Carpe Diem

November 2, 2008

When it's all too much

When the game gets tough

When they call your bluff

What would Willie do?

--from "What Would Willie Do?," a song by Bruce Robison

On the eve of this critically important national election, the air waves, cable channels and the internet are crackling with a proliferation of promises, rhetoric and bluster. This will all sort itself out soon enough when the vote tallies reveal whose side was most persuasive, and the world will know to whom to look for answers.

Whether it is McCain or Obama (and I am pulling hard for the latter), whoever comes out on top (I hesitate to use the term "winner") will step straight into an indescribably difficult maelstrom of urgent problems--an ailing economy in growing distress, swelling unemployed among the middle class ranks, a pair of troublesome distant wars stickier than Brer Rabbit's Tar Baby, a record national debt--ten trillion dollars and growing by the day--an out-of-kilter tax structure, actuarial deficiencies in Social Security and Medicare, a collapsing housing market, aging infrastructure, a national addiction to energy and 45 million citizens with no health coverage, to name a few. The inaugural planners should order a truckload of Excedrin delivered to the White House on Jan. 20.

It seems like a good time to pause a moment to reflect on opportunities--those lost and those yet to be realized. Every presidential election presents an opportunity for change, yet only a few have had all the arrows pointed so clearly in that direction. The election of Franklin D. Roosevelt is the most dramatic expression of the electorate demanding change, and his creative use of that mandate lives on today.

Some examples of squandered opportunities come to mind, where presidents have missed their chance to have a meaningful and lasting impact as need and opportunity coincide. For example, Ronald Reagan lost a golden chance to put this country on a certain road to energy independence and lower global warming when he froze the mandated increase of fuel efficiency of vehicles and killed support for alternative energy technologies--probably because Jimmy Carter, the man he defeated, was such an advocate.

Greenhorn mistakes as a new president in handling a health care reform package proposed by Bill Clinton led to a savage defeat at the hands of the insurance industry that took advantage of the single-minded determination by Republican Congressional insurgents led by Newt Gingrich to show their political muscle.

An even more current and egregious missed chance came when George W. Bush assumed power after the US Supreme Court prevented Al Gore from counting the votes that would have made him president instead. Bush's presidential legitimacy was questionable, and a solid majority of voters had chosen his opponent. He had the perfect chance to act on his "I'm a uniter, not a divider" slogan, by approaching the job with humility and grace. But instead of extending his hand to the other side, and forming a bipartisan coalition around priority issues--which would have assuaged the resentment and bitterness and helped heal the country--he and Dick Cheney chose to impose strict partisan rule, arrogantly governing as if they had carried the country in a landslide.

These lost presidential opportunities are fresh enough in our memory to add urgency to the feeling that the new president must approach the job as a problem solver and consensus builder. The American people and, yea, the world, deserve a higher caliber of leadership than the boneheaded, cynical and cavalier administration that dished up the mess in which we now find ourselves. The optimistic and expectant mood in the country as record numbers register to vote and cast their votes early is a harbinger of the good will that will provide buoyancy for the new president needed for effecting change.

The new president must govern with a clear vision, but the problems are so severe that they call for a new model of leadership. If the trends hold, a Democratic majority is certain in both houses of Congress, and Barack Obama seems to be likely to be president. Yet the public has been conditioned to suspect so-called one-party rule where the president and both houses are of the same party. Certainly after the shabby performance of the Republicans with George W. Bush in the White House, this is a legitimate concern. By necessity, it will be essential for the new president to actually reach across the aisle from the outset.

Using the internet, Obama has democratized fund raising, and now there are millions of new small donors who feel like stakeholders in the outcome. Most of them will be satisfied to see a return to results-oriented government that seems to really care about what it does with our money and applies common sense in its work. If elected, Obama must make clear to the country that his administration will not be yet another example of raw patronage and exclusionary favoritism. He must practice an open administrative style and choose his path carefully as he picks his way through the obstacle course.

There are many, many talented, able, highly intelligent and patriotic persons of all political persuasions who are capable of serving this country at every level. The caliber of the appointments to the president's cabinet will set the tone for an administration that must engage the best available talent regardless of party.

The new president will have our prayers and best wishes for success. I would add that we must offer our patience and not expect too much immediately. Lord knows he will need all the help he can muster. Unfortunately, there's a shortage of pixie dust.

Charlie Crow © November 2, 2008