Hope Enacted is Hope Renewed

"Health reform is a very big deal; if you care about the future, action on climate is a lot more important than raising the retirement age. And if these achievements were made without Republican support, so what?"

Paul Krugman
his NYT column summarized here 
and here.

Krugman's column about Obama as a "very consequential president" joins Jonathan Chiat's of last week.  Both of course are counter to the conventional chatter.  Krugman makes the additional point that President Obama's low approval rating are the result of general political discontent and polarization.  Congressional approval is only about 30 points lower, at 16%.

Meanwhile President Obama keeps doing his job, most of which the media now ignores.  This ranges from big ticket international policy--currently picking through the immense complications of Iraq, Iran, Syria, etc.--to the really overlooked parts of America as well as personal service and connections.  In this past busy week, President Obama visited Indian Country, which very few Presidents have ever done.  Polls treat people as quantities, but actual people whose lives are touched or changed directly have a different perspective in evaluating a President.

Then there are the areas where huge policy meets personal connection, and such an event happened this past weekend when President Obama spoke at the graduation exercises of the University of California at Irvine.  He spoke about the issue that concerns young people since they often can see through the fog of the present to what's important to their future and the future beyond.  He talked about the climate crisis.  (Here's the White House summary. And a transcript of the speech.)

If anybody believes that President Obama has forgotten about hope and change, you need to read or watch this speech.  He identified with the optimism of youth (yes, it's there along with the cynicism and moments of despair), he said there's good reason to be optimistic and above all to create and renew hope by doing.

"We’ve got some big challenges. And if you’re fed a steady diet of cynicism that says nobody is trustworthy and nothing works, and there’s no way we can actually address these problems, then the temptation is too just go it alone, to look after yourself and not participate in the larger project of achieving our best vision of America."

Among the challenges he named are income inequality and gun violence, but he concentrated mainly on the climate crisis.

And since this is a very educated group, you already know the science. Burning fossil fuels release carbon dioxide. Carbon dioxide traps heat. Levels of carbon dioxide in our atmosphere are higher than they’ve been in 800,000 years. We know the trends. The 18 warmest years on record have all happened since you graduates were born. We know what we see with our own eyes...  

So the question is not whether we need to act. The overwhelming judgment of science, accumulated and measured and reviewed over decades, has put that question to rest. The question is whether we have the will to act before it’s too late. For if we fail to protect the world we leave not just to my children, but to your children and your children’s children, we will fail one of our primary reasons for being on this world in the first place. And that is to leave the world a little bit better for the next generation."

He summarized the progress in clean energy and cutting back on carbon, including UC Irvine's contributions. He took on the deniers, including the latest GOP mantra of "I am not a scientist" (the contemporary equivalent I suppose of Nixon's "I am not a crook.")  The President countered:

"Now, I’m not a scientist either, but we’ve got some really good ones at NASA. I do know that the overwhelming majority of scientists who work on climate change, including some who once disputed the data, have put that debate to rest. The writer, Thomas Friedman, recently put it to me this way. He were talking, and he says, “Your kid is sick, you consult 100 doctors; 97 of them tell you to do this, three tell [you] to do that, and you want to go with the three?”

He cut through the Washington fog to ask the key question, clearly on the minds of his audience because of the applause he got: "What’s the point of public office if you’re not going to use your power to help solve problems?"

He got after the news media. "And part of the challenge is that the media doesn’t spend a lot of time covering climate change and letting average Americans know how it could impact our future. Now, the broadcast networks’ nightly newscasts spend just a few minutes a month covering climate issues. On cable, the debate is usually between political pundits, not scientists. When we introduced those new anti-pollution standards a couple weeks ago, the instant reaction from the Washington’s political press wasn’t about what it would mean for our planet; it was what would it mean for an election six months from now. And that kind of misses the point. Of course, they’re not scientists, either.

And I want to tell you all this not to discourage you. I’m telling you all this because I want to light a fire under you. As the generation getting shortchanged by inaction on this issue, I want all of you to understand you cannot accept that this is the way it has to be.

He talked about changing public opinion, which is in line with what he said about this recently, referring to Lincoln's belief in its political power. But nearly 3/4 of the public believe in the climate crisis and support efforts to address it.  So he called for the extra step of direct involvement. "You’re going to have to push those of us in power to do what this American moment demands."

He briefly made the positive economic case--that the country that leads in clean energy and carbon reduction technologies will lead the world economy.  He announced a new initiative--a $1 billion fund applied to dealing with the effects of the climate crisis.

But he always returned to a direct connection with this audience.  He listed some of the professions that would help address the climate crisis, professions that some these graduates could enter. He said that when President Kennedy introduced a new idea, it was usually to a university audience and their interest in the future.

Even when our political system is consumed by small things, we are a people called to do big things. And progress on climate change is a big thing. Progress won’t always be flashy; it will be measured in disasters averted, and lives saved, and a planet preserved -- and days just like this one, 20 years from now, and 50 years from now, and 100 years from now. But can you imagine a more worthy goal -- a more worthy legacy -- than protecting the world we leave to our children?

In the closed universe of Washington media babble, there's a key word that has been absent for a long time.  And President Obama returned to it at the end of this key speech.

And this generation -- this 9/11 generation of soldiers; this new generation of scientists and advocates and entrepreneurs and altruists -- you’re the antidote to cynicism. It doesn’t mean you’re not going to get down sometimes. You will. You’ll know disillusionment. You’ll experience doubt. People will disappoint you by their actions. But that can’t discourage you.

Cynicism has never won a war, or cured a disease, or started a business, or fed a young mind, or sent men into space. Cynicism is a choice. Hope is a better choice."