By dint of some act of divination, I have determined the Obama way of living and operating, the governing spirit dominating his acts of leadership for this nation. It names the change in direction, change we can believe in, as promised. In opposition to previous regimes. It does certainly delay what those who voted for him thought they could expect from him, more liberal policies to be enacted forth-with. Delayed because his mode of solving problems requires the co-operative involvement of more and larger groups of people, what is called coalition building.
He apparently has become extremely impatient with the in-fighting and petty squabbles between the two parties that he experienced during the election campaign and over the years of the previous regime. He finds it unproductive, destructive of the kind of peaceful harmony that would raise the general well-being of a democratic society.
I believe he developed his way of politics in his early neighborhood organizing experiences we have heard so much about. Perhaps you can you guess its name. I call it government by consensus. General agreement, accord, unanimity. And I do not mean the sort of totalitarian government to be found in the regime of Adolph Hitler in Germany. I firmly believe we are seeing that he clearly does not want, nor can he take unilateral action, nor any action in which he must be the prime mover. He is aiming at something even beyond bipartisanism.
I believe that a nation sophisticated in the problem-solving continuum of discussion could approach a utopian consensus. A very bright leader would have to institute it by describing more of the phases and putting, at least Congress, if not the total voting population, progressively through each isolated phase of the one great problem that is bedeviling the nation. Health care may be one such problem which must be kept out of the out-stretched hands of our representatives taking any kind of “donation” for their special-interest vote.
In health care, any solution requires everyone to agree on the best plan. I am displeased with the bent of the President and feel my support for him and my motive for voting for him betrayed some-what by his absence of firm, “we won the election so just do it regard-less of their opposition” leadership in getting the single-payer, medicare-for-all health care plan which would meet the general-welfare ideal embedded in the Preamble to the Constitution. Our national health is at stake.
Of course, I also believe that one step beyond being healthy, our citizenry needs to develop more intelligence for living in the world as it is changing. The counterpart of a healthy nation is an educated nation. We have had the precedent of the G. I. Bill for seeking education for all beyond public education to the high school level. A college education for all who want and can attain it is the other part of the General Welfare promise of our social counteract. This nation will have achieved the heights of social achievement in governance by guaranteeing health and education to the highest level for all its citizens. There must be consensus on that.
