Friedman: Obama, the GOP and the "Newocracy"

Thomas Friedman nails an important point in today's column in The New York Times.

Obama is at least trying to push an agenda for pursuing the American dream in these new circumstances. I don’t agree with every policy — I’d like to see a lot more emphasis on innovation and small business start-ups — but he’s clearly trying. I do not get that impression from the Republicans, and especially those being led around by the Tea Partiers. Obama-ism posits that we are now in a hypercompetitive global economy, where the country that thrives will be the one that brings together the most educated, creative and diverse work force with the best infrastructure — bandwidth, ports, airports, high-speed rail and good governance. And we’re in a world with a warming climate that is growing from 6.8 billion people to 9.2 billion by 2050, so demand for clean energy is going to go through the roof. Therefore, E.T. — energy technology — is going to be the next great global industry.

One reason the G.O.P. has failed to spawn an agenda for the 21st century is that globalization has fragmented the party. Its Wall Street/multinational corporate wing understands we need immigration, free trade, clean-tech and government support for better infrastructure and the scientific research that is the wellspring of innovation. The Tea Party wing opposes virtually all those things. All that unites the two wings is their common desire for lower taxes — period.

These “Newocrats” (the multinational corporate manager, the technology entrepreneur and engineer, and the aspirational members of the meritocracy) previously would have leaned Republican, but now many lean toward Obama. They don’t agree with everything he’s proposing, but they sense that he is working on that bridge to the 21st century, while today’s G.O.P./Tea Party is just not in the game. Today, we have no real opposition party with its own pathway to the 21st century. We just have opposition.

Exactly. Obama seems to get that we have kicked the can about as far down the road as the old ideologies will take us on a host of key issues including health care, climate change/energy, immigration, and fiscal policy. The Republicans (particularly the Tea Party Right) are engaged in a doomed struggle to turn the clock back out of fear.

As conservative pundit David Frum says: Republicans care about politics while Democrats care about government. Government's job is to pave the way for progress, not perpetuate itself.

--Ballard Burgher