Dr. Leibo's recent commentaries can be found at sagethoughts.wordpress.com February 12, 2009: Finding our Way into the 21st Century - (Listen) I don't know about you, but for me alarm bells went off this week as I listened to the arguments over president Obama's stimulus package. Especially so when the President challenged those who were fighting efforts to use the stimulus package to make private and government buildings more energy efficient and to purchase a new fleet of hybrid cars for the federal government, "Why wouldn't we want to do that? The president asked. "Why wouldn't we want to stimulate the economy with the sort of projects from building energy retrofits and automobile purchases that employ those who build cars and help cut our addiction to the fossil fuel dictatorships of the world -- all the while protecting ourselves from the emerging massive disruptions' caused by man made climate change. But that fact that the president had to make such arguments made me realize just how little has changed. Sure, for years we had a president in denial about the ultimate costs of our addiction to fossil fuels. But while our new President has personally made a commitment to transforming how we use energy, but just how much has the country at large really grown to understand the root of his concern about the absolute necessity of transforming our energy usage into something suitable for the 21st century. Sure, many understand how our use of Middle Eastern oil leaves us dependent on anti-democratic Middle Eastern countries. But how many of us understand that those terrible fires in Australia may have been deliberately set but it was years of climate change induced drought that prepared the Australian landscape for the horror that followed. Or realize that that this week's month early tornado in Oklahoma reminds us of how much more damaging the tornado season has grown in recent years due to warming air. No, it seems to this commentator that we need a lot more effort to educate the public on the importance of using our current financial crisis to protect ourselves from greater future challenges --putting people to work today, but on projects that will pay dividends for the future. After all, given how much the current stimulus costs are going to be born by future generations, it is only fair that much of the money goes to improve their lives as much as keeping ourselves out of the poorhouse. So that future generations will feel well served by the energy alternatives they will enjoy for generations. And of course it's not surprising there was no real national debate last fall on the question of using the stimulus to transform our use of energy. After all, John McCain and Barack Obama both understand how seriously we are threatened by climate change. In theory good but given that agreement, it was hardly the wedge issue that successful political battles are drawn from --a circumstance that deprived the public of a real conversation on the importance of energy conversion. No it's becoming increasingly obvious that while November's election has come and gone nothing substantial is going to happen unless the campaign to educate the public about just why we need to carry out a revolution in our energy use continues on full bore before the widest possible audience and in a context that allows people to have everyone one of their questions answered. Which is why it is so important that people explore the Climate Project's website: Theclimateproject.org An organization that has trained a thousand Americans to give free presentations to any audience willing to listen throughout the United States --Climate Project presenters fully trained to explain not only the science of climate change but the exciting new possibilities that are emerging from alternative energies --new industries that offer the promise of new jobs, fewer fossil fuel based wars and a more stable planetary climate No, for those who understand how critical the issue is, it is absolute imperative that they explore theclimateproject.org and invite into their community organizations cost free speakers to dialogue and educate their members, congregants and students on one of the most important topics that has ever faced us. Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges January 29, 2009: On the Way to Jakarta - (Listen) Like most Americans I want the president to stay right here at home and work on the economic stimulus program -- to make sure we get this economy moving again using the full force of the only organization in our society, the government itself with the long term staying power to do the really big financial lifting it is going to take to dig us out of this mess. But there is a part of me that really wants him to just get on a plane for Jakarta. Ok., I am well aware that most Americans could not find, even if their life depended on it, the capital of Indonesia on a map. But the way I see it, a flight to Jakarta in the immediate future is absolutely vital. After all, how much have we lost as a society? How much have we been distracted in our need to confront 21st century challenges from globalization to climate change by the horrors of nine eleven? Not only the real challenges of nine eleven like Afghanistan but distractions like Iraq which naively sprung from it --distractions born from our weakening relationship with the Arab world and as it became so quickly, growing tensions with a good chuck of the significantly larger Islamic world. Which is why our new President Obama needs to get on that plane and begin the first steps toward what earlier this week he called his responsibility to help Americans better understand the world of Islam and to help Muslims better understand us. And President Obama, of course, is wonderfully positioned to do so. After all, in our new President, America has elected an individual who -- if not a Muslim himself -- as some of campaign detractors would have had us believe is most certainly the only American president ever to come into office with a sophisticated knowledge of the third of the planet that follows the traditions of Islam. Clearly a new leader of our increasingly globalized world who has spent time with his Muslim relatives in Kenya and grew up, in part, in Indonesia the largest Muslim country in the world. And thus, despite the urgency of his current American domestic challenges right now is the time to begin that effort at a fresh start with the Muslim world. To go beyond that simplistic effort to simply kill Jihadists terrorists of the sort that masterminded nine eleven-- Enemies who can so easily be replaced with a newer and much more vigorous effort to compete for their audience, to connect with the infinitely larger community of Muslims around the world who have largely the same concerns most