Barack Obama won a sizable election victory one year ago, in large measure due to voters anxious to see the new president work to minimize division and distrust of government.
Well, let's look at where we are a year later.
Democrats in Congress are pushing through a national health care plan that has split Americans down the middle, and it arrives on the heels of spending policies that, in themselves, make many Americans very nervous. If the health care plan is finally adopted and signed into law by Obama, only then will we begin to determine whether it was wise or misguided. But it has heightened the level of mistrust. Unless someone acts decisively to reset the public discourse, this poisoned atmosphere will extend to the next election cycle.
There is plenty of blame to sling. Surely, the president's critics pinned the most unflattering of motives on the opposition in an effort to fuel the anger. They accused the president and his supporters of upending the Constitution, of turning our republic into a European-style socialist state. They resorted to name-calling, drowning out the thoughtful analysis that should have instead resonated in the voters' minds. Soon enough, a gargantuan issue like health care became undebatable.
But in order to get health care moving through a widening divide, the other side too quickly abandoned engagement on the issues as their primary foil. Obama, himself, repeated platitudes that were long on promises but short on demonstrable facts. Caught off guard by the August protests, Obama and his Democratic party reacted in the same vein as their critics -- with name-calling and vilification -- widening the divide even further.
Obama brings a palpable irony to this equation. His predecesor, George W. Bush, was seen as a divider, not a uniter, because he staked out positions contrary to half the country and doggedly stuck to them while simultaneously failing to articulate his vision. This president sees himself as the anti-Bush, yet it's ironic that the national mood remains split, only this time along different fault lines.
Presidents need to be magnanimous. Little more than a year ago, Obama asked us to make him president largely on his ability to unite a divided country. OK, Mr. President, perhaps it's time for another charm offensive -- not just overseas, but at home.
The president's previous attempts at seeking common ground have fallen on deaf ears. Some say Republicans won't play ball; others say Obama and the Democrats only want cooperation when they get to call all the shots. The truth may lie somewhere in the middle. Let the president be the one to start the ball rolling again toward a saner direction.
The Free Press (Mankato, Minn.)
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