The CENSUS, CONSENSUS, and COMMUNICATION, OH MY!

Headline: The Census, Consensus, and Communication, oh my!

Sub-headline: D.C.’s new ‘dream team,’ winding down the yellow brick road to a fairy-tale ending?

It feels familiar, doesn’t it?

As yellow bricks are laid, the myth is forming. As if it wasn’t enough of an omen that Obama has been in term just over a year and already has a number of books written about him, his own book, The Audacity of Hope, has spent 30 weeks on the New York Times Bestseller List (see the New York Times book review).

So what are the hurdles of brainlessness, heartlessness, and cowardice that foreshadow President Obama’s presidency as a journey of national self-discovery somewhere over the rainbow? In this story, our scarecrow is the 2010 census, our tin man is political consensus (including among congressional, the national public, and our country’s leadership regarding policy), and our lion is our government’s diplomacy (both nationally and internationally).

Lets dive right in to the tale:

Obama landed in ‘Munchkinville’ on Tuesday, April 8, 2010. The tornado that carried him over the threshold into this fantastical world: the full, unclassified release by the Department of Defense of itsNuclear Posture Review (NPR). This tornado is hardly a natural disaster. Rather, it placed the ruby slippers in our protagonists’ hands. The endowment of these shoes turned the Obama Administration and its key players – President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gate and Secretary of State Clinton – into a heroic ‘dream team.’ It is this dream team that is now proving our government’s ability to be the best that it can be, by both civil and moral terms, to serve its citizens and to coexist symbiotically with the world’s other countries and peoples.

Lets start with our scarecrow:

What is so important about the census is that it represents the foundations of this country’s principles.Equality requires knowing who is being qualified.

As annoying – and on occasion hilariously grotesque – as the TV commercials and radio spots for the census have been, these efforts show that those we have elected into power are aware of this extreme significance, and are trying to communicate with all of our country’s citizens, people with varying and disparate cultures, ideologies, values, beliefs, religions, and heritages. For example, a rap-style census ad on a popular Los Angeles radio station? Never thought I would hear a rap from the U.S. Census Bureau, personally…

It also demonstrates our leaders’ recognition of the need for everyone’s voices to be heard for our democracy to be the best that it can for the citizens it is meant to serve. This emphasis on debate has not been positively portrayed by the media; rather it looks like a lot of politicians squabbling like teenage girls. And for the most part, I believe it has been. But what is significant about this debate is that it isdemocracy in its truest form. Bear in mind, this is NOT to suggest that current players have not been inappropriately combative or self-righteous and ought to be replaced, or that perhaps the procedures of our congressional bodies need to be updated.

What it also means is that we are working toward consensus. Why is this so important? Because in a democracy, all law and order must be formed through consensus, throughout the political discourses of congress, the domestic public, and our country’s leadership regarding policy. This consensus in governmental and political decision making also lends credibility to the US government in its dealings with other states in the international system (as discussed in posts on 3/3/10, and 3/13).

The Obama administration may seem cowardly to those who have criticized it, but its re-construction of both domestic and foreign diplomacy is not only brave and daring, it is SMART. The NPR’s contents reflect a wholly redefined foreign policy that makes the US a better neighbor to every member in our now globalized international community. The fact that it is unclassified in its entirety promotes positive, transparent communication with the world’s various cultures, and diplomacy with the world’s various states. It promotes peaceful communication, where it is chosen. Most importantly, the content of the NPR clearly states that the US will always choose peaceful communication before any other action – a stark contrast to the Bush Doctrine’s policy of preemptive, unilateral action to perceived threats.

These actions break precedents that reflected poorly on the principles and freedoms our country was founded on. They also promote peaceful interaction by propping open a door for communication with the world’s various states. How can that NOT be good?

Perhaps critics have been too harsh of the Obama administration’s actions, or maybe it was this pressure that pushed President Obama, Secretary of Defense Gate and Secretary of State Clinton to live up to their potential. Whatever the case may be, as of Tuesday, April 8, 2010, D.C. has a new ‘dream team,’ and the path they following is looking pretty damn bright and sunny to me.