Radical pluralism was the secret sauce in the United States success
THOMAS L. FRIEDMAN
It was striking how much Mondays presidential debate on foreign policy came down to two subjects: America and the Middle East. The two actually provide some instructive contrasts,starting with one that Ive noted since the onset of this campaign: the contrast between the high degree of American pluralism and trust that makes our country work,and the near total absence of it in the Middle East,the region most vexing us and most likely to blow up on the next president. The absence of pluralism and the prevalence of rule or die politics either my sect or party is in power or Im dead is the dominant political trend in the Arab-Muslim region today. Nobody trusts anybody,but it is impossible to build a modern state or an innovation economy without trust. Meanwhile,here in America,we are debating whether to replace our first black president with a Mormon! Who does that? Nobody else. That radical pluralism is the secret of our sauce,and blessedly so. America,take a bow. But not for too long.
It is impossible to look at the GOPs behaviour in the last four years from its unwillingness to consider Obamas jobs bill,which was praised by independent economists,to the time it spent on sheer lunacy such as questioning the presidents birth certificate and not conclude that many in the party just wanted Obama to fail in the hope they could pick up the pieces. Too many Republicans,particularly moderate business types,dont want to admit how much their party has been led around of late not by traditional conservatives,but by a radical Tea Party base that has driven decent,smart conservatives out of office.
What Id say about Obamas domestic and Middle East policies is that,given the messes and political constraints he inherited in both arenas,he did about as well as anyone could. He kept the homeland safe,prevented us from getting drawn into any sinkholes and killed bad guys. It is not the stuff of foreign policy legend,but it was not bad. Id say the same at home. He stanched the bleeding in the economy and initiated some smart reforms in education,energy and health the true effectiveness of which we will only know in the future. It was not exactly the New Deal,but considering the deep hole created by the years of George W. Bush,it also was not a New Depression. A quick turnaround in either arena was never possible.
But while that kind of politics got us through the last four years,it wont get us through the next four. We cannot have another term of partisan gridlock. We are heading into a world where the breakdown of the European supranational state system,combined with the breakdown of the Arab nation state system,combined with climate change,combined with a much greater global interdependence,means that we will be more and more buffeted by problems that are too dangerous to ignore but too complicated and big to fix alone. And when a country finds itself in that kind of situation,there is one thing it absolutely must do,and that is build resiliency.
We need to weatherproof our house so we can control our destiny and play the vital stabilising role the world needs us to play. And that leads to another difference between us and the Middle East. We dont know how to fix their problems any more. But we do know how to fix our problems. In the short run,we have to invest in infrastructure,education and research the sources of our strength to stimulate growth while simultaneously putting in place a credible long-term plan to cut spending and both raise and reform taxes as our economy improves.
