It Could Happen Here, Bruce Judson's Blog

In a few days, President Obama will deliver his State of the Union Address. Right now, Martin Luther King Day is upon us. Both events suggest that it is a particularly appropriate moment for every American to stop and think about our society.

As a nation, have we made progress in realizing the vision articulated by Dr. King? Are we closer or further from living the virtues he described? In 1980, Ronald Reagan famously asked “Are you better off now than you were four years ago?” What percentage of Americans would answer that question affirmatively right now?

America today is characterized by excess, anger, mistrust, polarization, increasing pessimism, self-interest, and a lack of accountability. Of even greater concern, we are becoming a nation that is accepting the unacceptable.

In October 2008 when unemployment hovered between 6% and 7%, Barack Obama declared that we were in the middle of “an economic emergency:”

We face an immediate economic emergency that requires urgent action. We can’t wait to help workers and families and communities who are struggling right now – who don’t know if their job or their retirement will be there tomorrow; who don’t know if next week’s paycheck will cover this month’s bills.

With an unemployment rate now in double digits and at least 50% higher than the level in October 2008, President Obama says “there is only so much government can do.” Meanwhile, millions of people are suffering in a crisis of our own making. A crisis that is the result of what Paul Krugman recently called “the dysfunctional nature of our own financial system.” Yes, the President has proposed additional spending to create jobs, but few authorities expect that it will have a significant impact on our actual level of employment. But, few believe this program will have a meaningful impact. Robert Reich writes, “the chances of unemployment being 10 percent next November are overwhelmingly high.”

At the same time, the Administration’s housing program is a complete failure, and the nation faces massive foreclosures. As joblessness continues, one in eight mortgages is in default or foreclosure, and half of all mortgages may be underwater within a year. There do not appear to be any serious proposals to keep people in their homes as owners, so an even greater housing crisis may occur later this year or in 2011. It’s the elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss.

In the era of the New Deal, American ingenuity led to a series of job creation programs, social security, the FDIC (which eliminated the scourge of bank-runs), ultimately the GI Bill (perhaps the greatest investment in human capital the nation has ever made). The Roosevelt Administration was also committed to keeping people in their homes as owners, and the precursor to the modern-day 30 year mortgage was one of the central innovations of the era.

How does our response to the Great Recession compare to the age of FDR? To date, the most innovative response to the financial crisis, and the ensuing national misery, has been….TARP?

I refuse to believe that our current situation is the best that America can accomplish. I refuse to believe that we have truly harnessed the legendary ingenuity and resourcefulness of the American nation. I also believe there is a way to move forward and dramatically revitalize our suffering nation.

The president must recognize that more of the same is not good enough. He must stop accepting the idea that our nation is limited in what it can accomplish. He must also realize that difficult moments require strong leadership, not moderation or a search for consensus. Great leaders articulate an unwavering vision that causes people to believe they can accomplish more than they thought possible, and creates a sense that each of us has a responsibility that transcends our own well-being.

What if President Obama were to step up to the podium at his State of the Union message and challenge the nation to achieve 3% unemployment within 2 years? What if he committed the future of his Presidency to realizing this goal? What if he said that America is only America when we have jobs for people that want to work and opportunities for the generation of young Americans that is now threatened with a paucity of prospects? He could create a new sense of possibilities, and awaken a hunger inside almost everyone to ensure we remain a great nation.

Today, it’s easy to oppose any job creation efforts. There is no clear goal, and no stated vision. We are increasingly accepting a two-tier society: those with jobs and those who are forgotten. There is also no clear sense that creating private sector jobs is an act of patriotism. The president has the opportunity to shift these dynamics. By articulating a vision of a better nation, he can stimulate action and bring out the best in our society.

FDR brought hope to a miserable country when he promised, and delivered, “action and action now.” Roosevelt had no clear plan of how he would accomplish his agenda; but he was determined to relentlessly experiment until he succeeded.

Winston Churchill rejuvenated the British nation when he declared, “We shall never surrender,” despite what seemed like impossible odds. It’s worth noting the absolute resolve and determination in Chruchill’s words, which propelled the British people forward:

…we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in France, we shall fight on the seas and oceans, we shall fight with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall defend our Island, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight in the fields and in the streets, we shall fight in the hills; we shall never surrender…

In a later era, John Kennedy did not know how America would land a man on the moon and return him safely “Before this decade is out” when he challenged the nation to accomplish this seemingly impossible task. But, in his speech before Congress, Kennedy did say:

I believe we possess all the resources and talents necessary. But the facts of the matter are that we have never made the national decisions or marshaled the national resources required for such leadership. We have never specified long-range goals on an urgent time schedule, or managed our resources and our time so as to insure their fulfillment.

We often forget that at the time of Kennedy’s speech, America was a nation shaken badly by Soviet advances in space. JFK responded with strength and determination to restore confidence. By stating a clear goal, President Kennedy created action and momentum.

