On Day One
Washington Post asks various eminences to offer some thoughts about what Barack Obama’s top priorities ought to be. I think it’s disappointing that the answers tend to be so unresponsive to actual events in the world. My personal interests are similar to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s and I greatly admire his way of thinking about foreign policy issues. So eighteen months ago, I would have given an answer quite similar to the one he gives.
But I think it’s clear enough that the combination of a calmer situation in Iraq with the dawn of a crisis in the global financial system and the arrival of a worldwide recession has made diplomatic engagement with Iran considerably less pressing today than it was eighteen months ago. I still think the basic strategy he lays out is a good one, and something an Obama administration ought to pursue, but it’s just not the case that this is as pressing as it was a little while back.
Somewhat similarly, something I’ve been wrestling with lately is the fact that I’m not, personally, someone who’s normally taken a huge interest in environmental topics. And it’s still the case that on the domestic front there are a few topics that are closer to my heart. At the same time, there’s an objective urgency about climate where it makes a big, big, big difference whether we do something in 2009 rather than 2019 that doesn’t exist in the same ways for some other topics. There are a lot of policy areas where “things could be better” and even where quick reform would make a big difference. But responsible leadership needs to tackle topics with an eye on the extent to which they’re actually pressing emergencies rather than just festering sources of injustice.
30 Responses to “On Day One”
Register
RSSLogin
Topic Cloud
ArchivesBlog RollAbout Matt YglesiasContact Me
Donate
November 10th, 2008 at 10:04 am
My personal interests are similar to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s and I greatly admire his way of thinking about foreign policy issues.
So you’re big on starting proxy wars in Afghanistan that inevitably result in massive terrorist blowback?
November 10th, 2008 at 10:06 am
Matt, your point that engaging Iran is not as pressing as it was eighteen months ago is a good one. However, I would submit that laying some diplomatic groundwork sooner rather than later helps protect against any “unknown unknowns.” Even though the Middle East is not as violent today as it was in, say, 2006, all the ingredients are still there for another conflagration (another Israeli-Lebanese or Israeli-Syrian war, a rise in violence in Iraq, a major terrorist attack originating in the Middle East). The last thing you want is a major crisis at a time when the United States has not laid any diplomatic groundwork (and thus gained diplomatic leverage) with Iran. In such a scenario, a President Obama would be far more susceptible to hawkish pressure to take ‘tough’ action, however senseless that action may be.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:07 am
Mass transit is an environmental issue. And you love the SUPERTRAIN almost as much as I do.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Upon re-reading my own comment, it occurs to me that the different crisis scenarios that I’ve postulated would probably more accurately fall into the ‘known unknown’ category. However, my quibbles with myself aside, I hope you get my overall point.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:10 am
Hear, hear, on the environmental stuff. In, say, 1994, healthcare reform would have topped my list. I still want very badly to see health care reform. But the downside repercussions of delaying action on health care don’t even begin to approach the difficulties (including health care difficulties), we’ll need to address if we place climate change on a back burner.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:20 am
Matt, don’t get sucked into the idea that administrations have to prioritize among big issues. I like to think we elected someone who can do several things at once.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:22 am
I think that both health care and climate are the two huge issues that Obama absolute must at least try to engage in his first term. The Bush years have led to possibly catastrophic delay on both fronts, and we are well past the appropriate time to act.
It’s hard to choose between them, honestly. Climate will be a difficult fight because its sacrifices are all short term but its benefits are both longer-term, and mostly preventive. If it works right, we’ll be spending lots of money (and some people will possibly be suffering declines in their standards of living) in order to maintain the status quo, which is ALREADY a fairly abstract scientific concept. At the same time, the consequences for failure pretty much dwarf any other issue on the nation’s agenda. Healthcare seems like an easier bet because a successful plan would result in objective benefits for millions of Americans (and voters) in the short term. You could use it to build up the political capital for later legislation. But healthcare reform is legendarily difficult to pass, and you’ve got the ghost of the Clinton plan looming over you.
On top of all of that, 2009 will be a complicated legislative year because a lot of Bush’s “sunset provisions” and reauthorization deadlines come into effect next year. So as much as we’d like to talk about climate and/or healthcare, we’ll also be arguing over taxes, transportation, and other big priorities. And of course the wrangling over economic stimulus will likely continue into next year too.
