AMERICA’S NATIONAL AGENDA

By Edwin Cooney

During the 1960 presidential campaign, one of John F. Kennedy’s themes was “the unfinished public responsibility of our country” -- in other words, our National Agenda.

In last week’s commentary, which was largely designed to demonstrate that kept promises can be as dangerous as broken promises, I suggested (tongue in cheek) that political surprises would be preferable to promises. However, what we’re really talking about is America’s National Agenda which is renewable every four years with the election of a president.

Of course, Republicans, Democrats, Conservatives, and Liberals all have their canned solutions to problems ranging from abortion to terrorism. Some of these solutions are legitimate and deserve bipartisan consideration -- if we can restore bipartisanism ever again to our national political dialog. Meantime, we’re faced today with Corporate Media America’s political agenda.

Through the establishment of the radio and television talk show, both the Right and the Left -- each representing fewer than 50% of the public -- seek to set the political agenda for the whole country. Since these idealists are morally and politically superior to you and me, they naturally have little time or inclination to listen -- let alone value -- what the rest of us have to say.

My biggest criticism of President Obama is that he’s allowed himself to be politically penned in and devalued by both the Left and the Right. Both regard themselves as his moral and political superiors, hence he’s worthy of neither. It’s obvious to any objective observer of his administration that he’s well to the right of the label “left-wing Islamic Socialist” that many on the right seek to stamp on his reputation. Apparently, to the shock of many Liberals and to the chagrin of even more Conservatives, he even shares Rush Limbaugh’s determination to wipe out both al-Qaeda and the Taliban. Yet Liberals seem to have barely noticed that he clearly shares the Liberal’s job creation, healthcare, and environmental agendas.

As I’ve written numerous times, I was drawn to the then Senator Obama because of his interest in terminating the “culture war.” His political moderation is comparable to presidents Truman, Eisenhower and Ford in his leadership style. However, instead of setting his “anti-culture war” agenda, he has only let Congress and the people know what he wants to accomplish in piecemeal fashion. Hence, both his political opponents and his political friends (Liberals are every bit as petulantly dogmatic as Conservatives) appear to be out for his political hide.

The problem is that both the Right and the Left, good people who could be very helpful to any American president, have traded patriotism for dogmatism. How they see things is
vastly superior to the way nonpolitical people see them. After all, they are the political experts and the moral consciences of this free people. As such, they see themselves as having a legitimate license to cajole and manipulate voters and candidates expecting them to join them in their prejudices and to reinforce them in their self-interest driven solutions to problems both foreign and domestic.

I’ll ask this question once again as I’ve asked it before: why is it patriotic for a young person to give his or her well-being and perhaps life for his or her country when America is in trouble, but not equally patriotic to pay taxes and keep enterprises here in America for the benefit of those working men and women who face dire financial trouble?

America demands and indeed needs jobs, adequate protection against accidents and diseases, protection from international thuggery, and protection from internal fraud regardless of who’s behind it. America wants and deserves clean energy and educational opportunities for its youth and for those who need retraining in order to meet new job standards. The bottom line is that it is agenda-setting time and it is time for you and me to set America’s agenda. We can only effectively do that if our president takes the lead.

Speaking in Boston on the night of Monday, November 7th, the day before the 1960 election, John F. Kennedy put it this way:

“The great task of the president is to set before the American people the unfinished public responsibility of our country.”

There’ve been many historic and cultural changes in America in the last fifty-one years, but the idea that the president must take the lead in setting the National Agenda hasn’t changed.

I remain strongly and enthusiastically supportive of President Obama. Still I must assert that if President Obama won’t set a National Agenda, there are a mess of Republicans out there who’d be glad to try!

Goodness, that possibility is scarier than Halloween which is just around the corner!

RESPECTFULLY SUBMITTED,
EDWIN COONEY