Americans have about creating a solid, values based, better life for themselves and their children. After all, our enemies, Bin Laden and his followers already understand that Obama's very life story, personality and elevation to the American presidency is in so many ways much more dangerous to them then a dozen American drone missiles --more dangerous in its seductive invitation to rethink the image of America Al Qaida has painted of the United States. Now, what I envision is the new American president showing up in Jakarta, a nation which his personal background draws him to, a nation which has struggled not only with Islamic fanatics but the effort to reconcile an extraordinarily diverse community. A nation struggling not only with the very immediate challenge of climate change, as parts of their island nation start to go under water, but a nation that offered only a little more than a year ago a gift to the world by planting a million carbon breathing trees even as it hosted the 2007 climate conference in Bali. Now what I really hope to see is President Obama standing there along side Indonesia's democratically elected President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono speaking perhaps in Indonesian Bahasa, a language he no doubt retains some sense of while hopefully drawing inspiration from his own inspired talk on race in America given last year in Philadelphia to introduce a new chapter in America's relationship with the Muslim world Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges January 15, 2009: Waiting for History's Judgment - (Listen) As a professional historian, I just love moments like this. Those rare times when Americans, who are, of course, as influenced by the forces of history as any other momentarily put aside their national disdain for reflecting on the past, ignoring their pride in looking forward rather than backwards and for a few weeks indulge in that perennial search for a departing president's legacy. You know, that moment when the newest lame duck regardless of how unpopular he might be can always hope for better, reminding everyone that history's judgment will supersede contemporary nit picking and bestow upon them a final and hopefully more positive evaluation. Certainly George W. has been doing so for weeks. As he and his few remaining supporters do everything they can to impact "history's" judgment. Sure, some leaders have taken greater initiative. As Winston Churchill, a fine historian in his own right did when he announced that he knew history would treat him well because he planned to write it himself. But of course Churchill knew he could not fulfill that wish given that he was not going to be the only historian out there looking at his legacy. But he did get one thing right, something that all historians understand, that the creation of the past might be a natural process as one era flows smoothly or not into the next. But the past has no opinions -gives birth to no broader perspectives. No "history" is the work of people, living people with their own personal and professional concerns. Sure they're people who find the past fascinating. But more often then not their historical interests-- the material they choose to write about is deeply influenced by the concerns of the individual historian's own present. Or as I tell my student, the past may be back there but history begins with the questions very real historians of the future--- ask of the past. Which is why I am inclined to think that the real historical legacy. Of the presidency of George W. Bush has not quite even begun to emerge I mean, sure the stock market tanked during the later part of his tenure in office. America found itself trapped in two wars, neither of which would have been as draining of lives or treasure if a more thoughtful person had been in office. But Iraq is finally winding down. And if Afghanistan is heating up, it's not likely to be much longer before even the new administration realizes the limits of America's ability to alter Afghanistan's fate. No, from the perspective of this historian there is only one issue that is guaranteed to remain part of the mindset of future historians. And determine in part what questions those scholars of the future, ask of President Bush's administration and that is "Why we lost those eight years in the fight against climate change" Because the simple fact is. No matter how much progress the world now makes to lessen the damage. Our future fate has in some very real measures already been written within the built in time lags of climate change. In short much of the climate challenge of the future is already in the pipeline-- a future with more draught, more powerful storms and rising waters. And it will be in that context that President Bush's legacy will be especially judged. After all, while his immediate predecessor, the Clinton Administration fought and lost the battle over an energy tax and the Kyoto treaties. While his successor Barack Obama so famously took on the challenge of converting our society away from fossil fuels. There will continue be back there in the historical record. Those eight lost years, those years when the Bush administration used all the power of the federal government to delay the world's effort to confront this greatest challenge humanity has ever faced. No, long after Iraq is forgotten. George W. Bush's legacy is likely to hinge on his most long lasting legacy. Those eight lost years we will never get back. Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges January 1, 2009: Talk About Feeling Ambivalent - (Listen) I must say, I don't remember another New Year's when I was feeling so ambivalent about what the next year would bring. And that's pretty surprising for me-a basically optimistic person. I mean, by all rights this should be a great New Year's Day. Certainly so, given that among the earliest political memories I have are as an admiring child watching on TV. all those heroes who took up the challenge of fighting for African American civil rights. And now, as an adult I get to proudly watch as America fulfills its most impressive promise as it inaugurates our first African American president. I mean I should be dancing in the streets. A fanatical Al Gore supporter who fought Bush's stupid Iraq policy from day one finally gets to see the backside of the morally and strategically challenged Bush administration. An academic who's spent his life believing that scholarly research can make our lives better is about to see the end of a government that did everything it could to deny America the rewards and insights of science -- Undermining the conclusions science offered on subjects from stem cell research to the warnings of climate scientists. An individual whose early family life was destroyed by catastrophic