Mr. Spineless vs. Dr. Strangelove

It was a brilliant sunny afternoon in Denver, Colorado. The preachers and the evangelicals prayed for days for rain and thunder but there it was, a flawless late summer day. Maybe the "Christian mullahs" lost their direct line to the Almighty.

Anyway, I had a ticket to attend Barack Obama's nomination in the Mile High Stadium among the Greek pillars and high tech production. The day, the place and most of all the person (OOOOBAAAMAA – the crowd shouted) exuded hope, bright future and limitless possibilities for the US, and rest of the world. That was then. Four years later we are back to an election which may be far more substantive than the one we had in 2008. But instead of hope there is trepidation, lack of belief in a hopeful future and a deeply flawed OH! BAMA?

What of Obama? Well, I am not sure I will work for his campaign or even vote for the guy. Four years ago I was knocking on doors for him on my weekends and confronting all sorts of rural rednecks who wondered loudly why an Aaaayraab should be our President. Four years later, my objection to Obama in one sentence is this, "A spineless wonk". The President has displayed such inaptitude and incompetence in handling issues — big and small — that it is simply mind boggling. I ask myself do I sign up for another four years of mind numbing slithering from promise to inaction by someone who my tax money pays to live in a grand house and be protected by a Secret Service who seem to have sinful amount of fun while doing so? The 2008 campaign was brilliant and we all hoped that some of it will actually translate into action and deeds. Some ideas have no doubt turned into reality but in a wonky sort of way that requires a lot of tortured explanation and proving of double negatives that leave people to throw up their bacon cheeseburger lunch.

In the other corner we have Dr. Strangelove a.k.a. Mitt Romney. He is an MBA, a man with a silver spoon in his mouth and effortless wealth. Oh by the way, like Peter Seller's Dr. Strangelove Romney loves the bomb and would like to test out the efficacy of such a device within the first few days in office. There is a suitable villain in the form of Iran just waiting to be obliterated by the muscle flexing Dr. Strangelove. Romney claims he is a capitalist but as a deep in the weed foot soldier of Capitalism, I say bah humbug!

He is a denizen of the dark world known as Private Equity (PE). It is important to understand that PE is very distinct from a purer form of capitalism, say Venture Capitalists. A Venture Capitalist takes enormous risks with his/her money and put the money to back an idea, mostly crazy ideas, um, like a personal computer or social networking or for that matter a fashion house like Michael Kors. The success rate is miniscule. For every 100 ideas that a Venture Capitalist backs maybe 2 become successful. The successful ones bring huge return but that is the idea. Huge risks, lots of broken dreams and a home run every now and then.

PE on the other hand typically invests in large companies, usually the ones in trouble. They tend to have a short window, say exit in three years. So, the PE folks are more like Hyenas. They pillage and plunder to maximize returns within a short time regardless of the pain inflicted on the Company or the people that work there. I can go on and write treatise about PE but that is for some other venue. The problem is that Romney, err, Dr. Strangelove, truly believes that by making life even better for the few (he calls them job creators) the whole of the economy will be better off. This is the old "Trickle Down Theory" on steroid.

Unfortunately, he lives in some fantasy land where he believes that people in creative finance are the job creators not job destroyers which happened to be proven during the 2008-2011 recession and economic meltdown. He does not believe that America faces historical income divergence. These kinds of wealth gaps typically destroy the fabric of any society but not that it bothers Mitt.

I hope you can see my dilemma. On one side we have Obama who is mired in "on the one hand and on the other hand" wonkiness and the other side we have Romney who lives in a make-believe world devoid of reality and economic understanding. Here are a few statistics to make my point.

In 1976, top 1% of the US households accounted for only about 8.9% of income; by 2007 that share of the income by the 1% of the households went up to 23.5%. In other words, 58 cents of each Dollar of increase in income in the US went to the top 1%. This did not happen in a vacuum. There has been deliberate policy shifts starting in the days of Reagan and continuing through the early days of Obama where the tax codes, the regulatory framework and awful neglect of the country's infrastructure and education system have managed to engineer the biggest transfer of wealth to the top 1% of the households.

As I said earlier, we are facing the most consequential election of our lifetime. This election is about nothing less than the way we live as Americans and an answer to the question, "What kind of country do we want to live in"? Over the years, the Americans have seen a real stagnation of income and prosperity. The vast majority of youth are unable to climb into the middle-class defined by income between $50,000 to $250,000 per annum. There are many other reasons but the most important one is probably lack of appropriate education for the youth to be able to handle jobs in the post industrial economy. The jobs that ensures reasonable income require high level of technical and scientific education. Just as these skills are becoming necessary to get even an entry level job, the cumulative effect of years of neglect in terms of educational curricula, lack of emphasis on science teaching are shutting down the door for real economic advancement.

