Outgoing President Bush sat glumly on Inauguration Day as President Obama proclaimed a new era of liberty and justice for all — a proclamation that brought global acclaim and new hope to many. Sitting in the cold air Bush may have reflected on his own pledges eight years before. On his 2001 Inaugural Day he promised to make our country “more just and generous.” We would pursue the “simple dream of dignity,” never passing by “that wounded traveler on the road to Jericho.” Spurning any temptation to “arrogance” our nation would be bound by ideals that “lift us above our interests and teach us what it means to be citizens.” In so doing we would “affirm a new commitment” to the principles of “civility, courage, compassion and character.” Undoubtedly, financial elites on Wall Street were chortling in derision as they are wont to do every four years.
There is little doubt that Bush had a great opportunity. He acknowledged that while “many of our citizens prosper, others doubt the promise, even the justice, of our country.” The president seems to have sensed the high path but couldn’t find the wherewithal to lead the way there. To remarkable applause he chastised injustice: “We do not accept this, and we will not allow it. ...[T]his is my solemn pledge: I will work to build a single nation of justice and opportunity.”
As things turned out not only did both parties’ leaders allow injustice, they nearly tripped over themselves in a rush to accelerate it under the handy-dandy label of “growth.” Everything that the prophets Jeremiah and Isaiah once decried, this nation did, goaded by conniving elites determined to exploit the president’s credulity. The president may not have been a habitual dissembler, some evidence lending support to the idea of honorable intentions. But good intentions are not enough for a nation’s top leader, especially when little action is taken to prevent party propaganda from being converted into smoke and mirrors. One thing is evident: the dissemblers who surrounded Bush’s advisors got the better of them. Before long, these elites had the upper hand over the knowledge-needy executive himself. Carried along by speeches he did not write and a party dynamic he could not control, he became an unwitting demagogue pawn for ends he did not fully comprehend. No wonder Bush looked melancholic during the Obama speech. It was his presidency but he didn’t know what to do with it.
Obama is only days into his new administration. How well does he understand what he should do with his presidency? He has little time to assert his moral conscience before Wall Street’s strategies put his administration on a track toward ruination. The pressure on the president must be incredible. His counselors are giving him no options but to rebuild Wall Street and keep the beast alive. This should serve as a reminder to all who aspire to the office of U.S. President: Don’t apply unless you’ve groomed a prudent and resourceful intellectual army from which you can populate the appointive offices and critical stations.
Obama understands the idea of economic justice. He is a good man and capable, too. His views on fairness are laudable compared to Bush’s ill-conceived notions of equity. But Obama achieved his high station by catering to financial elites quite like Bush — a dangerous concession for a politician, especially in these times. Thus, Obama faces the serious challenge of finding a presidential way to be the new era leader he wants to be.
On January 27 Obama declared the massive 2008 Wall Street bonuses “shameful.” He said they were “the height of irresponsibility.” But if his words are to mean more than Bush’s empty pledges, he must do something other than plunge headlong into plans to make Wall Street whole again. There are knowledgeable observers in the media, especially at MarketWatch.com, who are offering reformative ideas and alternative leaders in counterpoint to the ideas and people Wall Street puts forth. Are the admirable efforts of these media watchdogs falling on deaf ears in the Obama administration? Congress is certainly not providing much help. Indeed, the Republican minority is back to advocating increased governmental spending and partisan oriented tax cuts rather than the creation of a comprehensive new financial architecture to replace the flawed Wall Street model. Unfortunately, the pork-happy congressional Democrats are doing much the same, just gift-wrapping it differently. Is Obama already captured in much the same way Bush was controlled?
If President Obama is not dissembling when he calls Wall Street’s actions “the height of irresponsibility,” then he has a responsibility as the nation’s Chief Legislator to make irresponsible parties pay for their dereliction of duty. Make Wall Street elites drag their own assets out of offshore tax havens to pay for the repair of institutions they blighted. If these people behaved shamefully in their stewardship, as Obama attests, then redirect the stewardship to more responsible fiduciaries who will not exploit the public interest for sordid gains.
During the Obama campaign there was talk of Obama as a new President Lincoln or a Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. If, however, Obama does not stand up to Wall Street he will go down in history as another failed Bush. Early in the Bush presidency his popularity ratings were the highest in modern history. There is nothing so unique about Obama that his high standing will hold up if he cannot deliver on his promises of real justice.
True justice demands that those who plunged headlong into leverage in a covetous rush for greater wealth should bear the burden in making the economy whole again. Wall Street should be replaced by better stewards if justice is served. Credible and responsible banks in other parts of the country should be given the investment banking franchise that Wall Street abused. Responsible banks are the ones that should receive fresh capital, not the Wall Street banks that made and then lost billions unscrupulously. Americans need to press upon their elected representatives the idea of true justice until politicians find the resolve to do the right thing, even if it means wading through a depression. Better to suffer while the bones are set straight than to allow the current deformities to continue.
The door is closing on our one big chance to break the chains of Wall Street and the Federal Reserve. If we do not deliver ourselves now while Wall Street remains off balance, we will have little right to expect safe passage as the beast regains its strength. The battle in a few years will be much more costly to American tranquility and republicanism than one fought prudently now. The new president needs America’s prayers and the strength of a public uprising. He also needs people around him who are committed to real justice, not in the politicized sense but in courage, decency and truth.