medical problems is about to see an American administration come into being committed to putting an effective universal health care system into place. No, the way I see it I should be celebrating this first day of 2009. But frankly I just can't get into it. Because there is too much on the other side of the coin of 2009 as everything this modern historian has ever learned and studied about the Great Depression seems to be emerging again before my eyes, like some long buried horror from the deep as I watch the world's current leaders inspired by their certainty that they must avoid the mistakes made by an earlier generation of depression era leaders. Even as it is just as obvious that their understanding of what the right moves actually are to avoid an earlier generations fate is considerably less certain. While another round of Israeli Palestinian violence sees the New Year opening with the drama of more Israeli and Palestinian lives once again being ruined as so often in the past by extremists. Sure this week's version of the Israeli Palestinian struggle is a bit different than those of the past. No this round is as much inspired by internal Palestinian struggles over the leadership of the Palestinian national movement -- driven as much by competition between Fatah and Hamas as between Israel and the Palestinians. Not forgetting Iran's cynical need to fight Israel to the last drop of Palestinian blood rather than anything linked to a successful future for those two embattled peoples. But while that analysis might explain part of what is happening it not mask the reality of more lives sacrificed for nothing You know, maybe I'll just go back to bed... at least until I can figure out what I think of this particular New Year day. Last night was after all a long night Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges December 18, 2008: Let's Get Real Here - (Listen) Maybe you can help me out with something. I can't figure out if I am angrier with the national media or the governor of Illinois. I mean how about some priorities here? In the last two weeks President Elect Obama has presented us with two future governmental teams, one on energy & the environment and the other on health care. Two teams he is tasking with transforming our lives, quite literally changing how our entire society operates now and deeply into the future. Now let me be clear here. We are not talking here about the usual sort of energy and environmental administrators. You know, the type that spends their time quietly worrying about nuclear proliferation or cleaning up toxic dumps. Or perhaps, the sort who have long directed our health based governmental positions. Those folks that traditionally spend their time tinkering at the edges of minor health care reform. No, this time we have an energy & environmental team ready to completely transform how we use energy in this country -- tasked with heading off climate change while finally stopping our strategically stupid policy of bankrolling of oil rich foreign dictators who hate us by substituting home grown climate saving green energy plants for our generations long dependence on foreign drilled fossil fuels that ruin the climate. In short a change that will transform huge segments of American economy & society and on heath care. Nor am I not talking about the health care system administrators of the past - the sort that has sat idly by as our national health care system became a disaster. But one tasked with revolutionizing our entire health care future. Implementing the curious idea that everyone should have access to health care without fearing bankruptcy something we absolutely need, especially right now. After all, isn't it obvious that the level of economic anxiety that is pulling down our economy at the moment - keeping folks out of stores and restaurants and putting into jeopardy even more jobs than are already at risk stems in part from the scary reality that losing one's job in America so often means losing one's health insurance --a potentially catastrophic loss far more dangerous than time without a regular paycheck. And given that reality I have been especially interested in President Obama's roll out of his new energy and health care teams. In fact, I am quite anxious to know what Carol Browner-the new White House Energy Czar thinks about how we are going to pull this off. Fascinated to know what our new Nobel Prize winning Energy Secretary Dr. Steven Chu has in mind for our future. And on health care I really wanted to hear lots of talk from and about Tom Daschle-our future Health and Human Services Secretary. But what did I get from our exalted 24 hour news organizations? Two weeks of drivel about the governor of Illinois's apparent effort to sell president's old job. Well frankly I don't care about Barack Obama's old job. No, I am much more interested in his new one and how it is going to affect my life, not the governor of Illinois. Now let's be clear about this. I like the crime novels as much as the next. And a good cop chase can capture my imagination. Certainly there's nothing like a good human frailty melodrama like seeing yet another Illinois governor go off to the slammer. But not right now. I don't have the time just now. Because creating new and workable health care and energy systems in this country is just too important for the media to waste my time with trivia. And if the news media does not understand that it's time to start looking somewhere else to find out what is happening. Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges December 3, 2008: Comparative Global Health Care - (Listen) It was a long time ago but I have been reminded lately of a conversation I once had in the old Soviet Union. It was with a French couple who were then touring Russia, having just completed a long road trip through the United States. It was a casual sort of chat that became fascinating when the male said he found the United States and Russia quite similar. Now, I don't consider myself that much of an American chauvinist. But the comment did catch me off guard. How could he possibly think the economically and politically closed Soviet Union could be similar to the so much more open America? But it was not that issue he assured me but something quite different. What he meant was that the United States and Russia were both simply so large that it was easy for their populations to forget the rest of the world existed. An important insight that has been on my mind lately as I have watched America finally grappling with the question of putting into place a universal health care system that covers our entire our society without making each of us terrified of bankruptcy least something go wrong with our medical insurance. Now mind you, I am amazed that America has finally figured