Are you ready for the next Ronald Reagan? Not here, in Japan. The new Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, has been in office for less than a month and is already making a lot of waves with a bold new vision – spending whatever it takes and a strong dose of saber-rattling nationalism. It’s the latest – or really the first – plan to get Japan out of the two decade long doldrums and back onto the world stage. Will it work?
Home » Politics (Page 54)
Category Archives: Politics
It’s about improving people’s lives. Miss ya, Paul!
After the Party … ?
On this special Inauguration Day, also Dr. King Day, the nation can pause to think about where we are and where we are going. The first thought that crossed my mind as Obama quickly and privately took the oath on the official day was, “Wow, Malia really has grown, she’s almost as tall as her Mom!” Most of what we’ll here will be that kind of fluff that helps us all connect on a personal level to a warm, real family of actually very ordinary people in so many ways.
But that’s not what the party is really about. The trappings of power will be all over as we start another term with the guy who got us through the last four years, for better or worse. What can we expect? What should we insist on? How is this going to go down with a Republican House that appears to be uncontrolled? It’s all guesswork, but we know a few things for sure.
Leadership as Strategy
Leadership. There has been a lot of talk about it lately, or more to the point the lack of it. In common talk it is defined as “Doing or standing for the things I like” far more often than is useful. But most people will agree that the inability for our US Government to do something about a large deficit coupled with a lack of support for genuine growth comes down to a lack of leadership.
I argue that this is to be expected, given the horrible lack of leadership everywhere in the developed world right now. Can anyone name a powerful nation with good leadership? Perhaps you can name a few businesses that have it, but not many. How about social leadership? Religious leadership? Are there more than a few people in rich nations anywhere who have a strong following that is capable of getting done what they want or need to?
Then again, the lack of leadership is hardly surprising. It is not about a charismatic figure that molds the masses to action – it’s about getting things done. That requires strategic thinking, and strategy is something horribly under-appreciated. I might chalk that up to excessive selfishness or a failure of moral character in our world, both of which are issues. But upon reflection, it seems to come down to a lack of understanding of what Strategy is and why it is important. And how we got here may well be fascinating.
Happy … Stuff
Raise your hand if you are sick of the “Fiscal Cliff”. Okay, let me count … 1 …. 2 … OK, there are a lot of you. I guess that I shouldn’t write about the Fiscal Cliff then. You’re back at work on 2 January like I am and we have a lot of stuff to do, right?
So, how about that House vote that … no, wait, I mean how about them Vikings, get to play the Packers at Lambeau! AP is just on fire, I’ll bet they have a chance. Anything to blur away the early hours of the first day back into the swing of things and avoid talking about Congress (the logical antonym of “progress”).
Sorry, folks. I have to. The House vote has not yet taken place as I write this, but the story is probably already written. We waited all day for this to com e to a vote because it could not be voted on until it was sure it would pass. Negotiations went on all day amounted to a lot of nothing in the end. Or did they? Something is up, I am sure. Let’s think this through.
Yes, it Can Get Worse
The clock is ticking down on 2012 and the “Fiscal Cliff”. The event is something like the weather – everyone talks about it, but no one does anything about it. Out my front door in St Paul it is 18F on a moonless night, the stars drifting by as they would on any other night. Nothing is happening here, just as it is in Washington. But nothing means many different things at different times.
Could the nothing of Washington be any worse? We’ve only recently learned that the lack of a Farm Bill will likely double the price of milk, among other strange effects that will roll across the stillness of this Minnesota night like an approaching Alberta Clipper. If we learn one thing in the middle of a big continent it’s that it could always be worse. And yes, there is something horrible lurking in the silence of inaction – the death of the most effective anti-corruption watchdog Congress has ever had to deal with.
Barataria - The work of Erik Hare 