THANKSGIVING 2014

November 26, 2014

It looks today as if the only people with a reason to feel good this Thanksgiving are the approximately five million undocumented immigrants who will not be deported by the Obama administration. I can't remember a year that we have had more reasons to be dissatisfied with the way America is governed or, —more precisely—not governed. And where is our rebellion? It seems that we have already tacitly accepted that our grandchildren may represent the first generation to be worse off than their parents and grandparents. Where is our fighting spirit that says "Don't tread on me"? I find it more than a little depressing that the people show no sign of holding their elected representatives to account. Only one in every three of them turned out for the midterm election earlier this month. Former Senator Olympia Snow is right when she said "We are a great country and we should be governed as a great country." But good governance starts with the people being willing and able to govern themselves. How far have we strayed away from being the people who were so apt in governing and regulating themselves that Alexis de Tocqueville termed the American governance system "exceptional"?

What, I guess, we can be thankful for is that we have a strong and resilient economy with great human and natural resources, a favorable geography and an energetic and imaginative private sector so that our public sector failures have not put us—as of yet—at a global disadvantage. But let's heed Will Rodgers' warning that: "Even if you are on the right track, you still get run over if you just sit there."

I crave for a small but effective government that is not handcuffed by money interests nor held back by extreme polarization and purely partisan considerations. I crave for a government that sees its role more as an enabler than the perpetrator and the ultimate authority. And I crave for courageous leadership in the White House and Congress, guided by what needs to be done rather than by what assures re-election. 

I give thanks regardless this Thursday. Because life and America have been good to me and I'm grateful for the blessings bestowed upon my children and grandchildren. It would feel better though if the blessings of America were more evenly bestowed upon all of its deserving people so that, as a nation, regardless of creed, color, social status or political conviction we could treat Thanksgiving not just as another day off, but as a moment to pause and reflect on how exceptionally privileged it is to live in America.

AN IMMIGRANT'S LAMENT

November 22, 2014

At the risk of sounding self-serving (because I am a first generation immigrant) I have to add my voice to the immigration debate that surfaces every now and then and jumped to the top of the headlines this week with the executive action taken by President Obama. Clearly, regardless of the constitutionality and political savvy of the President’s action, Congress is remiss by not addressing the immigration challenges in a comprehensive and statutory way. Not having a growth-oriented, comprehensive, immigration policy hurts the American economy, its social cohesion, and its image and reputation abroad. So, why is Congress not acting? Only because this was an election year? I hope not, because in this democracy every other year is a (national) election year.

The way I see it, immigration is good for America—even indispensable for its long term prosperity—and not overly complicated to channel properly:

·        Immigration has served this nation well and there is nothing to suggest that, going forward, that will be no longer the case;

·        Population growth is essential to economic prosperity and current birth rates are not sufficient to sustain the population of the USA in the long term;

·        American citizens are no longer prepared to do many menial jobs that still need to be done;

·        In a global economy we need to attract the best talent available to stay competitive as a nation;

·        Modern information technology makes it possible to control immigration and keep undesirables out.

A problem with the current immigration policy in the USA is that we have made illegal immigration too easy and legal immigration too hard!

The United States is often and rightly referred to as a “Nation of Immigrants”. There is not another country in the world where immigration has as much contributed to population growth and economic success as it has in the USA. According to the U.S. Census Bureau about sixty million Americans—or one in every five people—are immigrants or the children of immigrants. These are the people that have propelled the USA to its superpower status. What is there to suggest that continuing immigration would suddenly become a negative rather than the positive it has been ever since the arrival on our shores of the Halve Maen and the Mayflower?

A fertility rate of 2.1 (2.1 births/woman) is required to sustain a population. The fertility rate in the USA is well below that number, which means that without immigration the country would regress in population, and the fertility rate would be substantially lower if it was not for a relatively high fertility rate of recent immigrants. In his book, “The Next Hundred Million”, subtitled “America in 2050”, Joel Kotkin gives us a glimpse of the competitive advantage America is expected to have over other developed countries—including China and Japan—as a result of a much higher population growth. The next 100 Million Americans Joel Kotkin is writing about will not be there in 2050 without stepped up organized legal immigration.

Immigration by children and working age people will have to offset a graying indigenous population and provide a much needed improvement of the current growing imbalance between the working population and the army of retirees. Migrant labor has become (whether we like it or not) the backbone of the farm economy, which is in turn one of the most globally competitive sectors of business in the USA.

Unfortunately, America has no monopoly on the best and the brightest students in the world, but we are still blessed with a highly competitive elite university education system that is the envy of the world and attracts exceptional talent from other countries. We educate and stimulate these foreign students—in many instances at public expense—and then we practically force them to go back to where they came from because of our antiquated immigration laws and regulations. How smart is that? We train the best and the brightest in the world to compete with us!

It is a sign of hopeless dysfunction in Washington if, with all the good reasons to deal with the immigration issue in a constructive, forward looking way, we cannot get a comprehensive immigration bill through Congress. David Brooks wrote in a January 2013 column in the New York Times, titled “The Easy Problem” that, “If we can’t pass an (immigration) law this year (2013), given the overwhelming strength of evidence, then we really are a pathetic basket case of a nation.” As a result of the President’s unilateral action and the outcome of the mid-term elections, the realistic outlook for an immigration bill coming out of Congress looks now further away than ever. Unless the Republicans come to the realization that they will lose another Presidential Election and probably with it their domination of Congress if they don’t use their newly won majority in Congress to enact a constructive and comprehensive immigration reform.

A BETTER WAY

November 5, 2014: the day after.

Thank goodness, these elections are behind us and we will get a little reprieve from the relentless onslaught of political commercials on our TV screens. (By the way who produces all this garbage and how much do they get paid for their deplorable screen productions?)  Reprieve will not be for long though, because —since this election did not solve anything—it won’t be long before the candidates for the 2016 Presidential elections will come out of the woodwork and with them a new unending litany of propaganda. After all, money is no object, the money-men will only be too glad to oblige.

The results of the 2014 Mid Term elections are, this morning after, announced in all the media as a major shift in the political landscape and for partisan voters and office holders they are indeed very consequential. But will it do anything to move Washington DC off dead center and galvanize it into action for the benefit of the people? Jeffrey D. Sachs does not think so. And he puts his finger on the reason why: he commented this morning on the social media “Not a single serious issue was discussed in the US election campaign. US politics have been reduced to image, TV ads and money raising.”

Nationwide little more than half of the eligible voters turned out in this election (only 40% in my home State of Ohio) and you have to believe that the low voter turnout enhanced the Republican shift. The non-voters may have done more to change the political landscape than the voters did. And I can’t blame them. Those who kept the ballot in their pocket voted in their own way: they made a statement that in our current political constellation the voting box does not provide clarity, does not offer solutions to the problems that nag us such as inequality and lack of upward mobility; the size of our national debt; the de-funding of our entitlement programs and pensions; our education deficit; the cost of our healthcare; a failing immigration policy; a crumbling infrastructure; and a leaky safety net.

There must be a better way. What is missing, more than anything else, in the way our democracy has evolved over time (and with active steering by the U.S. Supreme Court) is transparency and accountability. How different would our confidence in a meaningful election outcome be if there would be a constitutional mandate to give us these missing ingredients? What would such mandate look like?

1.       A constitutional amendment calling for the President and the Congress to establish a binding National Strategy that becomes the blueprint for the legislative agenda.

2.       A constitutional amendment that compels elected officials to campaign on the basis of their positions on the top priorities among the challenges facing the nation.

With respect to the first mandate: How much sense would it make if there was a constitutional requirement on the president and the leadership in Congress to establish a national strategy, much like companies develop a strategic plan for their business that then becomes the compass by which investment decisions and other resource allocations are made? Such national plan should have a long time horizon, transcend the term limits imposed on politicians, and be formally reviewed from year to year to adjust for changes in the external environment.

With respect to the second mandate, I envision that in every election, candidates should be presented with a national list of the major issues the electorate is facing and candidates should be required to write and publish a position paper on each of these issues with specifics on how to address the issue, including how to pay for the proposed solutions.Who should put such issue list together? I would say a committee of wise men/women who have held high public office, but are no longer engaged in the battle and other publicly recognized thinking heads.

And TV debates, which should be mandatory in sufficient number to give the public a chance to educate themselves on the issues and on the candidates’ positions, should be limited to discussion of the issues and the respective proposed solutions only.In other words, no one should be permitted to run for a national office without providing the electorate with an unequivocal position on the major issues that the government they want to be part of will be facing.

If we do these two things right then the electorate can 1) make an informed decision and, by voting for the candidate with the best solutions, 2) provide a clear mandate for his/her term in office. It would almost certainly drive up voter participation as voters could then expect to have a real influence over the creation of a national strategy and how the nation’s problems get solved. It would drive voters away from the sideline and onto the playing field of true democracy.

MID TERM MALAISE

Do you feel energized and empowered by tomorrow's mid term elections?

Can't blame you if you don't. The deck is stacked against you. Even if control of the Senate changes, nothing of substance will change. Much as we may dislike or mistrust them, we can't even blame our representatives in Congress for the gridlock and dysfunction. The flaws are in the political system, notably:

• The money influence in politics
• The two party system
• The election system
• The lack of a national strategy

These flaws put the nation at risk. Without solutions for the problems that beset us: inequality and lack of upward mobility; the national debt; the de-funding of our entitlement programs and pensions; our education deficit; the cost of our healthcare; a failing immigration policy; and a crumbling infrastructure, America is at risk of losing its relevance as a global leader for progress. But it is a pipe-dream to think that in the current constellation, without addressing the four flaws in the system, the executive and legislative branches of government can come together to provide the solutions the nation needs.

That is the message I convey in my book NEITHER HERE NOR THERE.

Do you share my uneasiness and want to do something to contribute - if nothing else - to a national dialogue?

A good place to start is sharing (the message of) NEITHER HERE NOR THERE with your network of opinion makers and thought leaders. You can most effectively do so by your use of social media and sharing the linkhttp://www.amazon.com/dp/0692209778 

AMERICA'S RELAY RACE

Foreign Affairs Magazine wrote in an editorial for its September/October 2014 edition:

“For such a strong, rich, free, and favorably situated country, the United States is remarkably testy and out of sorts these days — and falling far short of its enormous potential.”

That is exactly the conclusion I arrived at in my book "NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism. The way I word it in my book is: "America is like the smart kid that is so convinced of its superior talent that it is no longer interested in applying himself to get straight A’s. Like this kid, America is grossly under-performing to its capabilities. It is performing like an A+ student that turns in F grades." It should not be that way. As Bill Gates reminded the 2007 graduating class of Harvard: “From Those To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected.”

My critics are quick to point out that America is still the greatest nation in the world. They point out that everyone wants to come here and that no people are leaving to go elsewhere. They are mostly right, but beside the point. They should have higher expectations of a country that is blessed with the best of the most vital resources any nation could ever wish for: People, location, space, nature, water, minerals, and hydrocarbons. America has, unlike most of its rivals, enviable traditions in democracy, tolerance, freedom of thought and pursuit, entrepreneurial spirit, and self-reliance. 

With all of these assets, there is no question that America should be the top performer among nations. But it has allowed others to come a lot closer and it has proven incapable of addressing the big challenges of the 21st century.

There is a broad consensus that the generation now growing up in America may be the first since the Second World War to be worse off than their parents and grandparents. It happens at a time of relative peace and prosperity in the world. If that is not an indictment of America’s performance, I don’t know what is.

Surveying the field today, the question keeps coming up: are the best times behind us? Is America going the way of the Roman and the British Empires? We all see tell-tale signs of trouble around us: from persistently high unemployment, increasing income inequality, lost or unfinished wars, a skyrocketing national debt, a sub-par infrastructure, an ideologically divided voting public and—resulting from it—a dysfunctional political system. We see the unraveling of family structures and values, the proliferation of guns and drugs, the (relatively) poor academic performance of our youngsters, and the prevalence of obesity.

It does not have to be that way. It is in no way an inevitability that America will be the next great power to lose its dominance. The American spirit has a natural capacity to step back from the brink and find another, safer, way ahead. It is quintessentially American to believe that, when it comes down to brass tacks, America will do what it has to do to avoid hitting the slippery slope.

