By the numbers, the presidency of the United States is not something you’d necessarily wish, right now, upon someone you have good feelings toward.
In his January 14th “Letter to the new president,” the 2008 Nobel laureate for economics, Paul Krugman, describes the U.S. economic outlook as “(w)orse than almost anyone imagined.” The forecast, according to Krugman and many other economists, isn’t just dire by the numbers. As frightening as the statistics are, the most disheartening aspect is the death-spiral-like dynamics of the plunge and the way it will continue to defy the usual monetary toggles, levers, and brake pedals that have been used by the Federal Reserve to keep the economy airborne over the past thirty years.
While Krugman brings first-rate academic credentials to his economic analysis, he has also emerged, through his writings and speeches, as a leading light of the
American conscience. His 1/14 letter includes a plea to Obama to forcefully account for the ways in which the “Bush administration betrayed the nation’s ideals,” mainly by abusing power in the name of national security. He would like to see a “truth and reconciliation” process similar to that South Africa commissioned after the fall of apartheid.
In these broad strokes, Krugman’s letter gets to the biggest question about Obama’s leadership. The economic crisis is so severe, right now, that it could easily justify taking all of the new President’s will and attention. One gets the sense that the “transition” between Bush and Obama amounts to Obama waiting at the curb for a valet to bring the Presidential limousine around and when it appears the top half of the car is on fire, including the valet’s cap.
“Congratulations sir,” the enflamed driver would ask, “where would like to go?”
Such is the depth and complexity of the economic maelstrom that, if he only gets the economy right, Obama’s Presidency will be a remarkable success.
But Krugman is also right about the broader dimensions of Obama’s challenge, which is nothing less than an organic re-creation of American society, including a long overdue reconfiguration of what it means to be a citizen. Think of it. Unless you are in a military family, the only thing you’ve really been asked to do by the Bush Administration is to go shopping and, by way of sacrifice, endure longer lines at security checkpoints.
Obama will have to ask a lot more of us because, frankly, there’s no going back to the materially fixated, astronomically indebted, defiantly self-absorbed society of consumers that we were in the years leading up to this chasm. It may have been fun while it lasted, but it was as economically and environmentally sustainable as a giant ice carving in Phoenix or Miami Beach.
He will need good ideas, but good ideas won’t nearly be enough.
Earlier this month, the New Yorker’s Elizabeth Kolbert did a profile of Van Jones, the Oakland-based visionary whose mission in life is to bring green technology to low income neighborhoods. (CFJ supporters may remember Jones, as he was the keynote speaker at the Center’s Jazzed for Justice event a couple years back). Kolbert’s story included this snippet from a speech Jones gave recently in New Bedford, Massachusetts.
“I love Barack Obama,” Jones said. “I’d pay money just to shine the brother’s shoes. But I’ll tell you this. Do you hear me? One man is not going to save us. I don’t care who that man is. He’s not going to save us. And, in fact, if you want to be real about this–can y’all take it? I’m going to be real with y’all. Not only is Barack Obama not going to be able to save you–you are going to have to save Barack Obama.”
It will help Barack Obama if Americans embrace, respect, and own the nation’s 44th president in a way that insulates him from the heaving partisanship that has become the scourge of American public discourse. It will also help if we are patient.
But for those of us who pray, the prayer we should offer for Obama is that those of us who most want him to succeed be both willing and able to hold him accountable for pursuing the depth of change that he promised during his campaign. I think that’s what Van Jones was getting at: that this is not the sojourn of an icon or a savior, but the long and long overdue march of a people who have to create and endure major changes in their lives in order to get to recapture the ideals of the republic and get to where we need to go.
–Tim Connor
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