There's an old saying, "when you're up to your ass in alligators, it's difficult to remember that your initial plan was to drain the swamp." Well we're definitely up to our ass, and more, in Iraq.
But it's also important to step back and look at the really big issues we face. Iraq will be resolved one way or the other in the next couple of years. And we will survive it. But we face some issues that decide the future of the U.S. and the world.
Here is my take on the really big issues we face - in order.
1. Education. At present most inner-city public schools have drop-out rates of over 50%. And for those that don't drop out they are not prepared to suceed in college. But the problem does not end there. In highly educated rich Boulder Colorado for example, only 50% of the 10th graders are proficent in math.
We no longer have an economy with plenty of jobs for those with just a high school education and additional jobs for those that did not complete high school. Not just the good jobs, but most jobs period are there for those with a college degree.
We cannot address the problems we face today and will face tomorrow without fixing our school system. And we cannot compete with India and China if we don't improve our education system.
And we, as liberals, must face the fact that we will have to fight the teacher unions to fix the system. The teacher unions are not the only problem. But they are a large barrier to fixing this and they in many places have a stranglehold on those from the left that need to fix the system.
2. Energy. At present we are both destroying our planet with carbon emmissions and funding the terror networks with our oil purchases. And we are about to hit our peak oil usage (we may have already done so).
Failing to address this now means that we will seriously and permanently hurt our planet. It means we will enter a long world-wide economic decline. And it means a continuation of Islamic terrorism being a serious threat to everyone, at a minimum pulling resources from elsewhere and impinging on our civil liberties and peace of mind.
And we, as liberals, must face the fact that our only option today is nuclear energy. Yes we need to make as much use of wind, solar, wave, and biomass as we can. And we need to press on with research in these areas (there's that education issue again).
But if you run the numbers, there is nothing that can produce energy on the scale needed today other than coal, oil, and nuclear. And with sufficient nuclear we not only eliminate coal for electricity generation, but can also provide power for electric and/or hydrogen cars eliminating the use of oil.
3. Healthcare. The easy part here is switching our country to a more sane system. That will happen once we elect a new president. It won't merely be possible, the voters will demand it. And we will probably get something reasonably sensible.
But the root problem remains, every year we will have more and more ways to prolong life. And those new treatments will be expensive. A more equitable system will actually worsen this problem as it makes treatments available to everyone.
We need to mount multiple large efforts to finding treatments that are inexpensive. We need to turn from expending every effort to mitigate and cure every disease to finding the least expensive way to provide medical care.
And we need to make the hard decisions as to how much care we will provide each individual and each disease. This is incredibly difficult because this means we decide who lives and who dies. But that choice will be made regardless - its up to us to do so in the most sensible way possible.
4. Our political system is close to breaking. Now Democracy will never be perfect. As Winston Churchill said, "Democracy is the worst possible political system, except for all the others."
As long as out system works, inefficiently, biased, slowly - but works, we can resolve most anything. But if it breaks, if it falls apart, then we are in a lot of trouble.
And there is nothing to say that Democracies must succeed. That it is a natural end result. The oldest modern Democracy is us. And we're a very very young couple of hundred years old.
The Republican party has done tremendous damage to our political system and to the very concept of Democracy. We need to address this, to fix it where we can, to change it where we can.
In my opinion, a large part of the present problem stems from the combination of gerrymandered districts and the expense of campaigning. To fix this we need to maximize the number of competitive districts and to provide free TV and radio time. (This can be at no cost - we make the free air time a condition of stations keeping their licenses.)
5. Economic Inequality. The differences in rewards depending on the job someone holds is increasing exponentially. And it shows no signs of slowing. And it is in many ways is dependent on luck. A programmer at Google (with stock) makes much more than a programmer at Yahoo even if they do the same work with the same skill.
A fundamental part of the American culture is that if yiu work hard you will be rewarded for your work. That reward is what has made this country so successful - because those that are willing to work hard do so. And they then get that reward.
If we become an economy where hard work is not rewarded. Where learning more merely increases yoru debt with school loans. Where working longer hours does not put you ahead but just wears you out faster. Where risking everything to start a company is a sucker bet because the game is rigged. Then we are no longer the America we were.
We need to keep the rewards there for all rather than funneling it to a few. Because only if we do that can we continue to increase our productivity and that increase is the only way to bring more to everyone.
So that's it.
I won't say the rest is details but the above 5 items are the ones that will have chapters devoted to them in the history books 100 years from now. If we can address these issues, we will be successful.
And if we cannot address these issues, we are in a lot of trouble.
