Connective Tissue
The surest route to failure, it is said of great leaders, is to try to do too many things. In our complex world, many government policies and initiatives end up have unintended consequences just because that is the way things are. From day one, President Obama has unveiled one initiative or policy statement after another. For many months, there was little to point to as success. Obama was said to have tried too many things.
Guantanamo remains open and its end is not in sight. The Palestinian-Israeli conflict has seen little progress. The Iranian nuclear arms program seems as viable as ever. The withdrawal of US troops in Iraq, while on schedule, is still subject to the outcome of the recent Iraqi elections, and these results are not clear. At home the economy has stopped getting worse but for most Americans the economy is certainly not growing. Banks remain as unregulated as they were when President Obama took over.
There is, however, some rays of sunshine peaking through. Health care (read insurance) reform has been signed into law, and there has been a major agreement with Russia on nuclear warhead reductions. Republicans have chosen a very risky strategy of saying “no” to everything. In effect they are reinforcing in the minds of so many Americans that government does not work. The risk for Republicans is that they will be identified with main reason Government does not work, and this may benefit Democrats in the end.
On a different front, the subway suicide bombings in Moscow have sent a strong message to both the Russia and Chinese Governments. The message says, “these bombs were plastic explosives, but they could have been nuclear”.
The Obama Administration may soon be seen as having set out attractive deck chairs from day one of his term. Although the chairs have gone empty for quite some time, the chairs were positioned well (pragmatic and internally consistent), and will be appreciated once occupied. Both China and Russia, from their own national interest perspectives, have good reasons to cooperate with other nations including the US in ways that eliminate or significantly reduce armed conflicts and the spread of nuclear weapons. President Obama, from day one, has endorsed an open dialog with other countries without preconditions. He has created an atmosphere where there is a chance that some yet to be foreseen development could be addressed productively. On domestic issues, Obama has pushed for legislation that rights clear wrongs and will be seen as such with the passage of time.
Progressive pragmatism wins over rigid ideology given enough time (that is when the spin is spun and the facts are clear).
This entry was posted on March 30, 2010 at 10:44 am and is filed under Barack Obama, Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments.
Tags: China, foreign policy, health care, health care reform, Iran, Russia
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