We Can All Do Better

by Bill Bradley

  No one knows how the Americans Elect process—or, for that matter, the possible development of a third congressional party—will turn out. When James Madison headed north from Virginia and John Adams headed south from Massachusetts, each on his way to Philadelphia for the Constitutional Convention in 1787, neither of them knew how that would turn out, either. They knew that they were dedicated to building a new country, one unlike any that had ever existed before. They were good people, honorable men, patriots who understood the stakes. They acted without cynicism, and with a deep-rooted belief in America’s future. Why should we not assume that good and honorable people will show up at the Internet nominating convention? Why should we not expect that people who are currently uninvolved in politics will become involved in a congressional third party when they see what is possible? Why should we not expect that many of those who give to others with no thought of return will take up their responsibility as citizens and make their voices heard? The country needs all of us in order to face its future with confidence. Once again in American history, democratic innovation might herald a better day.

  10

  The Path to Renewal

  A friend of mine who just came back from China told me that the one theme in all of her meetings there was the observation that the United States is in decline. These iterations were not a matter of Chinese bravado but only a description of what the Chinese perceived to be the facts. Our situation seems evident not only to the Chinese and other foreigners but also to millions of Americans—and too many of our citizens are losing hope. Hopelessness is a serious danger for a culture whose historical attitude has been optimism. It is the equivalent today of what fear was in the Great Depression. But, in the spirit of FDR when he confronted a fearful nation, I would say to those who feel the ground falling away under their feet that the only thing that can make our situation hopeless is hopelessness itself. It’s time, in FDR’s words, “to convert retreat into advance.”

  It is within our power to take control of our American future. The way forward is clear. To raise living standards, we must tax labor less and things more, adopt a massive infrastructure program, invest heavily in research, educate our citizens for a lifetime in a world of constant change, and reduce the structural budget deficit. To reset our foreign policy, we must recognize that while terrorism remains, the real threats rest in economic performance and strategic surprise and the challenge is to avoid lengthy military involvement in faraway lands while capitalizing on our real advantage: our example. Reforming our politics requires a constitutional amendment to limit the amount of money that can be spent in a political campaign, voluntary public financing of whatever amount is set by the Congress, and a plan to change the way congressional district lines are drawn. If we do all of this, our future will be bright.

  None of these things can be accomplished without fortitude. Politicians should put country ahead of party and tell us the truth. We need brave leaders who are unafraid to take on the power of special interests, challenge the conventional Washington wisdom, and fight with all their energy for the emergence of a more creative and just society. The various Occupy protests this past winter against income inequality and the greed and mismanagement of the financial sector struck a chord with most Americans. Without our leaders explaining how, exactly, the country has arrived at this low point in its fortunes, the people’s anger and desperation will continue undifferentiated. Without leaders who level with them about what needs to be done and how long it will take, there is no way to build support for the tough decisions necessary to solve our problems. People are tired of seeing the monied interests dominate the House of Representatives—the peoples’ house. They’re tired of narrow interests raiding the U.S. Treasury in collusion with congressmen who, when they leave office, are employed as lobbyists by the very industries whose interests they promoted in the Congress. (The same applies in spades to congressional staff.) They’re tired of seeing their presidents appear at fund-raisers and hedge their bets and compromise their beliefs to raise campaign money. The people are tired of being taken for granted. They yearn for leaders who will level with them, not pander to them.

  Leaders should begin by telling people where we are in comparison to other countries—and why, without action, we risk becoming a second-rate power. Too often, our politicians dismiss this kind of truth-telling as anti-American, whereas what’s truly anti-American is a refusal to confront the cold, hard reality of our times. When Lincoln, in his second State of the Union address, spoke to a nation at war, he did not mince words:

  The dogmas of the quiet past are inadequate to the stormy present. The occasion is piled high with difficulty, and we must rise with the occasion. As our case is new, so we must think anew and act anew. We must disenthrall ourselves, and then we shall save our country.

  Fellow-citizens, we cannot escape history. We of this Congress and this Administration will be remembered in spite of ourselves. No personal significance or insignificance can spare one or another of us. The fiery trial through which we pass will light us down in honor or dishonor to the latest generation.

  Today we need that same candor and sense of urgency. We need that same belief in our unique capacity to weather the storm and control our own destiny once again. We need to relinquish “the dogmas of the quiet past”—the imposition of reckless tax cuts, the promotion of income inequality, the surrender to international competitors, the denial of climate change and other environmental hazards, the objections to government’s proper role in our lives. And we need to acknowledge the human costs of rapid technological change whose side effects—the loss of well-paying jobs, the need for re-education and portable health insurance—have not been effectively faced. The key is shared sacrifice now, so that all of us can have shared prosperity tomorrow—something we’ve missed out on for thirty years.