Moreover, I believe that Kennedy’s description of our innate resources and talent applies, as well, to the nation today. We need Barak Obama to offer this same commitment to America, and to support his words with swift actions and righteous anger.

A few weeks ago I was a guest on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show. At the end of the interview, I was asked why no political movement had grown up around reinventing our nation – if I believed it was so critical. I paused, leaned back in my chair, and said it had: America voted for change we can all believe in.

In October 2008, candidate Obama said:

This country and the dream it represents are being tested in a way that we haven’t seen in nearly a century. And future generations will judge ours by how we respond to this test. Will they say that this was a time when America lost its way and its purpose? …

Or will they say that this was another one of those moments when America overcame? When we battled back from adversity by recognizing that common stake that we have in each other’s success?

I have not forgotten these powerful words or what our nation sought on election day in 2008. After one year in office, I hope that President Obama remembers as well.

A week ago on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show we had a probing discussion of the ideas in my book. Today, I was surprised to discover that this interview is, one week later, the #1 ranked interview for all WNYC shows for “Most Viewed,” #1 for “Most Emailed,” and in the top 6 for “Most Listened” (which includes interviews as far back as September).

From my perspective, this reflects a growing public interest in the ideas discussed in the book, and how they are applicable to what is happening in our nation today.

From the WNYC home page on January 4, 2010:

A few days ago I was a guest on WNYC’s Leonard Lopate show. You can listen to the interview by clicking on the audio player under the photo.

Over the next week, I will distill, in writing, some of the meaningful discussion that took place. You can click the picture to hear the interview:

The ideas in my book have attracted considerable discussion and debate. Recently, David Jones, the President and CEO of the Community Service Society of New York, wrote an article in the Huffington Post, titled What’s Keeping Me Up at Night, which was based on the how many of my ideas are now materializing in our society. It’s a valuable look at how the ideas in the book provide a lens for making sense of many of the things happening in the nation today:

It may seem odd, but the latest terrorist attack on a Northwest Airlines flight to Detroit is not what’s got me worried. What’s got to me is a very short book by a senior faculty fellow at the Yale School of Management titled It Could Happen Here (HarperCollins Publishers, 2009). The author, Bruce Judson, argues that American democracy is at risk not because of outside attack but because a 30-year rise in income inequality is leading the nation toward political instability and/or revolution. The strongest part of his argument is that income inequality has reached unheard of levels, with the top 10 percent of American families receiving nearly 50 percent of all U.S. household income, the largest level of income inequality ever officially recorded!

So why lose sleep over this kind of thing? Because now when the Community Service Society does polls about low-income working families in New York City (over three million people), signs of what the author is talking about are emerging across virtually every demographic. Our latest survey, The Unheard Third 2009, reveals job losses at unprecedented levels, and hunger and lack of health care escalating fast. Savings for a majority are almost nonexistent. And after welfare reform, our safety net programs are woefully underfunded to handle the fallout of the “Great Recession.”

What’s also evident in Congress and on the street is a generalized anger among the bedrock of the Democratic Party, particularly the Congressional Black Caucus, that the bailout of big banks and large financial institutions in the first stimulus may have saved the financial system, but seems to have only a small effect on bringing the unemployment rate down, particularly for low-wage workers. Black voters won’t turn against the Obama administration but, having led nonpartisan voter registrations a number of times in my career, I’m deeply concerned that it will be difficult if not impossible to motivate first time voters — particularly young people in urban America — to get registered and vote in the numbers that helped the president win his first term. And I would be hard pressed to make the case for why they should.

Unemployment rates for black men without a high school diploma have now enter territory never seen in my lifetime, over 24 percent, and that doesn’t count those who have given up trying to find work. So with Wall Street coming back strong, with only a slight moderation in bonuses, a lot of hard-working people of all races and regions are going to see high rates of unemployment and lower wages for years to come and, as Judson posits, they’re going to want to blame someone – some party or some group.

So we may sneer at “tea baggers,” anti-immigrant zealots, and “birthers,” but we better take what they represent very seriously. The country and its political parties have to be very careful not to play with the explosive mixture of unheard of levels of income inequality and significant racial and demographic shifts because these have the potential of doing what the Northwest underwear bomber never could — seriously undermine a democracy that we thought was bullet-proof.

The Republican Party’s partisan closing of ranks on health care, and its efforts to tear down any bipartisan effort, even if it threatens the county’s well being, seems to be matched by Democrats’ seemingly tone deaf response to the general suffering going on among the working poor of all races. Perhaps we should add rapid job creation and WPA programs to our list of what we should be looking for, along with long waits for body scans at the airport.

This was a fascinating interview on the Progressive Radio Network with Gary Null. In the interview, Gary read from a recent article by Elizabeth Warren on the collapse of our middle class and then asked me to comment.

It’s fascinating to see the different receptions the ideas in the book receive from interviews with different beliefs about how our society could, and should function. No surprise. But, fascinating nonetheles. You can click the picture to hear a podcast of the interview: