Okay, we voted for "change". We believed that change HAD to come from the Democratic Party. We trusted that a relatively unknown "left leaning" African American would bring that "change" to America. (Obama was not my candidate, but he is my President and for now, I support him.)
I empathize with our new President who must now define that "new direction" that wasn't defined. (We're fickle like that, we will vote on "change" with no clue what the change is.)
If there IS “change”, it will be the biggest battle of "Principle vs Pragmatism" our country has ever experienced. Obama appealed to us all on the basis of an idealism that promoted social mobility, dialogue with our enemies, government subsidized health care and shifting the tax burden to wealthy corporations and individuals.
Yet our economy is on the verge of a recession, raising the question of where the money will come from to support this social idealism.
Pragmatism is the doctrine of greater concern for the physical consequence than the theoretical consequence of an action, it holds that the meaning of conceptions is to be sought in light of their practical bearings...that the function of thought is to guide action.
It is highly likely that the Obama administration will have to "seek" ideological goals, while continuing with an un-ending series of stop-gap measures to stabilize our country and our economy. We certainly can expect the next few years to be exactly that.
Lets watch carefully for some "Principles" to surface along the way.
Will the United States continue to be "economically driven while socially conscious"? Or will we become socially driven and economically unconscious"?
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