It’s threatened from within
Published 5:00 pm Friday, July 2, 2010
Two hundred thirty-four years after the birth of the United States of America, it’s hard not to question the “united” part.
Historically, American politics have been a raucous enterprise, sometimes brutally so. Yet when faced with grave challenges, at home or abroad, our elected leaders have found ways to put the national interest ahead of party politics, seeking areas of agreement and forging compromise.
How quaint and naive that seems today.
Areas of agreement — and they really do exist between many Republicans and Democrats, even on the most difficult issues — are rendered meaningless in the daily battle to smear the opposition. Leadership gives way to gamesmanship, fed by a minute-by-minute fixation on poll numbers and approval ratings.
Policy decisions are the result of short-term, self-serving calculations, not of wise individuals engaging their brain and conscience in pursuit of the greater good.
The policy paralysis that results has consequences. Our nation again faces grave challenges, and our very independence is threatened by our failure to deal with them.
Our national debt is beyond $13 trillion and growing. Failing to reverse this obviously unsustainable trend once the economy recovers slowly but surely cedes our independence to the foreign powers who hold much of that debt.
Our dependence on oil, and therefore on the nations that produce it, already compromises our strategic independence. We have no choice but to devote massive military and diplomatic resources to ensuring the free flow of oil out of the Middle East and other global hot spots.
The ultimate effects of climate change aren’t completely clear, but the likelihood is that on balance, they won’t be good. Limiting carbon emissions is an urgent necessity, and big business is on board. A bipartisan compromise was forged, but short-term political calculations have so far held it at bay. Future generations of Americans will pay the price.
Our nation’s history is filled with examples of Americans summoning the resolve and courage necessary to tackle any challenge before them. Its apparent absence today should be unsettling.
If America is to meet its difficult challenges, it needs leaders who, like so many of their predecessors, put the national interest ahead of party interest. They must be willing to look first for areas of agreement, and not let the fear of losing that day’s battle of the airwaves keep them from it.
Our political differences are part of our strength as a nation. Serious, spirited debates based on core principles yield better ideas and better results.
Partisanship for its own sake, however, yields little of value. In the national interest, our leaders, and those who aspire to leadership, should declare their independence from it.
