Wanted: The American Dream

Ten years after 9/11, one thing is clear: Obama is incapable of leading America on a new path

There are certain times in history when short-term interests and long-term trends cross paths. This weekend is just such a moment. President Obama just unveiled a plan before Congress designed to jump-start the economy and, coincidentally, ensure his own re-election. On Sunday, America will remember the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

What does one event have to do with the other? Much more than might be apparent at first glance.

After 1989, the United States dramatically misinterpreted its Cold War victory. During the 1990s, both George H.W. Bush and Bill Clinton failed to capitalize on the political peace dividend made available by the collapse of the Soviet Union. After the turning point of 9/11, George W. Bush spent enormous sums chasing the losers of globalization rather than following the winners. The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the increased expenditures for U.S. national security have cost the United States $1.7 trillion, accounting for more than 10 percent of the total U.S. debt. Meanwhile, America’s infrastructure has hardly kept pace with that of many Third World countries.

Even if many people happily believe the terrorist attacks had no real consequences, it’s evident that the decade following 9/11 has been drastically influenced. In the 10 years following the collapse of the Soviet Union, America made itself comfortable. Then came the lost decade under George W. Bush. The bursting of the market bubble in 2008 put a permanent end to the American dream. And President Obama, despite his uplifting rhetoric, is in no position to revive the nation.

The change Obama promised is nowhere evident after his first three years in office. On the contrary, to the many Americans who felt that America somehow had to reinvent itself after so many leaden years under conservative governance, Obama has become a symbol of failed leadership.

This failure manifests itself for many Americans through the economy. But many of them find it even more troubling that for the first time in more than 200 years, they don’t seem to know how to go about solving their problems. There is a lack of vision and mission — so much so that even current books bear defeatist titles like “That Used to be Us,” written by New York Times columnists Thomas Friedman and Michael Mandelbaum.

In view of this, it appears immaterial whether Obama asks Congress for $300, $447 or $800 billion for a recovery program. The president’s package has something for each and every voter, and whether or not it makes it through Congress, it puts him in good shape for the election battle. At the same time, the man who promised hope and change has himself long since become a part of the Washington inertia that is, in turn, a political expression of pervasive American despondency.

This will also be mourned in Washington this weekend, although no one wants to talk about it.