Gary Hart - Caring for Souls

[paineinthearse]

http://www.conyersblog.us/archives/00000273.htm

Blogged by JC on 10.13.05 @ 08:11 AM ET


Caring for Souls
A Must Read by Gary Hart

In Huffington Post this morning, I noticed a new piece by Gary Hart that describes our current state of affairs and the reasons therefor in striking language. There is, as Hart argues, a nexus between a radical conservative philiosophy of government and the failure to prevent or ease the tragedies we now seem to face on a regular basis. Frankly, I am surprised I haven't seen Hart's blog linked elsewhere. Here is a paragraph and a sentence:

"The failure to govern well is a natural and a predictable result of disbelief in government. It is a brief step from disbelief in government to disbelief in governance. With many Democrats in tow, conservatives have demonized government: 'Government is not the answer; government is the problem,' was Ronald Reagan’s inaugural pronouncement. How does one, not believing in government, respond when given its reins? In the case of the incumbent and previous conservative presidents the response is to not take it too seriously. Work out a couple of hours a day. Take a nap. Watch television in the evenings. Resist foreign travel and engagement in the great events of the times. Delegate authority, in many cases to incompetent people, because it really doesn’t matter much. Most of all avoid responsibility and, at all costs, accept accountability only reluctantly.

"The most obvious problem with this theory of management, if you wish to call it that, is that people die."

Go read the rest.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/gary-hart/the-art-of-caring-for-sou_b_8773.html

Belief in the ineffectiveness of government, as we have seen in recent weeks, is self-fulfilling. For some, it is also deadly. It is a cause for wonder that those most critical of government are among those most eager to secure its power. Not believing in government, however, a conservative either does not know or care to know how to make it effective.

Response to hurricane Katrina is not proof of government’s failure; it is proof of George W. Bush’s failure to govern effectively.

The failure to govern well is a natural and a predictable result of disbelief in government. It is a brief step from disbelief in government to disbelief in governance. With many Democrats in tow, conservatives have demonized government: “Government is not the answer; government is the problem,” was Ronald Reagan’s inaugural pronouncement. How does one, not believing in government, respond when given its reins? In the case of the incumbent and previous conservative presidents the response is to not take it too seriously. Work out a couple of hours a day. Take a nap. Watch television in the evenings. Resist foreign travel and engagement in the great events of the times. Delegate authority, in many cases to incompetent people, because it really doesn’t matter much. Most of all avoid responsibility and, at all costs, accept accountability only reluctantly.

The most obvious problem with this theory of management, if you wish to call it that, is that people die. On January 31, 2001, the U.S. Commission on National Security/21st Century, the most comprehensive review of national security in more than half a century which I co-chaired with Warren Rudman, warned of terrorist attacks and urged President Bush to create a Department of Homeland Security. Eight months later, 9.11 occurred. He was warned. He neglected to act. Another nine months went by before he reluctantly acceded to our recommendation. A year and a half was lost. He was never called to account.

more....

Question: In all the "who do you support in '08 polls, why do we never see Gary Hart's name?

Bio from HuffPo (no link, access via link above, click on "bio" hyperlink).

Since retiring from the United States Senate, Gary Hart has been extensively involved in international law and business, as a strategic advisor to major U.S. corporations, and as an author and lecturer.

He is Senior Counsel to Coudert Brothers, a multinational law firm with offices in twenty-seven cities located in eighteen countries around the world. He was co-chair of the U.S. Commission on National Security for the 21st Century. The Commission performed the most comprehensive review of national security since 1947, predicted the terrorist attacks on America, and proposed a sweeping overhaul of U.S. national security structures and policies for the post-Cold War new century and the age of terrorism.

He was president of Global Green, the U.S. affiliate of Mikhail Gorbachev's environmental foundation, Green Cross International. He is a founding member of the Board of Directors of the U.S.-Russia Investment Fund; a former member of the Defense Policy Board; and is a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. He was co-chair of the Council task force that produced the report: "America Unprepared-America Still at Risk", in October, 2002.

Gary Hart has been Visiting Fellow, Chatham Lecturer, and McCallum Memorial Lecturer at Oxford University, Global Fund Lecturer at Yale University, and Regents Lecturer at the University of California. He has earned a doctor of philosophy degree from Oxford University and graduate law and divinity degrees from Yale University. He was visiting lecturer at the Yale Law School and is the author of fourteen books.

Gary Hart represented the State of Colorado in the United States Senate from 1975 to 1987. In 1984 and 1988, he was a candidate for his party's nomination for President.

Senator Hart was first elected to the Senate in 1974, having never before sought public office, and was re-elected in 1980. During his 12 years in the Senate, he served on the Armed Services Committee, where he specialized in nuclear arms control and was an original founder of the military reform caucus. He also served on the Senate Environment Committee, Budget Committee, and Intelligence Oversight Committee. During his Senate years, he played a leadership role in major environmental and conservation legislation, military reform initiatives, new initiatives to advance the information revolution and new directions in foreign policy. He is widely-recognized as among the first to forecast the end of the Cold War.

Gary Hart travels extensively to the former Soviet Union, Europe, the Far East and Latin America. Beginning in 1988, he was active in negotiating ground-breaking joint venture agreements in Russia and has published a book on the former Soviet Union entitled Russia Shakes the World: The Second Russian Revolution (1991).

Senator Hart resides with his family in Kittredge, Colorado.

Publications: Books

Most recently, The Fourth Power: a new grand strategy for the United States in the 21st century (Oxford University Press, July, 2004).

Restoration of the Republic: the Jeffersonian Ideal in 21st Century America (2002), for which he received a D. Phil. degree from Oxford University;

The Minuteman: Restoring an Army of the People (1998);

The Patriot: An Exhortation to Liberate America from the Barbarians (1996);

The Good Fight: The Education of an American Reformer (a New York Times Notable Book) (1995);

Russia Shakes the World: The Second Russian Revolution (1991);

A New Democracy (1986) -- a summary of new approaches to the challenges of the 1980's;

America Can Win: The Case for Military Reform (1985);

Right from the Start: A Chronicle of the McGovern Campaign (1973);

four novels, The Strategies of Zeus (1985); The Double Man (with former Senator and Secretary of Defense William Cohen, 1984), and Sins of the Fathers (1999) and I, Che Guevara (2000) (under the pseudonym John Blackthorn);

and The Presidency of James Monroe (to be published by Time Books/Henry Holt in 2005).

[bklyncowgirl]

1. I'd love to see this guy make a comeback. Hart 2008?

Alright, there was that Monkey Business thing but that was a long time ago. Hell, if Hart can straighten out this mess we're in he can have all the women he wants anywhere he wants them.

[Totally Committed]

2. Even terrorists are allowed 72 virgins...

And, Donna Rice was a Republican plant put there to take him down. I have always liked Gary Hart. Great article.

[Totally Committed]

3. Clark/Hart '08? n/t

[hiley]

4. Gary Hart piece

was excellent.