  Our leaders should paint the picture of what we can become and how, once we tighten our belts for a while, our economy will improve. They should explain how we can revive the manufacturing sector, encourage innovation across the board, and invest for the long term. They should make the case for taxing work less and things more. They should describe the benefit to businesses of one national healthcare system. They should invest in education at all levels. They should show us how infrastructure investment can produce economic growth and jobs. They should talk about what it means to be American and what our historical values are. They should charge us to think anew, remind us of the goodness that lies within each of us, and inspire us with the courage they demonstrate by telling us the truth.

  But energy flows not only from leaders to citizens but the other way as well. Above all, we need citizens who recognize their role in the American democracy. Our country has progressed because citizens wanted to change a national direction and decided to do something about it. From the abolitionists to the suffragettes to the civil-rights activists to the environmentalists, people have started movements that have shaped our larger politics. Their organized passions have changed our future.

  In 2008, on that election night in Chicago, we made the mistake of believing that a leader can renew the country all by himself. But even someone who touched our hearts as deeply as Barack Obama cannot do it alone. A president can inspire and help to mobilize us, but then you need the lieutenants and sergeants who make the dream operational. Clarity from leaders is necessary but not sufficient. Only when it is joined with commitment from citizens can great things happen. Democracy is not a vicarious experience.

  In our current circumstances, with the power of the Washington club never greater, only the people can free our government from its clutches and put our country on the path to renewal. In the internet age, apathy should not be an option. Citizens have to vote; for many, the vote is their most effective voice. But in order to vote wisely, citizens must take the time to become informed; otherwise the future will be hijacked by a combination of greed, self-indulgence, and excuse-making. The government will no longer belong to the people,
and the people will suffer.

  The Tea Party and Occupy Wall Street offer contrasting examples of citizen involvement. The Tea Party promulgated a very specific objective—Roll back government—and immediately converted its energy into electoral politics. The result was that in 2010 forty-three Tea Party Republicans won election to the Congress, and through their leverage in the Republican caucus they almost forced the country into bankruptcy during the debate on the debt limit in the summer of 2011. That’s how quickly things can change. That’s how easily the status quo can crumble. Occupy, on the other hand, while full of passion and solidarity, and even armed with a catchy slogan—“We’re the 99 percent”—failed to have much of an impact on policy, because it had no specific objective. Some people argued that it was enough simply to point out inequality; a detailed program would have divided the movement. I say, better than an emotional movement that hesitates to develop a specific program would be a specific program—such as getting money out of politics—that attracts emotion to it. Whether we like it or not, passion only goes part way. Remember Martin Luther King Jr. and LBJ. It took both of them, working together as they did, to transform America in the 1960s.

  So how do these thoughts reflect on 2012? To begin, citizens should insist on a presidential campaign about the future, not a blamefest about the past. The candidates should tell us specifically what they would do to raise our standard of living, reset our foreign policy, and reform our politics. Their narratives can have a historical dimension about how we got to where we are, but the bulk of their story must be about the future. If what you hear is only blame or bromides, change the channel. Haven’t we had enough of those two things over the last twelve years?

  Now is the time for citizens to insist on answers to real questions and for the media to serve the public more diligently than they serve their advertisers. Now is the time for follow-up questions and enough airtime for candidates to lay out their programs. What specifically will they do about jobs, the deficit, political corruption? How do they see America’s role in the world? Now is the time for politicians to show us that they are more interested in doing something than in being somebody. There is a great difference between a genuine leader and a celebrity. The nation has had enough of politicians fascinated with celebrity. What we need are courageous leaders who serve the public and not themselves, who devise a plan to save the country and fight for it because they know that the well-being of millions of Americans is at stake.

  My grandfather was an immigrant from Germany. On hot summer evenings, he would sit on his front porch in our small town with a bottle of Budweiser in hand, a Zane Grey novel on the table next to him, and the radio tuned to his first love, the St. Louis Cardinals, and tell his only grandson, me, what America meant to him. He said that America was great because it was free and because people seemed to care about each other. At our very best, throughout our history, that has been true. It’s time to reclaim the legacy that reflects our best selves. It’s time to elevate “What can we do for each other?” to the pedestal that for too long has been occupied by “What can I do for myself?”

  The time for cooperation has arrived. No one person can fix the economy alone, much less the global financial system. No one alone can secure our national safety at home and abroad. No one person can protect our natural heritage or reduce global warming. No one person or group of self-made men can “raise all boats.” Each of us has our individual part, but it will take all of us acting together to make America better.

  In our current crisis, we must look for solutions from all directions. The richest man may not be the wisest. Wisdom is where you find it. On the individual and local level, solutions can come from a union hall or a community meeting or a parish church. They can come from a cab driver, a garbage collector, a shoeshine man in Pittsburgh, a welcome lady in Phoenix, a Walgreens executive in South Carolina, a public-health nurse in the Aleutian Islands, a professor at the University of Oklahoma. But solutions must also come from all of us working together at the national level to promote the general welfare.

  Wisdom acts for the long term. It recognizes our human frailties, even as it celebrates our achievement. It knows that good and evil live in the same heart. It reminds us that we are our brother’s keepers. It tells us that our great country needs to be revived and that its citizenry deep down wants to reclaim American democracy from the stranglehold of money and ideology. And it has faith in those citizens to succeed in that difficult task. Wisdom tells us that love is our truest impulse, that love translated into policy is justice, that we’re all on this planet together, connected by our common humanity and hope for the future. Today what we need, above all, is that wisdom.

  Acknowledgments

  In writing this book, I owe much to others.

  I want to thank my editors: Sara Lippincott, whose attention to both large themes and small details raised the quality of the book by several levels, and whose good humor made working together a pleasure; Betty Sue Flowers, whose counsel and wise observations challenged me at every step of the writing process, and whose steadfast support I treasure.

  I thank my former wife, Ernestine Bradley, for her careful reading, knowledgeable insights, and helpful candor; and I thank our wonderful daughter, Theresa Anne Bradley, whose comprehensive comments and editorial suggestions are reflected throughout the book.

  I thank my friends who read all or part of the book and made helpful suggestions: Herbert Allen III, Marcia Aronoff, Zoe Baird, David Booth, Terry Bracy, John Gearen, Scott Greenstein, Matt Henshon, Mellody Hobson, Devorah Klahr, Sandy Levinson, Jim Manzi, Jessica Mathews, Daniel Okimoto, Don Roth, Barry Schuler, Shirley Tilghman, John Thornton, and Rick Wright.

  I thank my assistant, Claire Falkner, who turned my scribble into clean text again and again and again, and whose considerable research skills improved the project. I also thank my longtime personal assistant, Beth Montgomery.

  I thank my fact-checkers, Boris Fishman and Rob Liguori, whose thoroughness gave me great comfort.

  I thank my agent, Art Klebanoff, who encouraged me and stood by me every step of the way.

  Finally, I thank Allen & Co. for giving me the time to write the book.

  Notes

  Chapter 2

  1. Susan Page, “Surveys Show an America That’s Bruised, But Still Optimistic,” USAToday online, Feb. 16, 2010, accessed at http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2010-02-16-optimistic-decade-americans_N.htm.

  Chapter 3

  1. Jill Schlesinger, “November Unemployment: Why the Big Drop?” Marketplace Economy, Dec, 2, 2011, accessed at http://www.marketplace.org/topics/economy/november-unemployment-why-big-drop.

  2. “Dollars & Sense,” The Mark, November 2011, volume 23, no. 11, 2–3.

  3. “Public Priorities: Deficit Rising, Terrorism Slipping,” Pew Research Center online, January 23, 2012, accessed at http://www.people-press.org/2012/01/23/public-priorities-deficit-rising-terrorism-slipping.

  4. Census Bureau, March 17, 2011, accessed at http://www.census.gov/construction/nrc/historical_data.

  5. Shaila Dewan and Louise Story, “U.S. May Back Refinance Plan for Mortgages,” New York Times, August 24, 2011.

  6. Bill Bradley, Tom Ridge, and David Walker, Road to Recovery: Transforming America’s Transportation (Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2011), accessed at http://carnegieendowment.org/2011/07/11/road-to-recovery-transforming-america-s-transportation/3e1h.

  7. I co-chaired the committee, along with former Pennsylvania Governor and Secretary of Homeland Security Tom Ridge and former U.S. Comptroller General David Walker.

  8. Bradley, Ridge, and Walker, Road to Recovery.

  9. Michael Korda, Ike: An American Hero (New York: HarperCollins, 2007), p. 693; and David A. Nichols, Eisenhower 1956 (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2011), 251, 264, 272–274.

  10. Thilo Hanemann and Daniel H. Rosen, An American Open Door? Maximizing the Benefits of Chinese Foreign Direct Investment, Asia Society, May 2011, 9
.

  11. “The Budget and Economic Outlook: Fiscal Years 2011 to 2021,” Congressional Budget Office, accessed at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/120xx/doc12039/01-26_FY2011Outlook.pdf, p. 166, Appendix B.

  12. Ibid.: Total budget for 2015 is in Table 1-2, under Outlays. Total Outlays is 3.26T, with another 728BN off-budget. Total is 3.988T; Debt service is under “net interest” in Table 1-2: 336BN; Entitlements are in Table 1-4. Social Security is 897BN, Medicare is 662BN, and Medicaid 364BN; Defense is in Table 1-5: 756BN; The math: Outlays of 3.015T. That’s 92.5% of 3.26T, and 75.6% of 3.988T.

  13. “2010 Annual Report of the Boards of Trustees of the Federal Hospital Insurance and Federal Supplementary Medical Insurance Trust Funds,” accessed at http://www.cms.gov/ReportsTrustFunds/downloads/tr2010.pdf.