In this milieu walks Dr. Strangelove who has subscribed to the values of the ultra-rightwing conservatives. This is 2012 but these folks still say college education is a snobbish act and colleges are breeding grounds for subversive socialist ideas. They think Earth was formed some 6,000 years ago by decree of God; they believe that life begins, um, at the time of sperm ejaculation (gulp); they believe women must carry a pregnancy to term no matter what; they believe that Creationism (whatever that may be) is a valid explanation for the Universe. The list goes on. Most of all they also believe that the Government should cut spending and cut taxes even more, period.

What kind of a country do we want to live in? This is the central question for 2012. I, for one, reject the nightmarish visions of an America devoid of education, science, kids flipping burgers for subsistence living, reliance on the Almighty for our laws (Taliban anyone), no immigration to the land built by migrants, and shoot first and ask questions later mindset (Trayvon Martin in Florida and the Iraqi nation as a whole are all witnesses to such thinking). The question then becomes can Obama deliver the fundamental changes that are necessary to free US from a downward spiral? These are not going to be easy and not going to be bi-partisan. Can Obama get his Ostrich head out from the sand and acknowledge that there is no bi-partisan panacea? The other side has the long knives out for him and unless he grows some spine he will be the next Road Kill of the American political landscape.

So, what specific things that we need Mr. Obama to do in order to avoid being Oh! Bama? Below is a laundry list of items that he needs to tackle but based on history we know that Mr. Spineless must borrow some spine matter even for a short time or at least grow some cojones. Here goes:

• Let the whole Bush tax cut expire. For the first time in 20 years we have an opportunity to do something by doing nothing. Obama keeps dithering about these unfunded tax cuts and wants to preserve the ones for the folks earning under $1 million in income. This is a silly game and gets nowhere. Let these beasties die and after the much deserved death, come up with grand redo of the American tax systems that simplifies and enhances the tax code. Three or four tax brackets and no deductions, no exemptions for the brother-in-law!

• Put together a comprehensive immigration plan. A recent Pew Report showed that immigration from Mexico is at zero. This is worrisome because if the economy is unable to attract immigrants it is headed towards becoming a grey and un-innovative xenophobic place that people will leave for better shores. Throughout history immigration has been the way people vote with their feet. Not very many people want to migrate to Central African Republic. Once the foot traffic dies down we know that a great empire is about to die too. Ancient Rome, great port cities across Danube that stood empty for years of communist rule is a testimony to the power of immigration.

• Invest massively in infrastructure. The US is a rich country but there is fair amount of certainty that most bridges are on their last legs, the rail network needs a huge boost, the wireless service needs to be far more robust, the schools need to be refurbished, the air traffic system needs a rebuild and brought to modernity. We are like a remnant of a great empire where the signs of decay and neglect are open for all to see. We can fix this and should do so. Giving someone like me $8 tax break (that is what I got during stimulus) does nothing for me or the country.

• Fix the financial regulations so that they are dynamic and cover all contingencies. During the last 10 years, the creative finance sector somehow managed to take 40% of the income in the economy. This is dangerous and unhealthy. The Banking sector should become a place where credit is available for real businesses and not for speculators and gamblers. A situation where $3 Trillion in notional values are gambled away on CDS, CDO and synthetic CDO and other fancy pants instruments cannot and should not happen.

• Index social security to life expectancy so as people live longer their eligibility is adjusted each year. This will create a lot of screaming and hollering but I do not see a better solution.

• Tackle the unionized pension schemes (especially by the local and state government employees). These pension and healthcare benefits are making the US economy structurally unsound. Move these benefits to something like 401Ks for all.

• Bend the cost curve on health care and give people a Medicare for all choice. This will put a fair amount of pressure of the upward trajectory of health care costs. This along with various efforts to pay for outcome rather than procedures will bend the cost curve.

Well, Mr. Spineless if you are willing to tackle all or some of these reforms then maybe we will all get behind you and go into the breach one more time! However, the slithering has to stop and you must own your destiny as a transformative President at a crucial time in our history. Be specific, be bold, be transformative and we will all get behind you. Otherwise we may still vote for you because we loathe Dr. Strangelove for all the things he will do to destroy the country we love. But, that will be a spineless move on our part too. OyVay!

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Kayes Ahmed lives in Boulder, Colorado, USA with his three dogs. He runs a small yet global apparel and design business based in Boulder.