{"id":11161,"date":"2007-06-18T12:35:45","date_gmt":"2007-06-18T16:35:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/archives\/11161.html"},"modified":"2007-06-18T12:35:45","modified_gmt":"2007-06-18T16:35:45","slug":"what-times-new-action-heroes-have-in-common","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/what-times-new-action-heroes-have-in-common\/","title":{"rendered":"What Time’s ‘New Action Heroes’ have in common"},"content":{"rendered":"

Time’s cover story<\/a> this week is a wildly complimentary piece about Michael Bloomberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom the magazine dubs, “The New Action Heroes.” I actually found the article interesting for what it didn’t<\/i> say.<\/p>\n

It’s not just a shameless puff piece (though it’s partly that); the point of Michael Grunwald’s article seems to be that Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger are picking up the slack from DC and delivering on a popular policy agenda that Americans actually like.<\/p>\n

On an unseasonably hot May day in Central Park, New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg — the pint-size billionaire whose last name needs no elaboration for anyone who knows anything about finance or the media — was talking about saving the planet. With the mayors of more than 30 of the world’s largest cities at his side, Bloomberg was opening a climate summit, highlighting his ambitious plan to slash the Big Apple’s carbon emissions. Together, the mayors pledged to enlist their 250 million constituents in the fight against global warming. “Unfortunately, partisan politics has immobilized Washington,” Bloomberg said. “But the public wants this problem solved. Cities can’t wait any longer for national governments to act.”<\/p>\n

At a lab in Toronto a week later, California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger — the fridge-size multimillionaire whose last name needs no elaboration, period — was talking about eliminating disease. The Governator was announcing a new stem-cell partnership with Ontario, highlighting the $3 billion his state is investing in research the Bush Administration has opposed. In that unmistakable Ahhll-be-bahhk accent, the five-time Mr. Universe spoke of his father-in-law Sargent Shriver, the Peace Corps founder who suffers from Alzheimer’s and no longer recognizes his family. “I look forward to curing all these terrible illnesses,” Schwarzenegger said. “We’re showing how powerful a state can be. Cahh-lifornia doesn’t need to wait for the Federal government.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The broader argument isn’t subtle. The article insists that DC has become bogged down in rancor, while “heroes” like Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger are stepping up to get something done for their constituents. Time says Washington has “failed” to do big things, “paralysis” has overcome the federal process, and “partisanship-on-crack has made compromise almost impossible.”<\/p>\n

“Nature abhors a vacuum,” said Bruce Katz, director of metropolitan policy at the Brookings Institution. “And the vacuum at the national level is immense.”<\/p>\n

But let’s not forget that there’s a very clear explanation for why this is.
\n
\nIn a general sense, why are Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger “heroes”? Because, if we put aside policy specifics, they’re Republicans who shun the GOP base to work with Democratic majorities on climate change, stem-cell research, universal health care, gun control, affordable housing, aid for the working poor, and infrastructure projects.<\/p>\n

“All the great ideas are coming from state and local governments,” Schwarzenegger told Time. “We’re not going to wait for Big Daddy to take care of us.”<\/p>\n

That’s fine, as far as it goes, but it’s a reminder of how great Washington can be if a) there were a moderate Republican in the White House willing to work with a Democratic Congress on a progressive domestic policy agenda; or b) there were a Democratic president in the White House working with a Democratic Congress on a progressive domestic policy agenda.<\/p>\n

Honestly, what do Bloomberg and Schwarzenegger have that Bush doesn’t, other than an approval rating above 30%? They have a desire to work with Democratic policy makers on all the things Democrats and voters already want<\/i>.<\/p>\n

In DC, we have a Democratic Congress chomping at the bit to deliver, but we also have a Republican minority that loves obstructionism a little too much and a Republican president who’s on the wrong side of every policy matter.<\/p>\n

[I]n the Bush Administration, domestic policy has understandably yielded to foreign policy. But it has also yielded to politics; even before Claude Allen was caught boosting goodies at Target, everyone knew Karl Rove was the real domestic-policy adviser. (Now the title belongs to Karl Zinsmeister — yes, the Karl Zinsmeister.) So while the Administration has embraced a few domestic issues — cutting taxes, promoting faith-based initiatives, requiring schools to test students, subsidizing prescription drugs and pushing (unsuccessfully) to restructure Social Security — its hacks have consistently outflanked its wonks. <\/p>\n

And while the new Democratic Congress has vowed to revive domestic policy, so far the only measure it has persuaded Bush to sign has been a minimum-wage increase.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No, I don’t really expect Time magazine to actually come right out and say, “Washington is failing and it’s Bush’s fault,” because that would be impolitic. It would also be true.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Time’s cover story this week is a wildly complimentary piece about Michael Bloomberg and Arnold Schwarzenegger, whom the magazine dubs, “The New Action Heroes.” I actually found the article interesting for what it didn’t say. It’s not just a shameless puff piece (though it’s partly that); the point of Michael Grunwald’s article seems to be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11161","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11161"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11161\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11161"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11161"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11161"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}