Something more: A New Normal for America
It would be presumptuous, and probably a waste of time, to offer Barack Obama any advice on the presidential inauguration speech he will deliver Tuesday.
This is a man who — according to The New Yorker’s Ryan Lizza — once told his new political director that, “I think that I’m a better speechwriter than my speechwriters. I know more about policies on any particular issue than my policy directors. And I’ll tell you right now that I’m gonna think I’m a better political director than my political director.”
Nor will we sacrifice any more trees in assessing the legacy of the outgoing president, George W. Bush. Dozens of books have been devoted to that, to say nothing of websites, final press conferences, exit interviews and prime-time addresses to the nation. His record, we would argue, speaks for itself.
Inaugurations should look forward, not backward. They should speak of “New Deals” and “New Frontiers.” Our hopes for Mr. Obama are at once more modest and more ambitious: He should tell America that when things return to normal, normal is going to be different.
For the last four decades, spanning the administrations of five Republican and two Democratic presidents, America has witnessed the gradual corrosion of one of its core principles, what political scientists call “civic republicanism.” This is the “small-R” republicanism espoused by the Greeks, by Rousseau and by James Madison. It is the notion that for a republic to thrive, its citizens must think first of what will sustain the republic, not what merely will sustain themselves, and work together for common goals.
Think of America during World War II: everyone sacrificing for the goal of victory. Think of John F. Kennedy’s call to “Ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country.” Think of Lyndon Johnson’s call to pass the 1965 Civil Rights bill, not as an issue for black Americans, but for all Americans: “Should we defeat every enemy, and should we double our wealth and conquer the stars, and still be unequal to this issue, then we will have failed as a people and as a nation.”
Think then about the ways we have failed as a people and nation in the last 40 years, and particularly the last 16. Individual gain has been enshrined as the highest goal, pursued to extremes at the expense of the common good. Social Darwinism has replaced civic republicanism. At home and abroad, the republic is less secure. The economy is in tatters. The American military is limping from six years of warfare paid on a tab and pursued, in part, to prop up private interests.
This is America’s eternal question, the perpetual tension between individual liberties and civic duties, the interest of the individual and the interest of the republic. They can and do coexist, but sometimes the balance is thrown off. Now is such a time.
It now is normal for the chief executive of a Standard & Poor’s 500 firm to earn 344 times more in total compensation than the average American worker. When the firm crashes, it now is normal for the chief executive to be paid a multimillion-dollar severance package.
It now is normal for the top 1 percent of U.S. taxpayers to earn 22 percent of all the income in the country and pay just 38 percent of the taxes.
It now is normal for corporations, banks and bankers to line up for federal bailouts, but to whine when strings are attached.
It now is normal for Americans to be without health insurance or find that they can’t afford their copays. It now is normal to go to the emergency room for an asthma attack because you can’t afford an inhaler.
It now is normal for room, board and tuition at a state university to cost more than half of median household income. It now is normal for college graduates to emerge with a diploma and $60,000 in debt.
It now is normal for U.S. companies, including some who are receiving bailout funds, to create offshore tax havens to avoid paying U.S. taxes. It is lousy citizenship, but good business.
It is normal to lock up young men for stealing cars or selling dope, but to let old men who fleece people out of billions to walk the streets.
It is normal to outsource everything — jobs to China or India. Child-rearing to nannies or schoolteachers. Citizenship to other people. Blame.
Sacrificing is not normal. War is something you outsource, too, to private contractors and professional soldiers, if you can find enough of them. It is normal for the U.S. Army to recruit soldiers drawn increasingly from the underclass. Only 44 percent of the Army’s 2007 recruits were regarded as “high quality,” meaning they had a high school diploma and finished in the top half on the military qualifications test.
When Pat Tillman left the NFL’s Arizona Cardinals for the Army Rangers in 2002, he was admired but not emulated. When he was killed by friendly fire in Afghanistan in 2004, the Army tried to cover it up. This was closer to normal.
