Conformity = Political Success?

Americans have fallen into a trap, one which was set by Republicans since the Reagan years. Bill Clinton fell into it too.

The trap is what I call the Coccoon of Conformity. In short, it means that political success can only be achieved if the message is tightly controlled, and those who stray off message are asked to resign.

In the last farce of a presidential administration, Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill resigned rather than toe the line on going to war with Iraq. Others, including generals like Eric Shinseki, also paid the price for venturing out of the coccoon.

Now, VP Joe Biden is one of the voices against escalating the war in Afghanistan, which may end up on the other side of what President Obama wants. Arianna Huffington suggests that Biden, if he is going to hold to that position, should "escalate his willingness to act on those reservations."

And what, if anything, would Biden's resignation suggest? That Obama doesn't tolerate dissent in the ranks, like his infamous predecessor? Or would it suggest that Americans doesn't have the stomach for a healthy debate? Obama would look like the biggest fool if the man he selected as his running mate on the basis of his long-standing expertise in foreign policy would be allowed to leave the administration because of a disagreement over that policy.

I think there's plenty of room for debate on something as critical as a war. I do not see it as a sign of weakness that Obama allows such voices to rise to the surface and be publicly heard. As we've seen throughout the last 50 years, having a single message is bad on almost all fronts. Kennedy had that problem; Johnson and Nixon too. Reagan drove us to record deficits during his regime because he, like everyone around him, saw supply-side economics as the cure-all for America, regardless of economic conditions on the ground (and we're seeing that even die-hard fiscal conservatives like Bruce Bartlett don't really think that way). And Bush's blinders-on approach to every one of his policies left us with near-Depression-era economic woes, two foreign wars that were hopelessly unwinnable, and an aversion to facts and science that so brainwashed the Republican Party that it will take a generation to undo (and a generation before they see themselves in the White House again).

Debate is good for politics, good for policy, and ultimately good for America.

Keep Biden, keep talking, and keep the faith.