Victor Davis Hanson: Common Ground

Democrats call for President Bush to use his conservative majorities to find common solutions to perennial problems that might find resonance with Americans tired of partisan bickering. There are plenty of places to start on a variety of different issues.

• The Middle East. The isolationist Right has not wished to risk much for anything abroad, while the hard Left recently has been happy with any dictator that praised the "people" and professed anti-Americanism. Yet most Americans in between can conclude that Middle Eastern autocracy is the fuel that drives terrorism, and that the only strategy to prevent wider war later is to promote freedom over there now.

The way not to have to intervene militarily in Iran and Syria is to censure both diplomatically, elevate their dissidents to the world stage, and cut off all commerce with these rogue regimes. Call the promotion of democracy a conservative desire for American security or a liberal move to promote the unrepresented. Either way it alone offers hope for a safe Middle East.

• Energy. It makes little sense to drive a 7,000-pound SUV down to the local grocery store. True, eventually the market would curb such extravagance — when gas climbs to $5 a gallon. But in the meantime, too many billions of petrodollars are going to too many terrorists in the Middle East.

If the conservationist Left wins mandated fuel economy, then it should at least relent on nuclear power that has evolved well beyond the scariness of the Three-Mile-Island era, and would encourage energy self-sufficiency without heating up the atmosphere.

So where can I get one of those 7,000 lb. SUV's? My Dodge Ram 4x4 diesel longbed 3/4 ton pickup is big, but not anywhere near 7,000 lbs.

According to http://www.taxpayer.net/TCS/whitepapers/SUVtaxbreak.htm for tax purposes you can these vehicles for the 6,000lb tax break (6,000 pounds is actually the number Dr. Hanson is probably referring to for this somewhat notorious tax break):

Vehicles that Qualify for the SUV Tax Break
Vehicle Model	Gross Weight (lbs)	MSRP	Economic Stimulus Pkg 2002	Jobs and Growth Act 2003
BMW
X5	6005	$53,845	$37,690	$53,845
Cadillac
Escalade	7000	$54,280	$37,880	$54,280
Escalade ESV	7200	$56,160	$38,710	$56,160
Escalade SRX	7000	$43,940	$33,335	$43,940
Chevrolet
Astro Passenger Van	6100	$27,620	$26,150	$27,620
Avalanche 1500	7000	$36,062	$29,870	$36,062
Avalanche 2500	8600	$36,545	$30,080	$36,545
Express Pass. Van 3500	9600	$30,525	$27,430	$30,525
Silverado 1500	6400	$28,600	$26,584	$28,600
Silverado 2500	8600	$31,999	$28,080	$31,999
Silverado 3500	11400	$34,200	$29,050	$34,200
Suburban 1500	7200	$41,907	$32,440	$41,907
Suburban 2500	8600	$41,280	$32,160	$41,280
Trailblazer	6400	$32,470	$28,290	$32,470
Tahoe	6800	$38,530	$30,995	$38,530
Dodge
Durango	6400	$33,280	$28,645	$33,280
Ram Cargo Van 3500	8700	$22,150	$22,150	$22,150
Ram MaxiVan 3500	8700	$22,010	$22,010	$22,010
Sprinter	8550	$32,391	$28,250	$32,391
Ram 1500	6650	$26,930	$25,849	$26,930
Ram 2500	11000	$29,160	$26,830	$29,160
Ram 3500	11000	$32,610	$28,350	$32,610
Ford
Econoline E350 Van	9500	$24,460	$24,460	$24,460
Econoline E350 Pass. Wagon	8700	$27,590	$26,140	$27,590
Excursion	8900	$43,650	$33,205	$43,650
Expedition	6650	$37,185	$30,360	$37,185
F150 Styleside	6500	$28,345	$26,470	$28,345
F250 Super Duty	9900	$28,950	$26,740	$28,950
F350 Super Duty	11,200	$30,110	$27,250	$30,110
GMC
Safari AWD Pass. Van	6100	$27,620	$26,150	$27,620
Savana Pass. Van 3500	9600	$30,525	$27,430	$30,525
Sierra 1500	6400	$31,170	$27,715	$31,170
Sierra 2500	8600	$32,161	$28,150	$32,161
Sierra 3500	11400	$33,270	$28,640	$33,270
Sierra Denali	7200	$44,255	$33,473	$44,255
Yukon Denali	7200	$44,695	$34,815	$44,695
Hummer
H1	10300	$111,845	$63,210	$107,107
H2	8600	$50,590	$36,260	$50,590
Isuzu
Ascender	6400	$34,197	$29,050	$34,197
Land Rover
Discovery	6064	$37,995	$30,720	$37,995
Range Rover	6724	$71,865	$45,620	$71,865
Lexus
GX470	6000	$45,700	$34,110	$45,700
LX470	6860	$64,800	$42,512	$64,800
Lincoln
Aviator	6210	$43,387	$33,090	$43,387
Navigator	7450	$51,960	$36,860	$51,960
Blackwood	6780	$52,500	$37,100	$52,500
Mercedes
G-Class	6834	$84,500	$51,180	$84,500
M-Class	6283	$51,970	$36,865	$51,970
Nissan
Pathfinder Armada	6800	$37,600	$30,545	$37,600
Titan	6486	$28,950	$26,738	$28,950
Porsche
Cayenne	6790	$73,165	$46,195	$73,165
Toyota
Land Cruiser	6860	$53,915	$37,725	$53,915
Sequoia	6600	$38,080	$30,755	$38,080
Tundra	6200	$23,835	$23,835	$23,835
Volkswagon
Touarag	6200	$38,415	$30,900	$38,415

This thread must set a record for deletions by the moderator!

The Hanson comment that caught my eye was:

The most critical but ignored issue in education is credentialing.

To put it another way, the most critical issue in education is the preponderance of teachers who are supposedly qualified to teach because they have a degree in "education". Kids can't learn math because their teachers don't understand math, because their teachers didn't understand math, and so on all the way back to the "new math" in the 1960s, which was a miserable effort to foist mathematical number theory on kids who needed to learn how to add, subtract, multiply, and divide.

Teachers should be subject matter experts first -- and then teachers. My best teachers were the math teachers who really dug math, the history teachers who were amateur historians, and the English teachers who knew how to perform, not just read Shakespeare.

If you get beyond the truly evil stuff, my big gripe about society is how many people are "underutilized". There are millions of people out there, some of them very close to me, who are not living up to even 10% of their potential. The working world somehow can't figure out how to make use of their capabilities. I realize that some blame rests with the individuals involved, but when I think about how much wasted potential is out there, I have to believe that there are structural reasons for it.

One such structural reason is the one that Hanson points out -- that people who would be perfectly good teachers, for example, are legally prevented from doing so. I wonder how many others there are, and whether some relatively simple changes could turn this around. Foundations across the country, including the Virginia G. Piper Trust in Phoenix, are starting to think about this in the context of the projected mass retirement of the baby boomers. Piper's Life Options Blueprint has some interesting things to say. Perhaps activities such as this will make a difference.

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