Tomorrow night we will use part of our scarce class time to listen to President Obama's State of the Union address. There is no shortage of commentary on what the president might or should say, but apparently -- if Paul Krugman is right, and he usually is -- the theme of "competitiveness" will be prominently featured. Normally, this is a theme that one encounters in the SOTU addresses of Republican presidents, and this is not lost on Mr. Krugman. As such, it doesn't mean that Obama's not-so-subtle move to the center is actually crossing the partisan divide and ditching Democratic policy tools in his efforts to reconnect with the Business Community. But it's a bothersome ploy, even if it's just a public relations tactic, to Krugman. I'd recommend your reading of this argument at the following link as it lays out clearly why this is an irksome choice on the president's part in the mind of the nobel laureate economist from Princeton:
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/24/opinion/24krugman.html?_r=1&hp
Otherwise, what would you recommend that the president say if you were a member of his speech-writing shop?
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I would urge Obama to take a different direction, instead of putting importance of competition he should stress a moral value of collectivism in the American society. This collectivism would be the general idea of his speech, but then specifically investing in the nation's infrastructure, which would create jobs, and keep up with competing nations around the world.
ReplyDeleteA question for Dan. How is Obama to achieve a goal of investment when House Republicans seek to block any spending efforts?
ReplyDeleteA question for Sean and another for Dan. First, Sean, don't Americans of all partisan stripes, want the government to create JOBS? Why would the public, quite apart from the Paul Ryans in the House, even the business community complain about investments that rebuild our crumbling infrastructure? Even Eisenhower understood that the key to a prosperous economy was the Interstate system.
ReplyDeleteNow, for Dan: I'm afraid no American president can successfully appeal to the collectivist sense of American political culture. In our country, using such language we'll get you accused of being a European Socialist in the office of a US Senator. In a bar in Butler County it'll get you a lot worse. As I read one of Mr. Corbin's book nominees -- the one by Judt, the European dude -- the resistance to such thinking by the vast majority of Americans -- and the political costs that accompany such worldviews -- are a key focus of the volume. If so, it might be a real prize for those of us puzzled by this American line of thinking.