It is normal for public service to be seen as a path to personal enrichment, not an end in itself. It is normal for politicians to sell influence to special interests and to lobby for those same interests while in office.
America needs a new normal.
America needs a normal that says competence is the rule and excellence is the goal. A normal in which people who buy toys or dig coal or fly in airplanes can reasonably expect that the federal regulators in charge of toy safety or mine safety or airline safety will have done their jobs. A normal that says when the Coast Guard pays for new cutters, they don’t founder in high seas.
America needs a new normal in which the homeland is safe, not just from terrorists, but from bureaucrats who make Grandma take off her shoes and who turn over port inspection to minimum-wage rent-a-cops. A normal in which teachers are expected to teach and children are expected to learn. A normal in which schools are places of learning, not job centers.
America needs a new normal that rewards success, but doesn’t glorify excess.
America needs a new normal that respects individual rights, but recognizes that individual rights exist in concert with the common good. You have free speech, but you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater. You can make $100 million a year, but not by hawking bogus securities. You can reward your shareholders and shower bonuses on your executives, but you have to be fair to your employees. You can belong to a union, but you have to do your job.
Mr. Obama is being besieged on all sides by groups and organizations who feel that, at long last, it is their turn. His job, in the New Normal, will be to say, “First, it is the country’s turn.”
As wonderful as we are, we all must be part of something larger. We are citizens of a republic.
“Sacrificing is not normal.”
Begging to differ, but we sacrafice all the time. Parents “sacrifice” so their kids can have, be it college or some new trendy toys.
Workers sacrifice all the time, making concessions on a variety of levels.
Retirees sacrifice, business sacrifice, local and state governments sacrifice and the list goes on and on.
Some public servants “sacrifice” in the military and all one has to look at is 9-11 disaster and behold the dedication of the public servants and public’s response.
Yes, many of your points are valid; but sacrifice is the norm and not the exception in our society. America has a long and proud tradition of folks doing that “civic” thing.
Look at what we have “sacrificed” over the last 8 years if nothing else.
Again we hear the voice of James Taggart.
> America needs a normal that says competence is the rule
> and excellence is the goal.
But we mustn’t allow merit pay for teachers, and will continue to support unionization of every possible job, which eliminates the opportunity for discretionary pay increases based upon job performance.
> America needs a new normal in which the homeland is safe, not
> just from terrorists, but from bureaucrats
In reality, you will defend both terrorists and bureaucrats, the former because we do not offer them the full constitutional rights of US citizens, the latter because they are “hard working federal employees.”
> You have free speech, but you can’t yell fire in a crowded theater.
You can, however, make alarmist claims about global warming while living in an 8,000 square foot home. And, while doing so, you can be confident that nobody in the “mainstream media” will even mention it, much less criticize you for it.
> You can make $100 million a year
And the government will take half of it.
> You can reward your shareholders and shower bonuses on
> your executives, but you have to be fair to your employees.
What is “fair”?
> You can belong to a union, but you have to do your job.
And, by the way, you can’t NOT belong to a union. With “card check” workers will no longer have the right to a secret ballot, and will be intimidated by union organizers into signing a card authorizing a vote which will never happen.
And “do your job” will be defined by a union contract which segregates responsibilities and sets rigid job boundaries which sap productivity, resulting in loss of American jobs.
> As wonderful as we are, we all must be part of something
> larger. We are citizens of a republic.
And the first step of being a responsible citizen is taking care of yourself and your own. If we shift to a republic where personal responsibility is not the chief focus, the common good will also be destroyed.
This is PD commentary at its best.
It is normal to punish anyone who works hard, takes risks, succeeds and makes money. They are inherently evil.
It is normal to take the earnings of hard working successful people and give it to people to choose not to work.
It is normal to believe the government should solve all our problems (get started B.O.)
It is normal to assume the government (or the PD)can spend my money smarter than I can.
But we know all this already. Another re-tread to usher in the new Pres.
The more the Post Disgrace shovels this stuff out the more readers they will lose. How many people actually pay for the PD any more? And, how is the PD going to fill up all its column space with Bush gone?
Yes, and I am sure you meant to include in that speech something about how disgusted you are that Citicorp donated money to Obama’s Inaugural. When will this craziness stop? They get two ballots, but have money to donate.
What am I missing? Why are these banks not being held accountable on how they are spending this money. Why aren’t these CEO’s and Board of Directors getting fired rather than still getting highly paid for their incomptence?
And I assume the editorial is still coming on why corporations and hollywood celebs are spending all this money on Inaugural balls while people are losing their jobs, homes, and savings and we are still fighting two losing wars. Where is the same outrage I witness in the PD four years ago? Why didn’t Obama ask all those contributors to instead save their carbon footprints, stay home, and donate all that money to a fund for healthcare for the needy? It’s time we change how things are done. I hope that change is coming soon.
horrigan & mink - what a touching tribute to the man you and your cronies in the press did all in your power to get elected. I’m going to go puke now. Thanks for the vomit material.
btw….I am one of many American’s who will not watch or read one ounce of media coverage of b. hussein’s lib-fest on tuesday. It will be one of the worst days in American history. Wake me when it’s 2012.
> Yes, and I am sure you meant to include in that speech something
> about how disgusted you are that Citicorp donated money to Obama’s
> Inaugural.
Not likely. Corporations are evil, but their money is sanctified when donated to the right cause.
“Corporations are evil, but their money is sanctified when donated to the right cause.”
You mean LEFT cause.
Now we have our first memo from Comrade Putin. He will be so proud of you “Editoral Board”. The best way to sacrifice for everyone is to get rid of the Teacher Union, have school year around and pay excellent teachers a salary appropriate for a professional person. EDUCATION is the key, sacrifice to meet that goal, not class warfare and the return to a welfare state.
So, for the PD the new normal is a sequel to the Great Society concept of the omnipotent feds guiding the ignorant states and people to Utopia through government expertise. Personal liberty BAD - collectivism GOOD. Success BAD - dependence GOOD. Free enterprise BAD - socialism GOOD.
You seem to have convinced millions of people. Now see if you can make the math work. Good luck with that. As you point out in your editorial, it hasn’t worked all that well for the last four decades despite trillions spent and thousands of new bureaucrats employed.
oh boy, the old normal wasn’t normal. it was ideal and un-obtainable by most. the old normal had hard rules to be broken easily. blah, blah, blah.
what could a new normal possibly be? or what would I like a new normal to be?
i would like a new normal that is forgiving and non-judgemental.
a new normal that doesn’t allow convicted child molesters to have children living in their homes.
a new normal that doesn’t punish single mothers with vapid guilt inducing displays of things they can’t possibly have.
i could go on and on and on.
what a new normal could possibly be?
according to what i am hearing it is more guilt over what you don’t have or can’t provide. not new
taxing workers to provide for those who don’t work. not new.
causing a mis-placed sense of entitlement that drags down your quality of life? not new either.
i am ready and quite eager to see something new. not ideal, does no one realize that ideal means close to perfect. um
reminds me of the god thing. how people are always looking for perfection, always pointing out the flaws as if perfection is sustainable. if god can’t be perfect then who are you fooling? only yourself. unless of course you think that god considers a tsunami to be ideal instead of an ocean bed that is a work in progress, you know like a mistake in an ideal plan. oops.
yet people think we could and should be able to do better than that. when you add up all the shore line in the world, multiply it by time and then figure out the avgs of shore line hit by tsunamis you would be awe struck at the sheer wonder that it ever stays in its bed as much as it does. almost perfect, quite ideal really. but, it still doesn’t work exactly right, not yet anyway:) but thats normal, for god.