Where Have All the Leaders Gone? (4 page)

M
y parents, Nicola and Antoinette Iacocca, belonged to that amazing wave of Italian immigration that helped transform America into the land of prosperity. As immigrants, my parents had a reverence for this country that you seldom see today. When my sister Delma and I were kids, Mom and Pop took us to visit the Statue of Liberty twice. We piled into Pop’s beat-up old Ford and drove from Allentown, Pennsylvania, to New York City—which took a long time in those days. I remember walking with my father up the 354 stairs to the crown, huffing and puffing a little, but excited about the adventure. Standing in the crown of the Statue of Liberty, Pop pointed down at the harbor and told me about the thrill of seeing America for the first time.

I’m ashamed to admit that when I became a father, I didn’t think to take my girls to see Lady Liberty. When we visited New York City, we were too busy going to Broadway shows, eating at great restaurants, and touring museums.

It’s a sad thing that complacency can set in so fast. As I look around me today, I see that our democracy has become a little worn, a little shabby. The rhetoric is still there, but the passion has wilted. Do we still love democracy? Do we have any idea what democracy really means?

How about a regime change right here in the United States? Instead of trying to establish democracy in countries that don’t want it, why not try to
reestablish
democracy where we’ve lost it?

Are you wondering, “Lee, what are you talking about? I have my S
UPPORT THE
T
ROOPS
bumper sticker and my yellow-ribbon window decal. I have an American flag waving proudly from my car antenna. I
love
this country.”

And I’ll come right back at you with a very simple question: Did you vote in last fall’s election?

Democracy thrives on two factors: free elections and open discourse. How are we doing? Not so hot.

VOTING—A RIGHT OR A DUTY?

It drives me crazy that Americans don’t vote. We should be ashamed. It is plain hypocrisy for us to hold up our system of government as the best there is, yet fail to practice the most fundamental action of a free people—
voting
.

It’s embarrassing that the United States has one of the worst voting records in the free world. In the last presidential election, about 45 percent of those eligible cast a vote. Compare that to recent free elections in other countries:

Are you embarrassed yet?

I have to wonder how much difference it would make if voting was mandatory—like paying taxes. Now, before you get your hackles up and start hollering that mandatory elections would not be free, hear me out.

In some countries, voting is considered not just a
right,
but a
duty
of living in a democracy. The argument is that a government is more representative when a larger percentage of the population votes. About thirty countries have some form of mandatory voting, with various (usually mild) penalties for the slackers. In Belgium, if you don’t vote in at least four elections within a fifteen-year period, you get kicked off the voter rolls. In Greece, you may have a hard time getting a driver’s license or a passport if you don’t vote. In Singapore, you’re removed from the voter register and must reapply and give a good reason for not having voted. And in several countries, small fines are imposed.

These penalties are not exactly draconian, but they have one advantage: They remind people that freedom is not
free.

What if the United States passed a law that you had to vote in order to be eligible for certain tax cuts? That would make people sit up and take notice! Instead of debating flag burning, maybe Congress could spend a day or two talking about
that.
At least it would have some relevance to the practice of democracy.

Unfortunately, we bend over backward in the opposite direction—making it
harder,
not easier, for people to vote.

Across the nation, there are many impediments to voting, including voter ID statutes, broken voting machines, and long lines at the polls. Low voter turnout means more empty rhetoric during election season. Everyone tries to appeal to the “base”—those people who are ideologically passionate about one side or the other, and will show up to vote no matter what.

I’ll bet that the people who would object the most vehemently to any form of mandatory voting would be our elected officials. The sad fact is that most of them don’t
want
more people to vote. They might have to show results for a change. They prefer the cozy, inbred system where 98 percent of all incumbents are reelected. It’s called a
stacked deck.

When I’m at a dinner party and someone says, “I didn’t vote in the last election, but here’s what I think,” I tune them out quick. What if we all did that? Even if we didn’t make voting mandatory in the United States, maybe we could try to exert some
social
pressure. For example:

• What if your child wouldn’t be eligible for that fancy preschool if you didn’t vote?
  

• What if your boss would be less inclined to give you a raise if you didn’t vote?
  

• What if people didn’t shop at your store if you didn’t vote?
  

• What if you couldn’t appear on
  American Idol
  if you didn’t vote?
  

• What if people snubbed you at barbecues or dinner parties if you didn’t vote?
  

Social pressure is a great motivator. We should try it.

DARE TO SPEAK OUT

Besides voting, the other cornerstone of democracy is open discourse and debate. But most politicians are downright squeamish about speaking out and rocking the boat. I hate to think of where we’d be if our Founding Fathers hadn’t slugged it out over what kind of a constitution we were going to have.

You might argue that the Democrats won the 2006 election because they spoke out against the war. But the Democrats only started speaking out when the polls showed them it was absolutely safe to do so. Where were they in 2005 or in 2004? Where were they before we got into this war? As I recall, there was only one man who took it on the chin and spoke out against the war before it was politically expedient. That man is John Murtha.

Let me tell you about John Murtha. He’s the Democratic congressman from Johnstown, Pennsylvania, and he also happens to be a good friend of mine. In 1966, John volunteered for service in Vietnam. As a captain in the Marine Corps he received the Bronze Star, two Purple Hearts, and the Navy Distinguished Service Medal. He ran for Congress in 1974 and has served there ever since. He’s what you’d call a true patriot. He’s also been a true friend to soldiers, and one of the most credible guys in Congress on matters of war. Every administration, Republican and Democrat, has listened to him on military matters. Until this administration.