out that while we might have the best medical technology and excellent MDs our overall health care delivery system is a disaster. Sure, as a historian I am deeply aware that we could not even try having this conversation before the Cold War ended. After all any politician brave enough to even bring up the subject would have been instantly branded a commie. A historical reality that helps explain the Clintons' early 1990s national health care effort and their failure Because in truth, during those first post Cold War years We were not yet ready to admit that however superior capitalism is over communism's infamous command economies. Or own profit driven market system is not particularly great for delivering health care either After all, the best way to make a health care buck is to ensure that only the healthy are insured. Of course now Barack Obama says he too is going to take on this critical issue. And I'm delighted that the failed Republican campaign -despite its inability to stay on track still managed to get a least one message through. That Republicans too understood that our health care delivery system is a disaster. But what I still don't understand is why we keep having this conversation in a vacuum. Acting as if we alone are considering inventing the light bulb of efficient national health care, when the truth is that large numbers of countries from around the world have already successfully taken on this challenge. Are there not lessons to be learned? Best practices to be copied? Do we want doctors we can choose? A concern which is, of course, an issue that opponents of national health often use to frighten people. Well, despite what you have heard, making sure folks have access to physicians of their choice is a common feature of many national health care systems. Is it better to have one national insurance plan or many? Is it better to have the government own the hospitals and employ the physicians? Or is it better to retain private hospitals and private physicians. All the above has already been tried with various degrees of success around the developed world. And there is much to learn. Sure a few hearty souls of have tried to give Americans some larger perspective. Michael Moore with his quirky but wonderful SICKO and PBS's more thoughtful "Sick around the World" are particularly good examples. But what I don't understand is why we are not having a comparative national health care dialogue all over the country right now. Forums designed to help us understand what others have long learned about effectively delivering universal health care. Doing so even before President Obama begins his effort. So that Americans rather than being 37th in the World Health Organization's ranking of health care systems. Can finally have the truly world class health care system most of us, until quite recently assumed we already had Dr. Steven A. Leibo is a professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges November 20, 2008: A Question of Priorities - (Listen) I think I am confused. I mean I just don't get all this recent media talk about whether Barack Obama, having campaigned so much on health care and new energy priorities, might find himself forced -- by the emerging realities of a weakening financial system - to spend all his time concentrating on the economy rather than the issues he won election on. For going, we are told, all those apparently less important promises the nation offered up its mandate for -- apparently leaving new green energy policies and a revitalized health care system to wait until prosperity returns Am I missing something here? I mean, what are the economic challenges America currently faces? Factories closing --Losing too many jobs to outsourcing, the dramatic up-tick of foreclosures that have followed on the financial collapse so tied to our recent housing bubbles. Homes worth less than folks owe on them. With mortgage payments they can't meet. While Detroit slips increasingly onto life support. But isn't Detroit suffering precisely because they, unlike their more farsighted competitors Honda or Toyota, refused to deliver the newer more efficient hybrids cars so obviously wanted by the consuming public. Sure, some folks wanted those gas guzzlers but that still left a huge market for hybrids that Honda and Toyota were delighted to fill when Detroit missed the boat. Isn't Detroit weakening precisely because, like so much of corporate America it suffers under the burden of an absurdly inefficient health care system that leaves them shouldering much of the administratively bloated burden while their international competitors --especially those from nations that already have universal health care -- are less constrained. Clearly it's a terrible situation that leaves forty seven million Americans without any health care and our nation's ability to compete in a globalized world economy deeply in question. No, the way I see it, fixing the economy means cleaning out Detroit's deadwood for new management teams ready to convert to the production of plug-in hybrids and completely electric cars. Not just the eagerly anticipated Volt but an entire fleet ready to fit diverse consumer needs. No, the way I see it fixing the economy means a real health care system not just a dysfunctional health care market that is counterproductive to America's overall economy health. I mean, where is it written that fixing the economy, both for the short term and long term is somehow different from taking on health care reform and the all important energy transition towards a new electric grid powered by green energy. I mean I just don't get it. Clearly most of our primary problems today are linked -- not necessarily in their origins… but so often in their solutions. And much can be done immediately in the near term Americans are extraordinarily wasteful in their use of energy - infinitely more wasteful than either the Europeans or Japanese both of whom live comparable lifestyles. And given that reality I should think that we can easily create millions of short term jobs something akin to the New Deal's WPA to help Americans weatherize their homes and buildings-making them more efficient in both cooling and heating. Clearly retrofitting inefficient buildings that are easily our greatest energy sinkhole-- far beyond even the transportation fleet - will create good jobs, requiring an enormous range of technical competence that simply can not be outsourced to Asia. Efforts that will save money that would otherwise simply be burnt away. At my house the energy bill is about the same as the mortgage payment. While in the long term, as the construction industry stalls we have very specific infrastructure projects like Al Gore Just proposed or the construction of concentrated solar-thermal power plants in the southwest, wind farms in the Midwest, and new geothermal plants where appropriate Doing so, all the while taking on the creation of a new energy grid that will make it easier to transmit all these new green energy sources under development. No, it seems to this commentator that the only people who think that fixing the economy is somehow different from rebuilding our energy structure and failing health care system are folks who simply don't know what our real problems are. Steven Leibo is the director of the program in International and Globalization Studies at the Sage Colleges November 6, 2008: On Feeling Sorry for the Winner - (Listen) Am I the only person who feels somewhat sorry for Barrack Obama? I mean, let's face it. If he is as smart as we all hope he is two years ago, given his new arrival on the national scene and the power and nostalgia for the Clinton years. He most probably thought that in announcing for the presidency he was beginning a more a realistic quest for the increasingly influential vice presidency. And then everything changed, as his own talents and America's thirst for change that went beyond the Bush years propelled him toward the nomination and the drama of Tuesday night. And so he finds himself facing challenges infinitely more demanding than when he announced. I mean challenged with successfully reengaging America into the world after America has for so long stood in defiance of the international community on everything from global climate change to the invasion of Iraq. But back then people only thought we had sinned over environmental cooperation and invading Iraq a country that had not attacked us. Sure the very fact of Obama's election will make that effort somewhat easier. But the reality is that the anger with America has also grown even more this fall as people around the world are increasingly blaming us for pulling down their own national economies -- putting their individual financial futures in jeopardy as the world spirals down dragged by American economic immaturity. Two years ago few American's understood how much we were pushing our climatic system toward a devastating level of instability while today President Elect Obama is now arriving in power at the very moment when climate change is apparently roaring down on us faster than anyone had predicted. While many scientists believe that the next few years -- the very years of his presidency -- are emerging as our very last best chance to avoid catastrophic climate change before various environmental feedback loops- self perpetuating natural forces take over, making our own efforts largely irrelevant. And of course he will have to take that existential threat on all the while having serving as the first African American president with all the hopes for reconciliation for our deeply race traumatized society his election has inspired. Not forgetting of course taking on the biggest economic meltdown since the great depression. The global economic meltdown which is only just beginning to drag so many of us down, all the while trying to confront a medical system that Americans, republicans and democrats red staters and blue staters alike have finally come to understand is deeply broken. Did I mention two wars, one in Iraq Obama has vowed to withdraw from while the situation in Afghanistan a struggle he has committed himself to deteriorates daily remembering of course that it will be during Obama's tenure in office that the bulk of all those world war two baby boomers will begin to really tax the social security system to its limits, an economic challenge that while it has been looming for decades. But that has now become even more critical as my generations accumulated pension saving have gone economically sour making us all the more dependent on social security Which brings me to one of the points, our new president elect kept emphasizing Tuesday night. That it was not just Barack Obama who had won but all of those who had worked to see his election come to pass. An important point to recall given that we had all better recognize that it is going to require a lot more than Obama's impressive skills and his electoral mandate to accomplish what has been dropped on his plate, dropped on our plate. In fact, unless all of us continue our own campaigns, from pushing the cause of health care to demanding the energy conversion necessary to preserve the climate system we have known so long Obama's presidency will fail and that failure will be our own Steven Leibo is the director of the program in International and Globalization Studies at the Sage Colleges October 22, 2008: "All Is Forgiven" Tom Freedman's Hot Flat & Crowded' - (Listen) I have a bad habit of holding grudges. I mean, despite all this week's publicity about Colin Powel's extraordinarily thoughtful critique of the evolution of the Republican Party over the last several decades, a perspective he offered as part of his endorsement of Barack Obama and his wonderfully impressive career. I have never forgiven the man, I once so admired, for his support of President Bush's unprovoked attack on Iraq the implications of which then Secretary of State Powell so clearly understood better than the great "decider" himself. And it's not just General Powell that aroused the ire of this commentator, referring of course to that other notorious George W. Bush enabler Tom Friedman-The New York Time's international affairs columnist. I mean, until now I have never even considered forgiving our nation's foremost Pulitzer Prize winning columnist for lending his enormous prestige to George W. Bush's naive and bloody leap into Iraq. I mean until recently, from the perspective of this commentator, Friedman's decision to lend credibility to that stupid effort remained largely unforgivable. But I am starting to rethink my animosity because in his new book Hot, Flat & Crowded Tom Friedman's has leapt into the enormously challenging task of educating people about what faces us if we don't manage an planetary energy conversion away from the global warming fossil fuels. Wonderfully, Friedman offers up for his readers an important contribution to the fight to avoid disastrous climate change. After all for decades the world's scientists tried in vein to warn humanity of the implications of our climbing rates of green house gasses. But scientists as a group tend to be terrible at turning their scientific knowledge into something understandable to the public. Worse yet too many of them look down on those scientific popularists who even try. In fact more often than not it has taken outsiders, amateur students of climate science who with the often invisible backing of the scientific community have needed to step forward to warn the world. Most obviously individuals like Al Gore, who if he not a not a