Democratic and Liberal political analysis and commentary

I was reading Thomas Friedman this morning, as I often do. First, just let me say, the man is brilliant.

What he had to say just gave me the shivers. Because it's true.

America is not as great as it used to be. We're living on borrowed everything. Borrowed money. Borrowed good will based on our former reputation.

Friedman has been traveling around this country, and others. His sense is that America has fallen behind in technology, infrastructure spending, and in research. We're losing the talent game, that's for sure. Who would want to work in a genetics lab built just after WW2, with a bunch of old white guys in Washington watching your every move, when you could work in a brand new one with limitless possibilities somewhere else?

My favorite part of this article:

Who will tell the people? We are not who we think we are. We are living on borrowed time and borrowed dimes. We still have all the potential for greatness, but only if we get back to work on our country.

I don’t know if Barack Obama can lead that, but the notion that the idealism he has inspired in so many young people doesn’t matter is dead wrong. “Of course, hope alone is not enough,” says Tim Shriver, chairman of Special Olympics, “but it’s not trivial. It’s not trivial to inspire people to want to get up and do something with someone else.”

It is especially not trivial now, because millions of Americans are dying to be enlisted — enlisted to fix education, enlisted to research renewable energy, enlisted to repair our infrastructure, enlisted to help others. Look at the kids lining up to join Teach for America. They want our country to matter again. They want it to be about building wealth and dignity — big profits and big purposes. When we just do one, we are less than the sum of our parts. When we do both, said Shriver, “no one can touch us.”

Indeed. Americans are dying to make a difference.