Banana Republic
Posted: June 15th, 2011, 6:58 pm
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/ ... story.html
When the voices at the table are so deeply invested in the institutions and habits of mind that brought the economy low, or that have made Afghanistan a quagmire, how likely is it that the options they present to a president will really change things? Sadly it’s already a cliche (dating from Jeb Bush’s presiding over the Florida recount) to note that when we see such cozy arrangements in developing countries, we call them “banana republics.”
A president’s power to shape events are more limited than we generally think. But a president’s power to shape the boundaries of debate are limited only by his imagination and by his appetite for political risk. From the looks of it, Barack Obama has plenty of imagination. So if he chooses not to challenge these boundaries, he’s a prisoner not only of entrenched forces arrayed behind the status quo; he’s a pawn, ultimately, of his own ambition.
When the voices at the table are so deeply invested in the institutions and habits of mind that brought the economy low, or that have made Afghanistan a quagmire, how likely is it that the options they present to a president will really change things? Sadly it’s already a cliche (dating from Jeb Bush’s presiding over the Florida recount) to note that when we see such cozy arrangements in developing countries, we call them “banana republics.”
A president’s power to shape events are more limited than we generally think. But a president’s power to shape the boundaries of debate are limited only by his imagination and by his appetite for political risk. From the looks of it, Barack Obama has plenty of imagination. So if he chooses not to challenge these boundaries, he’s a prisoner not only of entrenched forces arrayed behind the status quo; he’s a pawn, ultimately, of his own ambition.