scientist himself managed to get millions into the theatres with his popularly produced An Inconvenient Truth for their first popular introduction to the threat of climate change. A major public campaign Gore seemed to carry out practically alone until recently. But now Tom Friedman's wonderfully readable contribution, his Hot Flat and Crowded has brought his remarkable communication skills, his uncanny talent for capturing the exact image or symbol to illuminate an issue. And it's not just the threat of climate change that Friedman has taken on but the specifics of the challenges that face us in building a new energy grid of the sort the national Gore's We Can Solve it has been calling for. Sure, we are making progress. Instead of a president who spent his presidency slowing the world's effort to confront global civilization, we have two candidates McCain and Obama, both of whom claim to understand the existential threat climate change presents humanity. True, Barack Obama, the front runner leads a party more realistic about the reality of our current planetary emergency and policy wise, a party more comfortable with the sort of government intervention, subsidize, tax credits, and mandates required to take on the challenge. While John McCain, however committed he claims to be still leads a still largely in denial about climate change. But regardless of who wins the truth is that. As Al Gore learned during his distinguished political career, even from the most powerful office on the planet, the White House one can still lacks the power to take on the transforming the global energy grid demands without a global grass roots movement to demand that change. Just the sort of movement writers like Tom Friedman with his wonderful new book Hot Flat and Crowded can help inspire. Steven Leibo is the director of the program in International and Globalization Studies at the Sage Colleges October 8, 2008: Remembering Herbert Hoover - (Listen) Like a lot of Americans, watching our financial meltdown has me very nervous, probably more frightened than most given that I make my living teaching the history of the modern world. Which of course leaves me burdened by a head full of images of just how bad the lives of hundreds of millions of people became during the years of the Great Depression. Oh sure, I know history does not repeat itself if for no other reason than there usually remains a memory of the choices people made in the past -- a reality that was particularly obvious last week as our president made his no doubt extremely difficult decision to take on his historic government intervention into the private financial sector. Sure, President Bush and his republicans colleagues may be the heirs to the party that has most consistently embraced the ideology of the classical economic theorists who insisted that society would thrive best if the government stayed completely out of the economy. A philosophy Bush's Republican predecessor Herbert Hoover famously continued to embrace even as depression set in. In fact, I rather imagine a late night dream within which Herbert Hoover showed up, as Jacob Marley once invaded Ebenezer Scrooge's Christmas eve dreams, to encourage our current president not to make the same mistakes Hoover himself had made. But frankly it's not merely our current economic implosion that frightens me most but all those other fateful decisions people made in the aftermath of the 1929 stock market crash that really scares me. I refer of course to the reaction of the early 1930s international community as people saw their hopes, jobs, and saving draining away --the desperation that saw so many latch on to all sorts of dangerously radical ideas. Sure, our own country only embraced a relatively mild revolution, FDR's New Deal which committed itself to preserving capitalism by saving Americans from the worst of its erratic excesses --rejecting the idea that business should be allowed to do whatever it wanted, without government interference at all. Rejecting the idea that we should let private capital's captains totally control our fate, convinced naively, as it was once said; "that whatever was good for General Motors was good for America" No, FDR faced with capitalism greatest modern challenge set out to save capitalism from itself. Rejecting the communist assumption that government should be the employer of first resort for the radical by American standards idea that if absolutely necessary, the government could become a temporary employer of last resort as his civilian conservation corps and WPA demonstrated. Rejected the idea that government should stay completely out of the economy for a series of controls and guarantees, from the securities and exchange commission to social security and FDIC bank insurance. But it's not FDR's prudent modification of unregulated capitalism that concerns me. But my depressingly strong sense of all those other choices people made around the world in the face of the depression, choices whose impact was far more dangerous. The decision made by Japan's army in 1931 to conquer their way out of the depression by beginning what would become their decades long thrust into China in search of the economic tools it was believed would relieve depression era suffering at home -- a decision that saw Japan's fledgling Taisho Democracy come crashing down and with it the lives of millions and millions of East Asians It's my depressingly detailed knowledge of the fate of Germany's Weimar Republic that relatively moderate democracy that emerged in Germany after World War One, a moderate democracy that managed very nicely thank you to hold at bay both the forces of the right and left. At least until the depression radicalized German voting patterns sending voters fleeing from the moderate democratic center, a panic that eventually brought Adolph Hitler to power So, it's not just the fact that my pension fund is falling that so worries me but fears of what new stupid decisions humanity might make in the grip of our emerging crisis. No history does not repeat itself but it rhymes often enough to make at least this historian nervous as hell. Steven Leibo is the director of the program in International and Globalization Studies at the Sage Colleges September 26, 2008: In Praise of Plutocracies - (Listen) I must say, for someone who thinks this November's vote is likely to be the most important in American history - what with such existential threats like traumatic climate change barreling down on us it can be frustrating at times to be living in a state candidates take for granted. I was just reminded of that reality by a call from my son who just telephoned from Massachusetts complaining that he has not seen any campaign ads from the candidates. Of course it's not very surprising. Does anyone think that Obama won't win Massachusetts? Or that either candidate will be spending significant time in Texas --which is as firmly in McCain's corner. But of course as they say, to maintain a viable democracy voting is the least you can do. But for me going door to door at least for the national ticket seems like wasted time. I mean what the point of my going door to door for the democrats here in Albany, NY as long time a Democratic stronghold if there ever was one. But every time I feel such a sense of frustration, I happily remind myself of that one very useful element about our democracy. The reality of just how unfinished our democracy remains. No clearly we are not yet a real democracy. Sure we have made progress on all sorts of things, votes for women, those under 21, votes for previously disadvantaged minorities, direct votes for senators. But we still remain far short of an authentic democracy. A reality that is so obviously evident at the level of the presidential choice where we have not gotten even close to the ideal of one person one vote. We still have not embraced the idea of popular sovereignty most people consider a defining tenant of real democracy--not while we still have that absurd old thing, the electoral college. That silly vestige of an era when popular sovereignty had not yet quite fully prevailed --an era when we saddled ourselves with the soon to be absolute notion that arbitrary geo-political unites, Those increasingly irrelevant structures we call states matter more than people. But still it's not that part of our anti-democratic electoral infrastructure that occupies my mind these days. But that other central reality... that American remains as much plutocracy -a society governed as much by money as people. A concept I normally find unacceptable -what with the inherent powers large corporations and their lobbyists to manipulate our voting patterns. But it's also a reality that at times I frankly find rather useful. I mean its true I get to formally vote only once. But I can vote monetarily up to 2,500 times --at a dollar a pop to the candidate of my choice - sending off money to help make a difference in those all important swing states from North Carolina to Ohio. Places where my monetary vote can make a difference. Ok, it's true I don't personally have the thousands of dollars some people have to contribute. But my contributions can certainly supply an awful lot of the pizzas needed to fuel all those election canvassers going door to door in states, where the decision really could go either way. And that's only directly to the presidential candidate. No to me, it makes perfect sense to complement my one electoral vote with lots and lots of value added monetary votes. After all given that I regularly fork out big bucks for the government I have. It's wonderfully pleasant to be able to fork out cash for the government I want. Which is exactly what campaign contributions are about - not forgetting all the other complementary campaigns to make the senate and the house go one way or the other, all those policy groups pushing agendas that who ever wins the White House will have to address. Movement's Like Al Gore's "We Can Solve It" campaign to push us toward a green energy future. And of course not forgetting regional organizations like WAMC that help give us the facts we need to make these important decisions. Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. September 11, 2008: False Maverick - (Listen) For months, now, every time I have given a public talk about our growing climate crisis, the emerging planetary emergency that is pushing us closer and closer to the precipice of a traumatically destabilized global climate system -- the truth of which is becoming more and more physically obvious every day what with the evidence of stronger storms, more and more common drought and the ever faster melting of the artic ice which in itself helps to cool us ---climatic changes that are happening faster than most scientists predicted even a few years ago -- there has been one core point I have been delighted to add. That at least with this upcoming presidential election, the one most likely to have the longest historical implications for our collective futures, not only in our lives but those of our children and grand children for generations yet unborn that frankly some of us think need protection as well. That this time we had two candidates, John McCain, and Barak Obama, who both understood that the dangers that face us, who claimed to have studied the science. And for a long time on the campaign trail that seemed the case. No, I would tell my audiences. That we and our children were ahead by at least that one really big thing that instead of a president who denied climate change, a failed leader who did everything he could to try to stymie the world's efforts to regain some sort of climate equilibrium, saving us from a climatically embattled world so different from what we have known we had two candidates who claimed to get it. Two candidates who spoke of solutions that could wean us from our addiction to the foreign oil of nations that hate us, keep green energy conversion jobs right here at home. Jobs that could not be outsourced And frankly during primary season I was impressed with John McCain, whom I have long admired with his willingness to talk truth to his own Republican Party which has, for so long, remained in denial about our changing climate realities. A party of people who apparently have so little real concern about family values that they refuse to inform themselves about the real threats to their children's future. But over the last few weeks that John McCain has fallen away, a shadow of his former self. A shadow of the maverick he once was. A change so obviously revealed when he capitulated to the most activist of his own base in choosing a running mate who like so many of his party remains in denial about the most critical issue of our time The very issue that McCain, the supposed maverick was so unwilling to champion when it really mattered last week at the Republican convention with his tepid almost hidden aside about "healing our planet" during his acceptance speech. As if some real straight talk to his own party might just be too scary to take on. Faint words from a man who once claimed to "get it' And so obviously a dramatic loss of the courage John McCain has shown so bravely at other points in his life --unwilling to tell his own party the truth he claims to understand about our emerging atmospheric nightmare that other more thoughtful conservatives from George Pataki and Arnold Schwartenberg to Fox News' Rupert Murdoch and the Pope have long understood No, John McCain hardly seems much of a maverick to this observer. But a man who is turning out to be no maverick at