Our friends, John and Lois, hosted a second Inaugural party,
some thirty guests to witness the ceremonial swearing in of the President and his
speech. What a difference four years
make. Last time it was a euphoric party, imagine, a young black president, imbued with liberal ideals, but with an economy that had already shown signs of complete collapse the joy was somewhat restrained by worry.
Four years later, the intransigence of government compromise
has given way to more temperate expectations.
However, none of this detracted from the day, a remarkable, very moving,
and humbling exercise of the democratic process with the pageantry instilling a
quiet pride and hopefulness in us and the sea of faces that swept across the
National Mall.
Everything about it was just about perfect, even the weather
cooperating. President Obama's speech was
aspirational and progressive, touching upon many of the themes of his
presidency and introducing the sorely needed goal of combating climate change. Perhaps he will make that the hallmark of his
second term as universal healthcare was in his first. In spite of the overwhelming need to face
this issue realistically, action has been lacking. Here is an interesting pro/con alignment of opinions on this subject (hat tip Barry Ritholtz's The Big Picture).
This will become yet another clash in Congress. To fully understand the severity of political
polarization, one only has to read comments about Obama's reelection such as Texas
Representative John Culberson's: I grieve for the country....We’re going to
throw the emergency brake on as best we can and fight him every step of the
way. Welcome to your second term,
Mr. President!
A key phrase from the Inaugural speech, we, the people, understand that our country cannot succeed when a
shrinking few do very well and a growing many barely make it, was also Obama's
central point when he was campaigning and will probably be the fulcrum of
budgeting and tax reform. But this is
going to be a more complex problem as there are systemic reasons behind this
widening gap that go far beyond the reach of mere tax reform legislation. The New
York Times magazine section this Sunday carried a relatively brief but pointed article on "skill-biased technical change:" The rise of networked laptops and
smartphones and their countless iterations and spawn have helped highly
educated professionals create more and more value just as they have created
barriers to entry and rendered irrelevant millions of less-educated workers, in
places like factory production lines and typing pools.
Thus, workers having technology skills, mostly those in
information industry professions, law, finance, engineering, and medicine, have
disproportionately benefited from those skills at the expense of blue collar
workers who have been forced into the service economy at lower wages. Having technology skills is tantamount to
buying on margin, being able to leverage those skills for much greater compensation.
So when President Obama tries to put through legislation to
reverse this course, it has to take into account not only tax reform, but
massive educational reform and the effects of that will not be immediate, but
rather long term, maybe measured in generations, like the progress made in
civil rights. Do we have the fortitude
and patience?
And, then there is the deficit and reducing the National
Debt. We could embrace the best parts of
the Simpson-Bowles plan (so eagerly commissioned by both parties as the National
Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform, and then the results so immediately
distanced by both) No one wants to face up to their recommendations. Our massive
National Debt in part was incurred to save our financial system from ruin, but
it did not occur overnight. Quick and
easy fixes are impossible. But, if we get the direction right, and gradually
phase in some of the Commission's recommendations, perhaps we can then move forward on
that front.
But do our politicians have the right stuff? This is where presidential leadership is so
sorely needed. President Obama threw down the gauntlet in his speech about the
need for action -- even "imperfect" action -- a veiled suggestion of
compromise. There were two beautifully
crafted paragraphs about the dangers of taking intransigent positions based on ideology in his speech:
That is our
generation’s task -- to make these words, these rights, these values of life
and liberty and the pursuit of happiness real for every American. Being true to our founding documents does not
require us to agree on every contour of life. It does not mean we all define
liberty in exactly the same way or follow the same precise path to
happiness. Progress does not compel us
to settle centuries-long debates about the role of government for all time, but
it does require us to act in our time.
For now decisions are
upon us and we cannot afford delay. We
cannot mistake absolutism for principle, or substitute spectacle for politics,
or treat name-calling as reasoned debate.
We must act, knowing that our
work will be imperfect. We must act,
knowing that today’s victories will be only partial and that it will be up to
those who stand here in four years and 40 years and 400 years hence to advance
the timeless spirit once conferred to us in a spare Philadelphia hall.
Finally, a bit of serendipity. Does life imitate art? I had noted that Aaron
Sorkin's 1995 classic The American
President, directed by Rob Reiner, was on TV the same night as the inaugural. We've seen it before but Ann and I,
in a "presidential inauguration mood," said, what the heck, we'll
watch it again (thanks Encore, no commercial interruptions). Talk about a feel good movie and how
incredibly relevant although made almost twenty years ago. The focus of fictional President Andrew
Shepherd's administration is to pass a crime bill (with assault weapon gun
control) and an environmental bill that mandates the reduction of hydrocarbon emissions.
