The time for leadership has come

In a well delivered and penetrating State of the Union address, President Obama proposed an ambitious agenda to jolt the country out of the recession, and set it upon a new path of economic growth, innovation and renewed economic leadership.
The President acutely realizes that if the worst of the crisis is behind us, and even though the financial sector has recovered, the devastation remains, as 10% of Americans remain unemployed.
For them, change has not come fast enough.
The President’s program is impressive, and if put in place, would transform the country.
After having preserved the US from an even more severe economic depression thanks to the Recovery Act, the President seeks to use all the resources of the government to stimulate growth, and job creation, his top priority of the moment.
The new Jobs Bill that he is advocating would provide financing for small firms (currently neglected by large banks), entice them to hire or raise salaries through a new small business tax credit. It would also encourage the renovation of infrastructure and the manufacture of clean energy products, because the nation that leads the clean energy economy will be the nation that leads the global economy. And America must be that nation, the President asserted.
He plans also to reform the financial system in order to ensure that it can never again revert to its reckless and speculative practices, which almost brought the world economy to its knees.
He intends to encourage innovation, stimulate exports, and revamp the education system, by improving the quality of schools, and revitalizing community colleges.
Furthermore, he also plans to defend the interests of the middle class, and, as such, pledged not to abandon his heath insurance reform. On this question, he issued the following challenge to its numerous detractors, but if anyone from either party has a better approach that will bring down premiums, bring down the deficit, cover the uninsured, strengthen Medicare for seniors, and stop insurance company abuses, let me know. Let me know. Let me know. I'm eager to see it.
As he emphasized, a comprehensive reform of the system was nearly at hand, and yet, the project has stalled since the President lost his super majority of sixty in Massachusetts last week.
Don’t walk away from reform, pleaded the President. Not now. Not when we are so close.
The President’s plans are clearly ambitious and would undoubtedly benefit the nation as a whole were they to come to fruition. Moreover, the measures advocated by the Republicans have been tried in the past and have failed, notably that if we just make fewer investments in our people, extend tax cuts including those for the wealthier Americans, eliminate more regulations, maintain the status quo on health care, our deficits will go away. The problem is that's what we did for eight years. That's what helped us into this crisis. It's what helped lead to these deficits. We can't do it again.
As he also pointed out, the Democrats have the largest majority in decades, so why has he not prevailed in the health insurance reform battle that is now twelve months old? He urged the Democrats not to run for the hills, but have they not done so already?
How is it that such a sizeable majority cannot approve the President’s reforms, and, first and foremost, such a symbolic and signal one as the health insurance bill?
Since Obama has not won that battle, how will the rest of his bold program fare, considering that this is an election year and that in two years, the presidential campaign will be in full swing?
The President’s term is only a year old, yet time is already pressing.
Will the inspiring and formidable candidate of 2008 finally evolve into the transformational leader his supporters in the US and elsewhere were yearning for?
I campaigned on the promise of change –- change we can believe in, the slogan went. And right now, I know there are many Americans who aren't sure if they still believe we can change –- or that I can deliver it, he conceded.
The time has come for Obama to dispel these doubts, and impose his agenda.
Yet, the obstacles, overwhelming, remain, as he well knows.
One is lack of ambition, or the desire for collective greatness is undermined by a lack of faith in our ability to achieve it, due to the great difficulties involved, and, indeed, the efforts required to prevail.
As a result, preserving the status quo becomes the default policy, the one likely to rally the most supporters in Congress, from the day I took office, I've been told that addressing our larger challenges is too ambitious; such an effort would be too contentious. I've been told that our political system is too gridlocked, and that we should just put things on hold for a while.
For those who make these claims, I have one simple question: How long should we wait? How long should America put its future on hold?
You see, Washington has been telling us to wait for decades, even as the problems have grown worse. Meanwhile, China is not waiting to revamp its economy. Germany is not waiting. India is not waiting. These nations -- they're not standing still, he said.
Another is the nefarious and poisonous effects of partisan politics on the ability of the government to effectively lead and reform the country. This phenomenon, an inherent characteristic of democracy (authoritarian regimes do not face such difficulties, but simply impose their will on the people), is compounded in the US by the fact that congressional elections occur every two years. As such, office holders are perpetually campaigning, thus fundraising, and doing their utmost to ensure they do or say nothing that may harm their prospects for reelection. They are condemned to flattering their constituents and financial backers, catering to their needs, instead of leading them, and invariably (and opportunistically) lambaste all those, and all those policies that may irk their supporters and their interests, no matter where the greater public good may reside.
