Realism in the White House

North Americans exhibit a strange mixture of realism and idealism, which makes them hard to govern because they demand both qualities from their leaders. Barack Obama was approved as an idealist candidate, but as president he has suspended realism. At the beginning of his second year in office he must try to overcome this problem. But how? Perhaps in the simplest manner: to abandon his grand national and global plans in order to concentrate on the most immediate necessities of his compatriots.

To put it plainly, he must govern for the majority, not for the minority. This will bring criticism from the left and very possibly will not win applause from the right, which hates him. He must think of the middle citizen — the North American who suffers from the recession and is paying for the foreign wars, the pillages of the bankers, the waste of the politician — and stand at his side. There has already been the scent of this new realism upon his receiving the Nobel Prize, when he announced that there are wars that must be fought not to spread democracy to countries that are disinterested in it, but to defend against attacks that come from there.

It is the same with the bankers; the worst of the bankers is not the scandalous extra money that was reallocated after having provoked the worst crisis in three quarters of a century. The worst is that they have returned to their old ways, packaging questionable products and trying to distribute them to their clients so that we could have another disaster. They must be put on a short leash because these people appear not to have learned and the common citizen, who paid for their salvation with public money, is very furious with them.

As far as national politics, what are the primary concerns of North Americans today — health care reform? No, 85 percent of North Americans already have health insurance. The concerns of the majority are the recession, unemployment and the deficit. And how are these issues dealt with? By mobilizing the North American economy with more productivity, initiative and stimulus in the fine points and more cuts in public spending in others, where there is waste.

During his first year in office, Obama watched politicians too much and watched the “silent majority” of his compatriots too little, the result of which has been the loss of a good part of their confidence. In his second year he must try to regain this confidence. Will he do it? It depends if he remembers that he is no longer a candidate for the presidency but already the president. As such, he has to sell actions, not words, as beautiful as they might be. “It is realism, stupid, realism!” This could be what Obama shouts to his supporters.

What is important is that he practices it.