Yes We Will

Hope against the crisis, the crisis against hope. Such were the terms of the equation that Barack Obama had to resolve on February 24th, in the midst of his first State of the Union address in front of Congress. Five weeks after ascending to the White House, and still receiving strong support from the majority of Americans, Obama did his duty by bringing back the most inspired notes from his electoral campaign.

The crisis itself? He did not mask its magnitude. “Our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times.” He did not dodge negative reports showing loss of employment or of an immobilized market resulting from the credit crisis. He did not attempt to hide the necessary scale of effort and sacrifices that will be necessary to stomp [the crisis] out either: demonstrating that colossal sums of public money have already been injected into the general economy, into the banking sector, and into the automotive industry in particular, which have not, for the time being, restored confidence in either Wall Street or the depths of the country itself.

But the American president did stop himself from reiterating the very alarmist forecasts he had used only 15 days ago to convince Congress to vote for his stimulus plan aimed at helping the economy. He would be too pessimistic to do so, threatening the possibility of restoring confidence in his compatriots. It was thus a message of hope that he used in addressing them: “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” And in doing so, he once again summoned the message of Roosevelt during the Great Depression.

But this hope will not work without courage, he predicted. Restructuring a “lasting prosperity” means looking into the future, not only at pressing issues, but also political structures, in the mid and long term, capable of reducing the national debt, of inflating industry, of seriously regulating the financial sector, and of reforming the education and the health care systems.

“The moment of truth” has thus been sounded, according to his terms. One does not know how to say it better. The time of his “vision” has come, placing itself in the open and in his first budget, presented on the 26th. From “Yes we can” during the campaign, it is now “Yes, we will,” in regards to taking action. For tomorrow, when it could be in opposition to him, “Yes, he must.”