and the off-shoring of jobs and production facilities.

What’s been the result?

- Ethically - and revenue-challenged financial services companies have moved to charging usurious, “subprime” rates for home mortgages and credit cards, leading to a projected 2.5 million mortgage foreclosures over the coming 12 months.

- With the loss of jobs to off-shoring and to large corporate layoffs (Ford, GM, Pfizer, Bear Stearns, IBM, Motorola, Amgen, etc, etc.) unemployment and personal bankruptcies are increasingly prevalent.

- We’ve become numb to the $3.00 per gallon price at the pump.

- We routinely pay more than a dollar for a 25 oz. bottle of “public tap water,” and we’ve grown to accept it.

- The cost to attend good private universities has substantially outpaced the increase in the cost-of-living, leading to frightening levels of student and family indebtedness.

- We sit by, helplessly, we say, as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and many of its largest corporate members shamelessly encourage a record-level U.S. influx of illegal Mexican immigrants, most of whom are lured here to lead hard-scrabble, poverty-level existences as they swell the low-wage workforce that further boosts corporate profit margins.

- We witness a steady stream of food and product recalls, deadly toys from China, exploding laptops from Taiwan and even deadlier prescribed, branded pharmaceuticals. The lives of our babies and our household pets are casually placed at risk, and children and adults are literally dying because neither the federal government nor the importing U.S. corporations are willing, anymore, to pay for quality control.

- And, somehow, in the midst of all of this, USA Today reported recently that half of the CEO’s at the Standard and Poors’ 500 companies earned more than $8.3 million in 2006, topped by Yahoo Inc.’s Terry Semel, with total compensation of $71.7 million.

How is any of this a black issue?

· Well, according to the Boston Globe earlier this year, 55 percent of black and Latino borrowers from several leading financial institutions in the Greater Boston area had subprime loans, compared to 13 percent of white borrowers. Similar patterns existed in studies done in Charlotte, N.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City and Rochester, New York. At Washington Mutual, for example, 75.8 percent of blacks and 80 percent of Hispanic mortgage borrowers were pushed into subprime loans, as compared to 17.1 percent of whites.

· When Coca Cola announced a substantial layoff in its Atlanta offices, a lawsuit filed by former black employees alleged that blacks were being required to accept less beneficial separation packages than whites who were laid off at the company. In addition, the Atlanta Journal and Constitution found that, as is the case in many companies in the midst of layoffs, Coke failed to meet its own diversity goals, leading to white males being “disproportionately promoted.” (Imagine that!)

· As relates to the problem of illegal immigrants, the Economic Policy Institute reported: “arguably the most racist policy in the country for the past quarter century has been immigration policy. The onslaught of poorly educated, mainly Hispanic immigrants has stymied good faith efforts of African Americans to climb up the economic ladder.”

· In fact, a study by the Pew Hispanic Center confirmed that “Hispanic workers accounted for more than one million of the 2.5 million new jobs created by the U.S. economy in 2004.” At the same time, the report also noted that Hispanic workers’ wages had declined by 5 percent over the previous two-year period.

· As to the cost of healthcare, there, too, the issues are more painful for black Americans. According to a recent Gallup poll, a significant percentage of Americans, including almost half of Hispanics and blacks, “report times in the past when they didn’t have enough money to pay for medical expenses.”

· Given our broken business model, the Democratic candidates also should be aware of how all of this negatively impacts the prospects of young black, low-to-moderate income students who have the ability, but, now, not the financial resources, to pursue a college degree.

According to the president of Miami Dade College, the cost of paying for public college over the past 30 years, as a percentage of family income, has risen from 42 percent to 71 percent for low-income families, but held at 19 percent for middle income, and 5 percent for upper-income families.

The message to the Democratic Presidential Candidates is simple:


First, if we are truly serious about leaving Iraq, we damn sure better have a strong and IMMEDIATE “Plan B” for ensuring continued access to Middle East oil reserves, for reducing our annual energy consumption and for improving U.S. relations with Venezuela, Mexico, Brazil, Nigeria, Angola and Algeria, other leading sources of global oil reserves.

Secondly, the “next President” needs to take a close look at the business-related reasons why we’re losing our claim to world-class quality of life in this country, and how this has caused disproportionate hardship, verging on desperation, in many parts of the national black community. These are the issues that deserve thoughtful consideration by the Democratic candidates.

Let’s see if anybody cares.


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