Inauguration day 2013. It is one of the few days that the American people allow a bit of British pomp and circumstance to filter into our national psyche. People stream to the national mall, the President takes his symbolic oath of office before hundreds of thousands of people in person and many millions of people watching on the media, and then delivers his inaugural address. That address is then immediately analyzed and dissected by political pundits and friends and foes alike. Once the skewering is finished, the pomp and circumstance continues with parades and Presidential balls. And only after the carriages turn back to pumpkins, does the government get back to it's real job, governing a nation of 340, 000. 000 people.
The question is what should our government look like and do during the second Obama administration? Is this going to be an administration plagued by the same internal cat fighting as the first Obama administration, or will there be a thawing of the political ice and a new understanding of what has to be done for the betterment of the nation.
Great figures in history are big thinkers. They are not necessarily democratic or republican thinkers, but they are people who come together to find solutions to seemingly intractable problems. They are men and women who recognize that their donors, their party endorsers, their ideologues do not necessarily send them to Washington for their vote, but for the intelligence of their thought and the ability to work with others. They are great because they serve us all.
It is time for greatness. The bickering and clawing of the first Obama term is beyond us. We need big ideas. We need to have the leaders of the political parties work together to attempt to solve the huge problems that this nation faces. We will accept failures as long as those failures to find solutions lead to additional attempts. Sometimes the solution might look "democratic", sometimes "republican", sometimes a "hybrid" that neither expected, but always American.
Choose and prioritize from the laundry list of major problems that the nation faces:
- gun violence and safety
- national debt
- education
- tax reform
- Mid-East peace
- immigration
- health care
- universal civil rights
- church and state
- climate change
- energy policy
Choose from these, or any of the other crises and issues that will come up during the next four years and work on them in a bipartisan basis with big ideas. This is a great country. It is a land of big ideas and great political figures. Our nation, our people deserve that. Instead of being small and petty, stand tall and soar. There is a reason why we are looked upon as a nation of eagles and not a gaggle of turkeys.
