Wednesday, July 30, 2008

The Big Idea



One thing that has left our country's political leadership is the, 'Big Idea'. Our leaders at one point had big ideas to try and improve and take our country to higher levels of innovation and change. In the past 20+ years the 'Big Idea' has gone the way of tax cuts and cost of living adjustments for Social Security.

- FDR led us out of the depression and created Social Security.
- Eisenhower led the development and advancement of our highway system.
- JFK challenged us to go to the moon. (Seen in video above)
- LBJ pushed for the Voting Rights Act and passage of Medicare.

We now fight to suppress science in the way of stem cell research and have let issues like gay marriage and abortion distract us from issues that will truly endanger our status as Americans as the leader in the world economically and creatively. We spend money without accountability and have a debt that is out of control. We focus on today's problem and rarely look forward to tomorrow.

Now we have two Presidential candidates who are battling over,,,, well I'm not really sure what they are fighting the election over. Both spend a lot of time apologizing for and throwing their respective surrogates under the proverbial bus. They both spend time blaming the other for oil and gas prices. But I don't hear any big ideas from either.

Obama the candidate is an idea, but what his ideas are I don't really know. Is a person enough to turn around a country that has major issues? Hopefully, but I doubt it.

17people didn't comment on Al Gore's speech to become energy independent in 10 years a few weeks back, but this blog's respect for Gore is well documented.

Is the Gore challenge bold and audacious?

Hell yeah it is. But this is America, land of the free and home of the brave. Shouldn't we be the ones to lead the world on this? Since when are we the country who is afraid?

The rhetoric has to stop and the time is now to act. We now have Al Gore to push for change. My fear is that we really need him to have a more prominent role, like the one he just may have won 8 years ago.

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