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20/20 Hindsight Guides a Vision for Tomorrow

Barack Obama gets what George H. W. Bush called “the vision thing.” Inhis speech to Congress, Obama laid out a bold blueprint for an Americathat tackles the big problems, calls for shared sacrifice and offersbig rewards. It was almost shocking to hear after 30 years ofsupply-side economics that redefined the American Dream as merely thepursuit of profit.

But it hasn’t always been that way. In thethirty years following World War II, we saw ourselves as a country thataccomplished great things. We saved the world from tyranny—and thenhelped rebuild the nations we defeated. We cured diseases like polio,measles and rubella. We built an interstate highway system and most ofour major airports. We cut the poverty rate in half and we providedhealth care for our elderly and poorest citizens.

And while wewere accomplishing these things, we built the largest middle-class inhistory. The formula for this success was largely based on theprincipals set forth in Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal: a significantinvestment of government spending on infrastructure and social programscombined with a progressive tax structure that funded the system. Whiledebates raged around social issues and social spending, both partiesagreed that government had a significant role to play in regulatingbusiness and providing a substantial social safety net.

In contrast, the crowning achievement of the supply-siders was a Dow that hit 14,000. We see where that got us.

The accomplishments of the post-war era took vision that tapped into sharedvalues and helped to define us as a nation. Over the last thirty years,we’ve lost that sense of unified purpose and, hence, a part ofourselves.