March 2005 marks a milestone, of sorts, for America: Since the 9/11 attacks, we've now
been fighting the war on terror for 42 months -- the same length of time it took our grandparents' America to go from being attacked at Pearl Harbor to winning World War II in Europe.
Except for the American troops, whose heroism has spanned the generations, our time does not stack up well by comparison. By May 1945, the Roosevelt administration had rallied the world to crush fascist totalitarianism and was hosting 50 allied nations to charter the United Nations. By March 2005, the Bush administration had splintered the world's resolve to stamp out Islamic totalitarianism, weakened the United Nations, and damaged historic alliances. Three and a half years into the war on terror, no V-E Day is in sight, unless President Bush counts his re-election as a victory over France.
Perhaps the most dispiriting contrast between then and now is closer to home. In the wake of Pearl Harbor, FDR transformed a struggling, isolationist nation into the greatest economic and military power on earth, launched the most dramatic explosion of middle-class opportunity in history, and instilled a spirit of sacrifice and responsibility that we prize 60 years later. In the wake of 9/11, George W. Bush has corroded America's economic engine, concentrated wealth, and run up debts that will force our children to sacrifice for 60 years hence.
Like FDR, Bush was handed the chance to make America great. He made us go broke instead.
Is it too late to make America great again? Alan Wolfe, author of a new book called Return to Greatness: How America Lost Its Sense of Purpose and What It Needs to Do to Recover It (Princeton University Press, 2005), argues that America's history has been a long struggle between a few Roosevelts and Lincolns who challenged America to be great, and a swarm of Bushes and McKinleys who aimed low and achieved even less. Not to give away the ending, but the Roosevelts and Lincolns got better results.
A few Republicans, led by John McCain, have urged their party to reclaim the "national greatness" mantle of Theodore Roosevelt. But as Wolfe points out, a party committed to national greatness would work to make the nation stronger, not hobble its government, divide its people, and starve its armed forces to pay for tax cuts.
Any true national greatness movement, then, will have to come from the Democrats. Of course, that will require a few basics that are in short supply: a clear sense of national purpose, an unflinching commitment to national strength, and a cadre of national leaders who measure greatness in challenges, not promises.
At first glance, Democrats hardly seem poised for greatness. Consider the two questions most on Democratic minds since November: the breathless race to find anyone willing
to run the Democratic National Committee, and the party-wide drumbeat to find a Democratic Karl Rove. We're searching, all right -- but not for heroes.
It's time to lift our sights. History is handing us the chance to reach for the brass ring that Bush fumbled, and we can't afford to take a pass.
What could Democrats do to reach for the stars, instead of just posing with them? First, making America great means being willing to use force on behalf of America's ideals in the world. The true liberal must fight for liberty abroad and at home, not pooh-pooh historic elections in Iraq while whining that Ohio was stolen.
Second, a great nation must make reform its great cause here at home. Democrats should lead the way in flushing out the toxins that weaken our democracy: congressional districts gerrymandered to ensure that incumbents never lose; a tax code riddled with corporate loopholes; and a revolving door that turns Washington into the ultimate reality show, as senior government officials compete to win the top lobbyist jobs.
Third, and perhaps most overlooked, a nation needs leaders who bring out the best in citizens. Our consultant-driven politics has become an exercise in mutually assured demagoguery -- the party of purple hair versus the party of purple fingers.
Every great president has tried to lift his nation up. FDR responded to totalitarian attack by making all Americans do their part, from victory gardens and the factory floor to Normandy and the Battle of the Bulge. Where FDR told citizens, "Uncle Sam wants you," Bush told Americans, "Pardon the interruption!" This past campaign should have stirred calls for voluntary universal service, not a bidding war to see who most opposed the draft.
Nations, like heroes, are made, not born. Three and a half years after 9/11, America is not what we could have been, at home or abroad -- and now Bush has four more years to make that gulf wider still. But the quintessential American desire to reach for higher purpose, so lost on this president, waits to be awakened by the next. You can't keep a great land down.
