Commenter Kathy R writes that there are two very strong op-eds in the New York Times today, by Tom Friedman and Frank Rich.
Friedman is back from a book leave–and he is excellent on something that most Americans sense, but don’t fully realize: that we are falling behind Asia and Europe in terms of research, development, education and infrastructure. He writes about the lost “Asian” values of our parents and grandparents–the hard work and sacrifice, the habits of citizenship that we’ve lost through Affluenza. A young diplomat I know, returning from four years in Asia, recently said to me, “People just don’t realize that we’ve become a second world nation.”
I don’t know how politicians, especially those in the midst of a campaign, can make this problem real to people who have real problems–like buying the next tank of gas. Barack Obama is surely trying. I’m in Indianapolis today and Obama has an excellent ad on the air about the Clinton-McCain Gas Tax Holiday flummery. But Clinton was very effective selling immediate relief on the stump when I was with her in North Carolina yesterday. In my experience, immediate relief of a perceived crisis beats long-term action against a crisis not yet generally perceived. That is where leadership comes in–and leadership, the ability to ask people to defer gratification for a better future, is something that has been entirely missing in the current Republican era. Perhaps the question shouldn’t be “Are you better off than you were four years ago?” But “How are we going to be better off four years from now?”
Meanwhile, Frank Rich raises an interesting point about the vile pastor John Hagee:
In fact, by his own account, Mr. McCain sought out Mr. Hagee, who is perhaps best known for trying to drum up a pre-emptive “holy war” with Iran. (This preacher’s rantings may tell us more about Mr. McCain’s policy views than Mr. Wright’s tell us about Mr. Obama’s.)
Obviously, McCain doesn’t agree with Hagee’s nuttery about Hurricane Katrina as retribution for the sins of New Orleans–but there is, shall we say, a community of views between McCain and Hagee on the middle east. Obama shares a community of views with Rev. Wright on the alleviation of urban poverty, and especially on the need for black men to step up and meet their responsibilities as fathers–and yet he’s been forced to repudiate Wright, correctly I believe, because of that pastor’s ugly excesses. Should McCain be held to a lesser standard with regard to Hagee? I don’t think so.
No, Hagee is not McCain’s pastor. But, by accepting Hagee’s impramatur, McCain is giving currency to anti-Catholic, anti-gay and, ultimately, anti-Jewish bilge. (Hagee claims to be a Zionist…but that’s only true up until the Rapture, when non-Christians will be incinerated.) There should be no place for such dangerous nutballs–and yes, you can throw in the oleaginous telecharlatan Pat Robertson, too–in presidential politics. They should be rejected, one and all.