As a result, legitimate and necessary policy debates degenerate into partisan, populist rows, but what frustrates the American people is a Washington where every day is Election Day. We can't wage a perpetual campaign where the only goal is to see who can get the most embarrassing headlines about the other side -– a belief that if you lose, I win. Neither party should delay or obstruct every single bill just because they can, the President said. Indeed, the abuse of the super majority rule in the Senate has effectively paralyzed the government, by denying it (and all those that will follow) the ability to reform the nation. Case in point, the Senate recently rejected a bill to establish a bipartisan fiscal commission designed to reduce deficits significantly, in order to preclude any possibility, less and less remote, of fiscal bankruptcy. Fifty-three Senators, a clear majority, approved the measure but, under Senate rules, sixty votes were necessary…As one of the sponsors of the bill, Sen. Judd Gregg, R-N.H, later lamented, this result was yet another indication that Congress is more concerned with the next election than the next generation…
The third major obstacle, lack of leadership, is conditioned by the first two. It also leads however, to an absence of ambition and rabid, partisan politics. It is a vicious circle, just saying no to everything may be good short-term politics, but it's not leadership, the President said, addressing the Republicans.
The political culture engenders apathy and cynicism, but each time a CEO rewards himself for failure, or a banker puts the rest of us at risk for his own selfish gain, people's doubts grow. Each time lobbyists game the system or politicians tear each other down instead of lifting this country up, we lose faith. The more that TV pundits reduce serious debates to silly arguments, big issues into sound bites, our citizens turn away, President Obama stated.
His assessment of the obstacles he faces, of democracy’s natural predilection for populist and demagogic politics is an astute one, but what does he intend to do about it?
Obama is a fine analyst, with a keen intellect, but the time for leadership has come.
What does it take to transcend such divisions in a democracy?
Can it still be done, or are all ambitious attempts at reform doomed to fail, precisely because they are ambitious? If not, what kind of leadership does it take to modify deeply entrenched patterns of behavior?
A catastrophe, Pearl Harbor, September 11, profoundly alters a nation’s psyche and its habits at least, temporarily. Can intrinsic leadership abilities solely exert the same transformational influence?
In short, is the system broken, or is Obama lacking the necessary qualities to overcome its deficiencies?
Time will tell, but, surely, the time for action has come.
Of what use is any bold program if the President cannot get it approved by Congress, if the many enemies of change, those who benefit from the status quo succeed in cajoling and intimidating a majority into rejecting what the people supported on Election Day?
Obama is a skillful rhetorician.
He should use the power of eloquence and suasion and travel the country, rally the people for, in a democracy, the only force capable of brushing aside special interests is the people, the might of public opinion. With substantial popular support, everything becomes possible. Nevertheless, to garner that support, one must earn it. How? By convincing the people that you intend to make every effort to implement policies that will benefit them, a sizeable majority of them…
Naturally, this power must be used sparingly so as not to blunt its potency. The President must choose his battles carefully, because he will not be able to wage all of them personally. But, when vital issues or projects are at stake, he must lead.
The President should thus appeal to the nation in order to rebuff narrow, special interests whose sole vocation is to preserve the status quo, and thus the privileges of those who benefit from it. He should lobby the American people against lobbyists of all shades who in effect, coerce elected officials into subverting the will of the people. He should expose those who seek to undermine the political process so as to protect the privileges of the few, at the expense of the many…Engage the ethical debate on the merits of bank reform and universal health care…Let his opponents support the bankers and their egregious bonuses, or a health care system that leaves forty-five million Americans without any coverage, but make sure and plain to the people whose side he is on…Let him dare his opponents to oppose these policies, and shame them if they do.
So I know the anxieties that are out there right now. They're not new. These struggles are the reason I ran for President, Obama declared.
Now he is the President. It is time to address them forcefully, and obtain results.
That is what the people expect and what he promised them.
Time is of the essence, for he has only two years left to undertake any meaningful action. Then, it will be time to judge whether he was just a gifted orator or a determined leader as well…
(the photograph above can be found here)