Words. For Your Consideration...
"Americans like to think of themselves as bold. It was boldness that gave birth to the country, built it, protected it from external threat and rescued it in times of domestic turbulence. Americans are proud of dreaming big and taking big chances, and as far as individual feats go, it may be true.
But the larger truth is that, foreign military adventurism aside, the American government hasn't really acted boldly since the days of Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal and Lyndon Johnson's Great Society. Americans talk a lot about change during elections, but they recoil from action once the election is over. An economic stimulus? Make sure it is a small one. Healthcare reform? Half measures. Climate change legislation? No action at all. We blame politics, deficits and bad leadership, when perhaps we should be blaming our national genes.
...why hasn't the Great Recession, another deep convulsion, created an equal cry for government activism? The need for the Democratic cavalry to clean up the Republican mess could hardly seem clearer. And that was precisely why Barack Obama was elected: to act boldly. But no sooner did he enter office than the old chants of fearfulness reverberated across the country: An economic rescue would only ratchet up the deficit; regulation of Wall Street would destroy Wall Street; healthcare reform would result in socialism.
What happened to our resolve? Nothing really. Americans just reverted to form.
...The fear of not doing something has occasionally outweighed the national inclination not to act. But only rarely, and, it has become obvious, not now.
...Instead of bold adventurers confronting our demons, we are a nation of the frightened, hoping to turn back the clock and railing against the only tool that can really help us: action."
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