Meanwhile, a right wing political demagogue, Senator Bob Rumson, is running
against Shepherd's reelection, appealing to "family values" of Americans,
by attacking Shepherd's relationship with Sydney Ellen Wade (Shepherd is a
widower in the film). Have things
changed so little in the almost twenty years since the film's making? Unresolved issues of gun control,
environmental protection, and campaign character assault go on and on.
The film's President Andrew Shepherd initially takes the
high road, concentrating on the issues rather than the personal attacks until
he appears at an unscheduled and impromptu news conference and gives an
impassioned, unrehearsed speech. Perhaps
all our politicians should see this movie once every four years (I realize that
Sorkin writes with his own political agenda -- even I think that eliminating handguns cannot be on the lumped in with assault weapons -- but taking that into account, still
there is much to be gleaned from this wonderful and eerily relevant script). Here is what "President Shepherd"
says:
For the last couple of
months, Senator Rumson has suggested that being president of this country was,
to a certain extent, about character, and although I have not been willing to
engage in his attacks on me, I've been here three years and three days, and I
can tell you without hesitation: Being President of this country is entirely
about character. For the record: yes, I am a card-carrying member of the ACLU.
But the more important question is why aren't you, Bob? Now, this is an
organization whose sole purpose is to defend the Bill of Rights, so it
naturally begs the question: Why would a senator, his party's most powerful
spokesman and a candidate for President, choose to reject upholding the
Constitution? If you can answer that question, folks, then you're smarter than
I am, because I didn't understand it until a few hours ago. America isn't easy.
America is advanced citizenship. You gotta want it bad, 'cause it's gonna put
up a fight. It's gonna say "You want free speech? Let's see you
acknowledge a man whose words make your blood boil, who's standing center stage
and advocating at the top of his lungs that which you would spend a lifetime
opposing at the top of yours. You want to claim this land as the land of the
free? Then the symbol of your country can't just be a flag; the symbol also has
to be one of its citizens exercising his right to burn that flag in protest.
Show me that, defend that, celebrate that in your classrooms. Then, you can
stand up and sing about the "land of the free". I've known Bob Rumson
for years, and I've been operating under the assumption that the reason Bob
devotes so much time and energy to shouting at the rain was that he simply
didn't get it. Well, I was wrong. Bob's problem isn't that he doesn't get it.
Bob's problem is that he can't sell it! We have serious problems to solve, and
we need serious people to solve them. And whatever your particular problem is,
I promise you, Bob Rumson is not the least bit interested in solving it. He is
interested in two things and two things only: making you afraid of it and
telling you who's to blame for it. That, ladies and gentlemen, is how you win
elections. You gather a group of middle-aged, middle-class, middle-income voters
who remember with longing an easier time, and you talk to them about family and
American values and character. And wave an old photo of the President's
girlfriend and you scream about patriotism and you tell them, she's to blame
for their lot in life, and you go on television and you call her a whore.
Sydney Ellen Wade has done nothing to you, Bob. She has done nothing but put
herself through school, represent the interests of public school teachers, and
lobby for the safety of our natural resources. You want a character debate,
Bob? You better stick with me, 'cause Sydney Ellen Wade is way out of your
league.
I've loved two women
in my life. I lost one to cancer, and I lost the other 'cause I was so busy
keeping my job I forgot to do my job. Well, that ends right now. Tomorrow
morning, the White House is sending a bill to Congress for its consideration.
It's White House Resolution 455, an energy bill requiring a 20 percent
reduction of the emission of fossil fuels over the next ten years. It is by far
the most aggressive stride ever taken in the fight to reverse the effects of
global warming. The other piece of legislation is the crime bill. As of today,
it no longer exists. I'm throwing it out. I'm throwing it out writing a law
that makes sense. You cannot address crime prevention without getting rid of
assault weapons and handguns. I consider them a threat to national security,
and I will go door to door if I have to, but I'm gonna convince Americans that
I'm right, and I'm gonna get the guns. We've got serious problems, and we need
serious people, and if you want to talk about character, Bob, you'd better come
at me with more than a burning flag and a membership card. If you want to talk
about character and American values, fine. Just tell me where and when, and
I'll show up. This is a time for serious people, Bob, and your fifteen minutes
are up. My name is Andrew Shepherd, and I am the President.
What a way to cap off Inauguration Day.
