Why Not Do It All?
For my very first post, I will recycle a note I posted yesterday (1/23/09) on Facebook:
Thomas Friedman writes:
(http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/21/opinion/21friedman.html)President Obama will have to decide just how many fences he can swing for at one time: grand bargains on entitlement and immigration reform? A national health care system? A new clean-energy infrastructure? The nationalization and repair of our banking system? Will it be all or one? Some now and some later? It is too soon to say.
But I do know this: while a crisis is a terrible thing to waste, so too is a great politician, with a natural gift for oratory, a rare knack for bringing people together, and a nation, particularly its youth, ready to be summoned and to serve.
So, in sum, while it is impossible to exaggerate what a radical departure it is from our past that we have inaugurated a black man as president, it is equally impossible to exaggerate how much our future depends on a radical departure from our present. As Obama himself declared from the Capitol steps: "Our time of standing pat, of protecting narrow interests and putting off unpleasant decisions — that time has surely passed."
I have been asking, until now just within my own mind, why can't we do all of these major social-contract changes right now, right away, within this very moment in time? How long the moment will last depends substantially on what we decide to do, how quickly we pace ourselves, how well we construct and execute our ideas, and most importantly, how long the attention span of society lasts.
I suppose the other major stalling point will be the bloc of voices that opposes change as a matter of principle--how strongly it objects, the pitch and volume of it shrill screams, and to a smaller degree, the legitimate, reasoned bases for their objections. Typically they will create an ideological prophylactic against any substantial change to the system it defends, despite the fact that in the past the set of ideology has led directly to the problems we now have to repair, to the suffering we currently endure.
So as we go forward into the historical moment--ready to work, equipped for service and primed for change--we must entrust the design and execution of the programs of change to leaders wise in judgment, prudent in action, skilled in political maneuvering, astute and insightful within their fields, clear in public communication, foresighted, sensible, and intelligent. And if opponents of progress try to stall their advancement, then we must become these people with these qualities ourselves, for we, the governed, must be or become qualified to govern.
We must become comfortable with the notion of "radical departure from the present." And we must encourage our new president to utilize the best of his gifts and the gifted people around him to turn crisis into opportunity, opportunity into action, and action into positive, long-term social change.
I suppose the other major stalling point will be the bloc of voices that opposes change as a matter of principle--how strongly it objects, the pitch and volume of it shrill screams, and to a smaller degree, the legitimate, reasoned bases for their objections. Typically they will create an ideological prophylactic against any substantial change to the system it defends, despite the fact that in the past the set of ideology has led directly to the problems we now have to repair, to the suffering we currently endure.
So as we go forward into the historical moment--ready to work, equipped for service and primed for change--we must entrust the design and execution of the programs of change to leaders wise in judgment, prudent in action, skilled in political maneuvering, astute and insightful within their fields, clear in public communication, foresighted, sensible, and intelligent. And if opponents of progress try to stall their advancement, then we must become these people with these qualities ourselves, for we, the governed, must be or become qualified to govern.
We must become comfortable with the notion of "radical departure from the present." And we must encourage our new president to utilize the best of his gifts and the gifted people around him to turn crisis into opportunity, opportunity into action, and action into positive, long-term social change.
jdchuck
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