Obama’s Sputnik

They have seen the danger signs, and he, the Commander in Chief, sounds the alarm. President Obama urges Americans to set aside partisan differences and battle as one unit in order to stay ahead of all the other nations of the world.

Obama didn’t cite China, but that was what he was thinking when he said, “This is our generation’s Sputnik moment.” It seems to me, as it does to many of you, that Sputnik and the dog Laika are things that diffuse in the nebula of times past. What I remember with clarity is the impact that Gagarin’s flight had on public opinion. That the first human being to travel into outer space was Russian shook the world and left Americans flabbergasted.

It occurred on April 12, 1961, and one week later President Kennedy — like Obama now — offered a challenge to his country. His was to beat the Soviets in the race, and, on July 21, 1969, Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins landed on the moon.

Will history repeat itself? Will China end up deflating itself, just as the USSR did? China brings together one-fifth of the human population and borders 14 countries. It’s now the world’s leading car manufacturer and it loans money even to Spain, but it shelters in its bosom 700 million poor people and has an unraveling political demographic that functions within asphyxiating political structures.

It’s true that China can alter world trade, and that its problems with the environment, as well as its energy and raw material needs, are so colossal that they reach far beyond its borders; but its model is based on “ant workers” and it has an expiration date.

There’s a lot of mud in the foundations of the Chinese miracle. And, as Obama reminds us, a lot of vitality and creativity in the United States.