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It's Got to Be Gore: Part II What Does it Make Sense to Hope For?
By Andrew Bard Schmookler (about the author) Page 2 of 2 page(s)
That seems to me to have been the case with FDR's presidency. And I believe it can be the case with the president elected in 2008. And for similar reasons.
When I say that FDR was a great president, I do so fully aware that his greatness is likely inseparable from the magnitude of the crises he was compelled to deal with. Our great presidents do not appear generally in normal, status quo kinds of times. (Lincoln is considered the greatest of presidents by the scholars of the field, and of course it is no coincidence that he was president at a time when the cataclysm of the Civil War beset the country.)
Part of the nature of the times of great crisis --as implied in that well-known fact that the Chinese character for "crisis" also means "opportunity"-- is that times of crisis also allow for redefinition, for creating something BETTER than what existed before the breakdown.
FDR's accomplishment was not just returning America to the path of prosperity (if, indeed, that was his accomplishment at all). It was utilizing the fluidity of a time of redefinition to accomplish many of the things that had been envisioned by progressives for a couple of generations, but had been blocked by the established powers from realization. He made America more than it had ever been.
And as it was then, so is it now. The rise of these evil fascist powers has not only threatened the existence of all that has been good in America, it has also opened the possibilities for leadership --for GREAT leadership-- to use the fluidity of this moment to redefine America for the better.
Our political system, for a generation increasingly mired in the cesspool of corruption and plutocracy, might get redefined. Our role in the world, regarding which America squandered the opportunity presented it by the end of the Cold War (see the "Afterward" to the second edition of THE PARABLE OF THE TRIBES), is ripe for redefining to meet the needs of humanity to create a new kind of global system, more ruled by law, more compatible with the biosphere, more humane in its values. Our public, degraded into passivity and ignorance and gullibility and coarseness, might be awakened to a renewed awareness of the meaning of citizenship.
We still might fail, and fall prey to these fascist powers. Or we might prevail over those forces, only to muddle through in a slovenly way. Or we might rise to the occasion --seize the opportunity contained in the crisis-- and drive back the evil powers with a new assertion of the powers of the good, the true, and the beautiful.
Those are what I think are the differences that it makes whether we get the best of possible leaders, or the worst, or someone in between.
In the coming installments, I will share what I envision are the reasons for hoping that greatness is not unreasonable to hope for in this next phase of our history, and that Al Gore might provide that greatness in the presidency.
Yes, Al Gore-- the same fellow who ran that lackluster campaign in 2000. No, I do not believe that had Gore been elected in 2000 he was going to be a great president. But I see reasons for believing that if he is elected in 2008, he truly might.
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