I would crawl across broken glass lying on a bed of burning embers to vote for Biden against Trump. That said, I hope that all of us are capable of objectively assessing the errors of past administrations as we plan the next one. Yes, even Democratic administrations.
The US has been faltering and without a vision for its post-Cold War role for almost three decades now. Our system has been coopted by the right but enabled by the establishment in DC in ways that have benefited the rich and most powerful and underserved everyone else.
There is no equivalency between the GOP and Dems, but we must acknowledge that both parties have overspent on defense & underspent on education & healthcare and R&D and infrastructure. We have retreated from foreign challenges and been weak in the face of aggressors & despots.
We must acknowledge that even political leaders we remember fondly were imperfect and seek to do better. America has been in relative decline for two decades and internationally rudderless for three. We face great crises and massive challenges.
Our nostalgia and the good intentions of even talented and earnest past leaders will not help us address as we must the climate crisis, our public health crisis, the global economic crisis, internal divisions in America, our rigged political and economic systems,...
institutional racism, the legacy of centuries of misogyny, our failure to invest in the engines of future growth, the rise of new competitors, the decline of international institutions through obsolescence, neglect and active attacks by us and other major powers.
Successfully addressing these challenges will require big, bold thinking, aggressiveness, vision, political mastery, diplomatic deftness and real creative leadership of a type we have not seen in decades. We deny this at our peril. If we deny it, further decline is inevitable.
But if we recognize it, if we choose to see ourselves with open eyes, if we are not content with simply ending this catastrophic period of corrupt, traitorous leadership but demand more, insist on a new vision for a new era, we can rebound & lead again. It is our choice to make.