America is not facing a challenge it cannot meet. But it will have to be galvanized into action. It is engaged in a world championship relay race that, by all accounts, it should win convincingly. But look what’s happening: the first two legs are easily won, establishing what looked like an insurmountable lead; the third leg consolidates the lead, but does not add to it and the baton is nearly dropped in the hand-off; now in the fourth and final leg it is struggling to regain the pace and the competitors are nipping at its heels. It needs to pick up the pace and finish with a flurry. It will have to dig deep and find in itself the championship talent it has been bestowed with.

We can be grateful to be living in the greatest nation on earth, but as the French say: noblesse oblige (with the privilege comes responsibility). That is what Bill Gates reminded us in his 2007 Harvard commencement speech (at the brink if the great recession). We can’t rest on our laurels. As Will Rogers so famously said: “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

The resources are there. America has it all. But having it all does not mean anything unless these resources are all brought to bear. What is needed is leadership and engagement. Leadership on the part of our top public officials and engagement on the part of the American people. We need to rally behind a cause and the cause should be the enhancement of our leadership position in the world in terms of wellness, productivity, social justice, moral superiority and creativity. We need to have high expectations of ourselves and our nation if we want to win the relay race.

A NATIONAL STRATEGY

Today, September 17, 2014, No Labels - a national movement of Democrats, Republicans and Independents dedicated to a new politics of problem solving - is holding a one day meeting of politicians, business- and civic leaders and interested citizens about the need for a National Strategic Agenda, which is one thing I advocated for in my book NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism, published by Create Space in August. The book is available as e-book and paperback on http://amazon.com/dp/0692209778 

As we are heading towards another national election, the grumblings about the dysfunction in Washington D.C. intensify and – believe it or not - there are even some initiatives of bipartisan nature that try to do something about it: 

• ·         The Bipartisan Policy Center published, on June 24, 2014 the report by its Commission on Political Reform titled “Governing in a polarized America: A Bipartisan Blueprint to Strengthen our Democracy.”
• ·         No Labels offered earlier in the year a “Shared Vision for a Stronger America” with contributions from politicians from both sides of the aisle, led by former governor Jon Huntsman and Senator Joe Manchin.

We should all applaud and encourage initiatives like these. They represent real efforts to move the dial. Particularly the No Labels pamphlet, because it zooms in on what I think is a structural flaw in the American governance model: America is lacking a national strategy policy.

American governance has no tradition or statute for the creation of a binding strategic plan that is built on broad consensus and transcends the shifting balance of power between the Republican and Democratic parties. How much sense would it make if there was a constitutional requirement on the president and the leadership in Congress to establish a national strategy, much like companies develop a strategic plan for their business that then becomes the compass by which investment decisions and other resource allocations are made? Such national plan should have a long time horizon, transcend the term limits imposed on politicians, and be formally reviewed from year to year to adjust for changes in the external environment.

What’s required is a clear articulation of some overarching bi-partisan national objectives and a popular buy-in of these objectives. America has not had a clearly articulated national objective since John F. Kennedy decided that America was to be the first nation to put a man on the moon and bring him back safely to earth. We can borrow a chapter out of the book of the Netherlands, my country of origin, which—after the flood of 1953—made it a national objective to protect its low laying areas from a 500 year flood.

Public policy in the USA is too much influenced by the perpetual election cycle. Big strategies take a long time to be developed and implemented and don’t fit in with the election-driven decision making practices of our politicians. In this respect a major difference comes to light between the public and the private sector in America. In business nothing survives without a solid strategic plan and careful, methodical implementation. In public life, politicians get slaughtered if they don’t cater to the immediate needs and fancies of their constituents.

But, without a long term plan there is no expected outcome and it is, therefore, not surprising that we are beginning to hear voices calling for an overarching national strategy. The articulation of such strategy is the role and responsibility of the federal government. Note that recent administrations have declared “war” on a number of national challenges—like the war on poverty, the war on drugs and the war on terror—but they have not bothered to rally the nation behind any particular national objective. Can we think of any highly worthwhile broad national objectives? I would suggest that the following would make a good place to start:

1.       Wellness and productivity: Creating the conditions and environment whereby most, if not all, of our residents can lead healthy lives for at least 95 percent of a lengthening lifespan and productive lives for at least 75 percent of the same lifespan.

