Challenges facing the next President

by Keith Cooper

From Broader View Weekly, November 7, 2008

Many of our readers may not be aware that time constraints and the rigors of newspaper production demand that most articles and columns be submitted to the Broader View Weekly well before each issue finds its way to the newsstand. That and the fact that our effective “press time” is several hours before anyone confidently called the results of this past Tuesday’s election leaves BVW staff and writers in an unfortunate position. We can choose to ignore the elephant in the room (the topic on the lips of most our readers even days after the victory celebrations and concession speeches); we could make predictions (a dangerous proposition regardless of how conclusive any spread in early opinion polls might appear); or we can accept our lot and offer commentary on the challenges our new president will inherit in January 2009.

One thing that is certain even before November 4, is that the president elect will inherit great challenges in both domestic and foreign policy arenas. Economic declines indicate that by almost any standard, the U.S. is in the midst of a recession. The ranks of poverty are growing as the ranks of the middle class are shrinking. Unemployment is on the rise, as are the costs of healthcare and higher education. Abroad, policies of preemptive aggression and unethical interrogation techniques have endangered our reputation and moral standing in the world. The war in Iraq continues to claim American lives. The Taliban is regaining strength in Afghanistan. North Korea and Iran are flirting with nuclear arms.

Change has become a buzzword during the past election season but a change in direction is needed.

The next president needs to look at the troubled economy through the clear lens of future idealism, not through the clouds of past ideology. The saying may go “capital is king” but in our current economic culture capitalism is king. We are so indoctrinated into equating capitalism with democracy that we have clung to a self-destructive mechanism that is collapsing upon itself. We are clinging to a philosophy based on terminology that no longer has meaning but which has dramatic sociological impact. It is preventing us from fixing a broken economic system.

We need to reevaluate our economic model. If we are to apply principles of personal responsibility we must hold those at the top of Corporate America as accountable as we hold those at the bottom rung on the economic ladder. We have to stop catering to those who have much, while treating those who have little as parasites – especially when many below the poverty line are working hard to build a better life and fulfill the promise of the American dream.

We need to be candid about that dream. Instead, most often, we sell big lies to those who can least afford to believe them. The big one is the Horatio Alger lie that hard work will bring prosperity. Unless we can come through with the rewards for hard work – the preservation of healthcare benefits, reliable jobs and the promise of retirement income – an economy built on the backs of hard workers will crumble.

Another lie is that of “trickle down” economics. One need only look at the way the dollars poured into the financial market (through the Bush administration’s bailout package) are being spent. We already see banks using that money to buy up other banks and pay executive bonuses, while credit remains frozen. Prosperity at the top does not improve the economic situation for those at the bottom, no matter how actively politicians proclaim it so.

Change is needed in foreign policy as well. We have lost the moral authority we once claimed. The U.S. cannot condemn Russia for its aggression on Georgia, while our doctrine and policy is to strike sovereign nations before they become a threat.

Nationalism has become a stumbling block in U.S. foreign policy. It has allowed us to perpetrate acts of violence that betray our proclaimed principles. And we as American citizens have accepted the ideology that security is only a matter of military might. Again, terminology has bound us as we equate diplomacy with weakness and discard it in favor of military action. We should exchange nationalism for patriotism and let our love of country drive us to do great things, instead of commit atrocities.

There is hope that we can once again earn the respect deserving a superpower. But it will require a change of direction. Challenges lie ahead, but whomever is at the helm must steer us away from the perilous course of the past 8 years.