President Obama's No-Drama SOTU
Tuesday night's State of the Union address was dubbed by pundits on MSNBC and CNN as 'the most centrist speech we've seen in a long time.' This may have as much to do with the absence of drama as it does with the content. Giving the President the benefit of the doubt, his party is weak right now, and, if he were to step up, and openly challenge the Republicans' backward-looking anti-investment agenda, the Democrats wouldn't have his back. His best hope is for the Republicans to over-reach --- something he can count on them to do, sooner or later. The thinking appears to be: if he can stay above the fray, look calm, measured and presidential, he can survive the conservative onslaught.
Still, there are a number of things President Obama could have said to signal that he understands the anxieties and insecurities that so many Americans are feeling right now, and to re-direct some of those anxieties away from attacking 'big government' and toward supporting jobs programs and relief for struggling states, cities and towns. Does he feel the pain of the unemployed, the foreclosed-upon, the under-employed? It would be hard to tell from this SOTU. More Americans have joined the ranks of the newly-poor, who are becoming as invisible as the chronically poor. There was little, if anything, in the SOTU for them.
The President's defense of government's role in bringing our economy and society into an inter-connected and more ecologically sustainable future was the strongest part of his speech. He gave good examples of what government investments can do, and how we need large-scale investments, both public and private, in order to meet the challenges of a green economy. Unfortunately, most of the good stuff about public investments was couched
in language about competitiveness --- we are falling behind China, India and South Korea on infrastructure, green development and investments in education. Maybe the emphasis on competitiveness appeals to some independents and moderates, but ultimately it undermines his stronger messages about iinter-connectedness and sustainablity.
While ambitious proposals for investing in the future are very welcome, the address offered very little about how to create jobs --- any jobs --- right now. Or how to get Wall Street and Corporate America investing in America again, doing their part to help localities get past their current fiscal crises, which were created by Wall Street's mismanagement of the financial economy, not by public sector workers and spending on programs for the needy. Instead, we were offered some vague suggestions that it is time to forgive Wall Street and move on.
The most disappointing part (though not unexpected), is the President's seeming capitulation to the Deficit Hawks who have managed to change the conversation from reinvesting in America to slashing and burning every safety-net, attacking public workers and the people they serve. President Obama ceded the terms of the debate to the deficit hawks back when he set up the Deficit Commission. He now sings from their songbook, but with his own, softer, variation: let's eliminate the spending that we can, but not on the backs of the most vulnerable.
The most worrisome part of the SOTU was how the President prefaced his comments on Social Security by mentioning the Deficit Commission. The message here is mixed, as he hopes to offer something for everyone. First, he concedes their point that Social Security is 'in trouble,' (and perpetuates the myth that it has something to do with the Deficit, when it doesn't). Then, he calls for a bi-partisan solution that does not put current recipients at risk, but leaves the door cracked open for Deficit Commision proposals that will negatively affect future recipients.
What does this all mean for us? For one thing, the 'inside' strategy that made sense in early 2009 no longer looks workable. We don't have solid footing for an inside track. We have to focus on the outside strategy, which includes cranking up the outside pressure for the kinds of investments that will put our communities more in control of reshaping our economy. And we must tell the real story about how we got into the current mess, and share our ideas for creating a sustainable future together. It is up to us to bring on the drama.
P.S. I'd also like to acknowledge that the President was much bolder on immigration reform. Not that anything is going to move in the next 2 years, but it is good to hear him say that he supported the Dream Act and other pathways to citizenship. No matter what, this President is not going to pander to nativists. That's something to cheer about.
