January 20, 2010
Recently, I noticed an interesting pattern with the parents of my son’s friends. When it’s time to pick up their child from our house after a day of hanging out with my son, there’s no honk of the horn or knock on the door. Mysteriously,
my son’s friends start putting on their coats and shoes, say goodbye, and head out the door to a waiting car. This has been going on as far as I could remember. But only recently did I take note of why this was happening. Simple reason: a text message from parent to child! Of course I would miss it. We don’t have the cell phones in the palms of our kids.
The dot that was suddenly connected for me was the “disconnect”. Are we that disconnected with one another that we privately text our child from the driveway and no longer knock on the door and visit with the parents of our children’s friends? How many times do I just drive up, push the garage door button, drive in and close the door behind me without a thought to visiting my neighbor who is out mowing his lawn? When was the last time I gave a casual hello in passing at Duncan Donuts to the woman who sits across the pew from me every Sunday? Disconnected we are as a people. Why should our government be any different?
One year ago Barack Obama flipped the political world with a resounding national election victory. Tapping our mood and our concerns was his preoccupation. But what a year m
akes. Virginia Democrats gave way to the Republicans in the top offices of Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General with significant margins. (McDonnell won by 17% margin for one). In New Jersey, Chris Christie saw the largest victory for a New Jersey Republican in 25 years by his win over Corzine. And recently, the latest Cinderella story of Mr. Brown defeating Ms. Coakley in Massachusetts. The Tea Parties this past summer were the tracer shots leading to what the latest Quinnipiac poll discovered: a 45% disapproval rating of the President’s governing. Obama clearly is not in the same room as the American People. He is preoccupied with something else.
For Americans, how the president presents himself, what he says and the flare in which it is communicated, does not matter much. We are a people for whom what a president does is what matters. There in lies his disconnect. For example. Obama’s undying commitment to his health-care plan that has a 35% approval rating. He does not seem to take notice or care. And each day he forces this plan through with stubborn determination. Each day he works with Congress to come up with any way possible to negotiate a bill. Is he so disconnected that he has not noticed how much the people dislike Congress?
The disconnect represents a growing distance between We The People, and our Government sent to serve us. One year ago we began to reap with intensity this gulf of disconnect. It is a metaphor of who we have become. And a symptom of the breaking up of the Republic. My advice to President Obama? Leadership takes listening first and foremost. We aren’t connecting with your speeches. Try hearing us.
Publius
Recently, I noticed an interesting pattern with the parents of my son’s friends. When it’s time to pick up their child from our house after a day of hanging out with my son, there’s no honk of the horn or knock on the door. Mysteriously,
my son’s friends start putting on their coats and shoes, say goodbye, and head out the door to a waiting car. This has been going on as far as I could remember. But only recently did I take note of why this was happening. Simple reason: a text message from parent to child! Of course I would miss it. We don’t have the cell phones in the palms of our kids.The dot that was suddenly connected for me was the “disconnect”. Are we that disconnected with one another that we privately text our child from the driveway and no longer knock on the door and visit with the parents of our children’s friends? How many times do I just drive up, push the garage door button, drive in and close the door behind me without a thought to visiting my neighbor who is out mowing his lawn? When was the last time I gave a casual hello in passing at Duncan Donuts to the woman who sits across the pew from me every Sunday? Disconnected we are as a people. Why should our government be any different?
One year ago Barack Obama flipped the political world with a resounding national election victory. Tapping our mood and our concerns was his preoccupation. But what a year m
akes. Virginia Democrats gave way to the Republicans in the top offices of Governor, Lt. Governor and Attorney General with significant margins. (McDonnell won by 17% margin for one). In New Jersey, Chris Christie saw the largest victory for a New Jersey Republican in 25 years by his win over Corzine. And recently, the latest Cinderella story of Mr. Brown defeating Ms. Coakley in Massachusetts. The Tea Parties this past summer were the tracer shots leading to what the latest Quinnipiac poll discovered: a 45% disapproval rating of the President’s governing. Obama clearly is not in the same room as the American People. He is preoccupied with something else.For Americans, how the president presents himself, what he says and the flare in which it is communicated, does not matter much. We are a people for whom what a president does is what matters. There in lies his disconnect. For example. Obama’s undying commitment to his health-care plan that has a 35% approval rating. He does not seem to take notice or care. And each day he forces this plan through with stubborn determination. Each day he works with Congress to come up with any way possible to negotiate a bill. Is he so disconnected that he has not noticed how much the people dislike Congress?
The disconnect represents a growing distance between We The People, and our Government sent to serve us. One year ago we began to reap with intensity this gulf of disconnect. It is a metaphor of who we have become. And a symptom of the breaking up of the Republic. My advice to President Obama? Leadership takes listening first and foremost. We aren’t connecting with your speeches. Try hearing us.
Publius
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