Post-Ideology?

Do we really live in a post-ideological time? Is there such a thing as a post-ideological candidate? An article in the New Republic today argues over the merits of a Bloomberg VP slot for either candidate (ulitmately deciding he would be good for neither): http://www.tnr.com/toc/story.html?id=cc97b3b7-7e4a-44cf-901c-bf1e98e83e46. The first reader comment to the article is by a Bloomberg employee Jeb who disagrees with the author and argues "He is post ideological." Has Bloomberg really transcended ideology? Has McCain? Has even Obama, who does seem to offer the best hope for moving beyond the partisan warfare of the baby boomers?

I think there is a growing belief that we can escape the ideological battles of the past, simply by accepting the new world order. Nixon said "we are all Keynesians now." The post-ideological platform seems to be around accepting the new world order of neoliberalism without dissent, and simply working to tinker with a system that puts far too much faith in markets and far too little in government intervention. Neoliberalism believes in privatization, deregulation, reduced taxation and, really, the expansion of the market ethos to every aspect of governance.

Let's start with Bloomberg. Blommberg first appeared as a Democrat, then became a Republican to make it easier to win the mayorship, then became an independent as he contemplated a run for president. But does that mean he holds no political opinions? Or that they teater vicariously between the two poles of partisan difference? Bloomberg appears to be that classic American figure, fiscally conservative (with some slippage) and culturally liberal. Is this really post-ideological, or is it the middle that has been fought over for forty years now (the very triangulation of Clinton)? Bloomberg, in many ways, appears to be the sort of dictatorial liberal that just wants to form the world to his specifications. He has taken over the City schools to little positive effect. He has faltered on the World Trade Center rebuilding. His traffic proposal flopped. And he has introduced smoke-free bars and restaurants (probably good) and policed trans fats out of our lives. He has also underseen a further decline in crime and a booming economy. But at what cost? Manhattan is now a middle class city, losing a lot of its edge and any affordible housing. It is now largely populated by finance types, with the artists pushed to the outer boroughs.

The real point is that being a technocrat and financially responsible should not place one in a post-ideological position. There is no such thing in a country where corporations wield incredible influence over government, the presidency is accumulating power like never before and the income and wealth gaps continue to grow as the richest country in the world sees growing poverty and a middle-class whose quality of life is declining. Maybe we need a post-partisan president who actually escapes the hold of the DLC and Clintonism and has the political will to take on the real challenges facing the country today, outside the new paradigm of tax cuts, small government and an unwillingness to talk about race or class. Obama could be this president, but this will not make him "post" ideological. It will simply mean stepping outside the traps of the present and recognizing that the issues of the past have not been solved, but need new solutions to move forward.

Ideology is inescapable. Whether the old ideologies of conservativism and liberalism have lost their appeal in American politics at the moment (which appears untrue given the current campaign rhetoric on right and left), does not undermine the continuing battle over ideas and who the government will serve. Democratic revival is an ideological position, and one with great appeal. The last thing we need right now is someone who trascends partisan politics simply by moving toward the middle. Instead it appears to me we need someone who can transcend the battles of the past and start a national dialogue on the real problems facing America today and ways we can work collectively to address them. At the center of this battle are the age old problems of the power of the elites and the interests of the common good.