Joplin, Mo., May 29, 2025
Deepak Chopra (SFGate): President Barack Obama is already pulling a bit of a hat trick, managing to sustain higher popularity than either George Bush or Ronald Reagan when they were stuck in economic doldrums …. with the Republican House effectively blocking any potential stimulus, and the entire Republican Party bent on being the party of “No” …. many commentators have jumped on a new bandwagon … now we are told that the Republican party is energized, thinks it can beat Obama and only needs a stand-up candidate….
I doubt it.
The pundits have left leadership out of the equation …
… There are three needs that serve as the foundation of a healthy society, as they do for a healthy individual.
1. Security: The country needs to be free of anxiety, with a sense that normal life isn’t overshadowed by threats … The President has consistently refused to give in to anxiety, maintaining that …. we will emerge from this recession stronger than ever
… the Republicans’ tactic, continued from the Bush era, is to increase our nervousness. The sky is always falling down on the right wing …. Not a single Republican, with the possible exception of Mitt Romney, offers a reassuring tone….
2. Achievement: … Obama has been rooting for the American spirit, promising a better future, and offering economic stimulus and jobs programs. He constantly points to a new future of innovation, restored infrastructure, stronger research and development and renewable energy. He doesn’t attack globalism but faces the fact that global competition means that change must come to America.
….Republican response is reactionary. They trumpet jingoistic slogans while hunkering down for a grim tomorrow. They block any kind of stimulus, viable jobs programs, renewable energy and so on…..
3. Unity and community: …. the President has talked about bipartisanship and the end of crippling divisiveness in politics …. he stands as a potent symbol for overcoming ancient social prejudice…..
… what Republican candidate is even trying to make America feel united? … even the most optimistic Republican strategists realize that all their candidates, with the possible exception of Romney, are dividers. The irony is that Romney divides Republicans, because he won’t tilt toward Tea Party extremism.
…. the President realizes that the level of the problem (fear, insecurity, divisiveness, uncertainty, frustration, anger) isn’t the level of the solution. The level of the solution is to fulfill the three needs just outlined. Trapped in their ideology and hostility to progress, the Republicans aren’t even on the map in these areas. Next November the pivot point won’t be the economy, not alone at least. The pivot will be whether the electorate wants its needs fulfilled or its anger expressed. I know it’s a tossup, but I can’t blame the president for not doing what leaders need to do. He is.
Full article here