Honestly, with everything else on his plate, I would be very happy if Obama pushed either climate OR healthcare as his big early legislative priority. My big fear is that we’ll get tangled up with EFCA or issues related to withdrawal from Iraq before getting to either of those.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:33 am
…I’m not, personally, someone who’s normally taken a huge interest in environmental topics.
And this is your most annoying blind spot considering you professes to be a progressive. The costs of resource depletion (oil, top soil, fish populations, etc.) and environmental degradation (climate change, toxic waste, etc.) fall disproportionately on the poor and look likely to both continue increasing and moving up the income ladder for the foreseeable future.
November 10th, 2008 at 10:39 am
My personal interests are similar to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s and I greatly admire his way of thinking about foreign policy issues.
What a surprise, Israel basher Mr. Yglesias, admires Israel basher Zbigniew Brzezinski. Birds of a feather flock together.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:08 am
So you’re big on starting proxy wars in Afghanistan that inevitably result in massive terrorist blowback?
Right. Because Matt’s statement definitely implies he supports every decision and policy position Brzezinski ever made or took.
November 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
My personal interests are similar to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s and I greatly admire his way of thinking about foreign policy issues.
Either I seriously misunderstand Matt’s views or I seriously misunderstand Brzezinski’s. Something like unconditional support for the repressive and doomed regime of the Shah (one of Zbig’s key policy stands in the Carter administration) seems like the exact opposite of what Matt would believe.
On the other hand, I heard he thought Bush Jr. did a bad job! So there’s that!
November 10th, 2008 at 12:16 pm
My personal interests are similar to Zbigniew Brzezinski’s and I greatly admire his way of thinking about foreign policy issues.
Either I seriously misunderstand Matt’s views or I seriously misunderstand Brzezinski’s. Something like unconditional support for the repressive and doomed regime of the Shah (one of Zbig’s key policy stands in the Carter administration) seems like the exact opposite of what Matt would believe.
On the other hand, I heard he thought Bush Jr. did a bad job! So there’s that!
November 10th, 2008 at 3:09 pm
Sigh. What do lefts and rights who want to stall health care reform have in common? They’ve all got effing health insurance.
Climate change is a colossal issue in the long run, but tens of millions of people are living in fear of sickness and endless poverty because they lack affordable health care right now. The terrible fear of losing all they have in the world and not being able to take care of a sick kid or aging parent is burdening their hearts today, and will still be there tomorrow, and the day after, and every day the rest of their lives until something gets done.
Let us all try to multi-task, shall we? If Obama can get movement going on national health reform in February and March he’ll get synergy, political momentum going on every other issue, just from the shock effect roiling along the Beltway. If we wants people to have more confidence in the economy and pull us out a recession, try to help them so something so they can afford to do something about a major illiness other then price out a cheap coffin.
November 10th, 2008 at 4:23 pm
Matt is a fucking ignorant idiot again today:
“the arrival of a worldwide recession has made diplomatic engagement with Iran considerably less pressing today than it was eighteen months ago. I still think the basic strategy he lays out is a good one, and something an Obama administration ought to pursue, but it’s just not the case that this is as pressing as it was a little while back.”
He thinks Obama’s threats to blockade Iran, engage in military action against Iran if Iran retains even ONE centrifuge, and his refusal to ask the UN for military action sanctions is “a good one, and something an Obama administration ought to pursue”?
Has this idiot NOT READ ANYTHING OBAMA HAS SAID IN THE LAST SIX MONTHS?
I’ve posted Obama’s direct threats to Iran here a dozen times. The readers here know what Obama has said about Iran. Matt apparently hasn’t a fucking clue.
Not to mention that Israel and the neocons are still pushing for war – and a lot of people think Israel will attack Iran within the first six months of Obama’s administration if he doesn’t do it first – and Matt thinks this isn’t “pressing”?
Christ on a stick…
November 10th, 2008 at 7:29 pm
I like to think we elected someone who can do several things at once.
Like making sure you see your dying grandma before getting to be President elect.
I must confess that that did impress me.
March 11th, 2009 at 4:23 am
I bookmarked this site. Thank you for good job!
March 22nd, 2009 at 6:02 am
tramadol
I want to say – thank you for this!
April 2nd, 2009 at 5:02 am
Very interesting site. Hope it will always be alive!
buy cheap viagra
April 3rd, 2009 at 4:04 am
Incredible site!
cheap brand pfizer viagra
April 10th, 2009 at 2:45 am
I noticed that this is not the first time at all that you write about the topic. Why have you chosen it again?
April 10th, 2009 at 3:36 am
FANTASTIC!