2.       Response to climate change: Determine the positives of climate change and take steps to capitalize on them like with a comprehensive Arctic strategy; and defense against the negatives of climate change by protecting people and property from its adverse consequences.

Having a clearly defined national strategy would not be a panacea for all that ails our governance model, but it would break through the logjam of partisan stalemate by forcing bipartisan support for and popular unity behind an ambitious and meaningful path forward for the nation that is now drifting without a clear sense of direction.

HIGH EXPECTATIONS

My book, NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, A First Generation Immigrant in Search of American Exceptionalism, was only out and on the market for a few days when Foreign Affairs Magazine wrote in an editorial for its September/October 2014 edition:

“For such a strong, rich, free, and favorably situated country, the United States is remarkably testy and out of sorts these days — and falling far short of its enormous potential.”

That is exactly the conclusion I arrived at and voiced in my book. The way I worded it is: America is like the smart kid that is so convinced of its superior talent that it is no longer interested in applying himself to get straight A’s. Like this kid, America is grossly underperforming to its capabilities. It is performing like an A+ student that turns in F grades. It should not be that way. As Bill Gates reminded the 2007 graduating class of Harvard: “From Those To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Expected.”

My critics are quick to point out that America is still the greatest nation in the world. They point out that everyone wants to come here and that no people are leaving to go elsewhere. They are mostly right, but beside the point. They should have higher expectations of a country that is blessed with the best of the most vital resources any nation could ever wish for: People, location, space, nature, water, minerals, and hydrocarbons. America has, unlike most of its rivals, enviable traditions in democracy, tolerance, freedom of thought and pursuit, entrepreneurial spirit, and self-reliance. With all of these assets, there is no question that America should be the top performer among nations. But it has allowed others to come a lot closer and it has proven incapable of addressing the big challenges of the 21^st century.

There is a broad consensus that the generation now growing up in America may be the first since the Second World War to be worse off than their parents and grandparents. It happens at a time of relative peace and prosperity in the world. If that is not an indictment of America’s performance, I don’t know what is.

Surveying the field today, the question keeps coming up: are the best times behind us? Is America going the way of the Roman and the British Empires? We all see tell-tale signs of trouble around us: from persistently high unemployment, increasing income inequality, lost or unfinished wars, a skyrocketing national debt, a sub-par infrastructure, an ideologically divided voting public and—resulting from it—a dysfunctional political system. We see the unraveling of family structures and values, the proliferation of guns and drugs, the (relatively) poor academic performance of our youngsters, and the prevalence of obesity.

It does not have to be that way. It is in no way an inevitability that America will be the next great power to lose its dominance. The American spirit has a natural capacity to step back from the brink and find another, safer, way ahead. It is quintessentially American to believe that, when it comes down to brass tacks, America will do what it has to do to avoid hitting the slippery slope.

America is not facing a challenge it cannot meet. But it will have to be galvanized into action. It is engaged in a world championship relay race that, by all accounts, it should win convincingly. But look what’s happening: the first two legs are easily won, establishing what looked like an insurmountable lead; the third leg consolidates the lead, but does not add to it and the baton is nearly dropped in the hand-off; now in the fourth and final leg it is struggling to regain the pace and the competitors are nipping at its heels. It needs to pick up the pace and finish with a flurry. It will have to dig deep and find in itself the championship talent it has been bestowed with.

We can be grateful to be living in the greatest nation on earth, but as the French say: noblesse oblige (with the privilege comes responsibility). That is what Bill Gates reminded us in his 2007 Harvard commencement speech (at the brink if the great recession). We can’t rest on our laurels. As Will Rogers so famously said: “Even if you are on the right track, you’ll get run over if you just sit there.”

The resources are there. America has it all. But having it all does not mean anything unless these resources are all brought to bear. What is needed is leadership and engagement. Leadership on the part of our top public officials and engagement on the part of the American people. We need to rally behind a cause and the cause should be the enhancement of our leadership position in the world in terms of wellness, productivity, social justice, moral superiority and creativity. We need to have high expectations of ourselves and our nation if we want to win the relay race.