Murtha voted to go to war in Iraq, but as the years passed he got pretty riled up about the disastrous course of the war, and he decided he couldn’t stay silent for another minute. Kids were dying and he decided he had to speak up and demand that we bring the troops home. He was one of the few to do so before it was politically “safe.”

How did the Bush administration respond? Karl Rove tried to “Swift-boat” Murtha.
Swift-boating
is the new term used to describe a dirty campaign that tries to paint a war hero as unpatriotic. It originated with another war hero, John Kerry. Running for President against the AWOL National Guardsman in Chief, George Bush, Kerry watched his Swift-boat heroism during the Vietnam War turned into something shameful and cowardly. It was probably the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen in politics—and that’s saying a lot. I was disgusted by it, and I tried to convince Kerry to fight back. “These guys are playing dirty,” I told him. “It’s time for you to aim a few blows below the belt, if that’s what it takes, or they’re going to run right over you.” He refused, and I think that’s why he lost the election. People started saying, “If he can’t stick up for
himself,
how can we expect him to stick up for
us
.”

These guys have put everyone on notice: “Criticize the war and we’ll ruin you.” They did it with Max Cleland, another war hero. Max is in a wheelchair. Do they think he’s
faking
it? They did it with Kerry. And they came after Murtha. Karl Rove could smear Mother Teresa—he’s that devious. When will we stand up and say, “Enough!”

I take it personally when our government tries to ruin a man who speaks his mind.

ABSOLUTE POWER CORRUPTS

We pride ourselves on our two-party system. But the way it stands now, each of the two main political parties tries to gain
all
the power. They each want to create a one-party system, because it’s so much easier to rule when everyone’s on the same side. The Republicans mostly succeeded in having a one-party system during the first six years of Bush’s administration. They turned Congress into a big dissent-free zone. If you don’t believe me, just look at Bush’s record of vetoes. When Congress passes a law that the President disagrees with, he can veto it. Then if Congress can scrape together enough votes (two-thirds), it can override the veto. This process is called the separation of powers.

If the process is working, you expect to see a lot of vetoes in the course of a President’s term, although some Presidents have gotten carried away. They used to call Truman “Harry S. Veto.” He vetoed 250 bills during his presidency—but he didn’t even come
close
to FDR’s record of 635. Recent presidents have calmed down somewhat. Reagan vetoed 78 bills, Bush senior 44, and Clinton 37.

And the current President?
One
veto. Wait, you say, am I hearing right? Just
one
? That’s right. In six-plus years, George Bush disagreed with Congress exactly once. In case you don’t get the significance of that, let me spell it out: Under Bush, the executive and legislative branches of our government merged into one. Bush didn’t veto legislation because it was basically
his
legislation to begin with.

BRING BACK THE CONSTITUTION

We don’t have to fly by the seat of our pants. We have a blueprint. It’s called the United States Constitution. But we’ve got to stay vigilant, because when people get into power in Washington, they tend to work hard to get around constitutional provisions.

Bush did that with wiretapping. His attorney general, Alberto Gonzales, assured him that a “war President” didn’t have to abide by the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees the citizens of the United States the right to privacy. They spied on us, and when people complained they said, “What do you have to hide?” That’s one of the oldest tricks in the book. Finally, a federal judge in Detroit named Anna Diggs Taylor called a halt to the illegal wiretapping, taking a jab at the imperial Bush presidency, declaring, “There are no hereditary kings in America.” I wonder if Bush was surprised to hear that.

When you stop and think about it, the Constitution is like the Bible. You don’t really have to read it every day to know what’s in it. You don’t have to memorize every word to know what it stands for.

The Constitution is a tool, and a blueprint, and a process that we have to use every day to preserve our great democracy. Its words were hammered out by pragmatists—a group of men who understood that democracy doesn’t happen because of starry-eyed idealism, but through a process of tedious negotiation and compromise.

And for 230 years it has worked. The real genius of the Constitution, it seems to me, is that it has retained its fundamental values while giving us the freedom to adapt to the times. You can read the Constitution all day long and you won’t find an answer to most of the big problems and questions we face today. There’s nothing in it to tell us how to handle terrorism, or the energy crisis, or health care, or stem cell research, or the drug war. But through the Constitution, we intrinsically understand who we are. We say, “This is what we stand for.” Its meaning should be imprinted on every heart. It should come to mind every time we vote.

PAUSE TO LISTEN…AND THINK

During the coming year, you will be asked to form an opinion about who should be our next President. In the process, you’ll be bombarded by media coverage on a minute-to-minute basis. All that coverage will not necessarily produce much valuable information. The media likes the horse-race aspect of campaigns—who’s up, who’s down, who flubs, who cries. But I hope with the world aflame, you’ll bypass the silly season and take your obligation seriously.

We have so much media these days, and it moves so fast, it’s easy to get left with impressions that aren’t accurate. You can miss the facts if you’re rapid-clicking your remote. I found this out the hard way a few years back when my name appeared in two stories that had nothing to do with me. I call it being screwed by juxtaposition.

The first story involved Heidi Fleiss, the infamous Hollywood madam. I was passing by the TV one day, and it was turned on to an interview with Heidi. She was describing the thousand-dollar fee that she’d charged for an evening with one of her girls.