all, but a sell out on the biggest issue of our new century-- a man so often hailed for saying he would rather lose an election than a war but who would apparently be quite willing to sell out an entire planet --at least the world's climate system as we have known it to win an election Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. August 21, 2008: A Day at the Beach What with it being August and all I often find myself thinking about the beach but with more ambivalence than most. You see, when I was in college, going to the beach could be a real downer. Certainly, U.C. Santa Barbara's coastal location was beautiful enough. But the problem was the beach itself -- not looking at it but using it. Because with every miss step could put your foot into a big glob of gooey tar, impossible to get off. Yes, oil that regularly leaked out of the Santa Barbara channel leaving me all these years later still feeling ambivalent at the beach and harboring a general dislike of off shore drilling. While everything from Chernobyl to Three Mile Island made me suspicious of nuclear energy. But I was never one of those who got all worked up over such issues. After all, I knew we needed energy to maintain our society. At least not until I started learning more about the overall impact of humanity's assault on our global climatic system and particularly after I got involved in Al Gore's global educational efforts to help people understand where our current energy habits are leading us --what with melting ice caps, greater draught and more powerful rainstorms. The result of course is information that has forced me to rethink many of my previous attitudes. I mean on one hand there is plenty of reason to feel progress is being made. After all, two years ago, when I spoke to audiences about climate change I was as likely to be picketed as believed. Two years ago, most Americans knew almost nothing about our emerging climate crisis while these days, almost everyone has become pseudo green. And now we have two presidential candidates both of whom claim to understand how threatened we are. But the problem is that while consciousness about what we are doing to our planet is growing in leaps and bounds the impact of global warming seems to be hitting faster than almost anyone the scientific community included envisioned. When I started all this, scientists were talking of a date for an ice free artic that extended beyond my own life time. Now an ice free summer artic is fast emerging and I am spending all my spare cash waterproofing the foundation of my own house, which used to resist just fine the onslaught of upstate New York rain storms. But seems these days less able to handle the monsoon-like weather we are getting lately. In short, we seem to be loosing the race between changing global energy habits and our new physical climatic realities. Not moving fast enough to retain the climatic equilibrium we need to avoid reeling from one disaster to another. Which is why I like Mr. Gore's "Repower" America initiative -- his effort to make sure that everyone one of our elected officials knows that ten years from now we want a clean energy electrical grid for America - one that feeds off of solar energy, along with wind energy and geo-thermal - clean renewable energy sources that won't keep us beholden to unsavory foreign governments. But my attitude has changed as well toward the nuclear and coal industries. I mean, if the nuclear industry can as some claim really pull off those new 4th generation nuclear plants that burn all their raw material, that don't leave radioactive waste around. Then I say let them be part of that future--- we need their contribution. And if the coal industry can really accomplish -- as some claim they can -- the technology to capture and return their climate changing emissions into the ground. Then let them be part of that clean energy future as well. But frankly I still don't see the point of pushing for more off shore drilling. I mean why invest so much in an industry that can't offer a real payoff for decades. And more importantly has no long term 21st century future. No, on that one I am still unconvinced Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. August 7, 2008: Watching the Beijing Olympics In these last few days before the Olympics start I have found myself thinking back with fond memories of a debate of sorts I had right here on WAMC some years ago with a representative from Amnesty International a debate about China's human rights record, It was really quite funny actually He kept talking about China's arrest of those who challenged the power of the Communist Party of Tibet's plight While I kept chiming in about how much the situation has improved True, I would say but it was much worse during the Great Leap Forward of the 1950s Right, I would respond but it was infinitely more awful during the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s Babbling on and on about how much freer the Chinese people are today Than they have ever been in their thousands of years of history When the exasperated Amnesty spokesman finally Blurted out in that Amnesty International does not do historical perspective A amusing line I've thought a lot about this week As the reporting ratcheted up for the Beijing Olympics But what can we learn about the world's oldest continuous civilization as it emerges as the globe's newest superpower Well, let me first offer a few pointers Take almost every thing you hear with a grain of salt While there will be thousands of journalists swarming all over China over the next few weeks Most of them lack the background to do a good job And they will often be contradicted By those of us who know a bit more Long time China Watchers who will Frequently remind people just how much life really is improving for the Chinese people So what is one to think of all the contractions? Sure there will reporters who really have specialized in China, know the language and its people well But be cautious about them as well Because in truth.. no one really knows what is going on in China I have spent most of my adult life studying China, writing about it Publishing a book every twelve months that covers events there Wondering around locations Chinese for more than 35 years And I have not got a clue about what is really happening Because no nation in the history of the world has ever changed this much this fast What we call Communist China is hardly communist at all A new more liberal China lives right along side a more authoritarian one A China indifferent to the environmental disaster it has become lives along side a China that is becoming deeply conscious of its green future And already playing a world transforming role in developing green technologies Chinese Citizens have never been so free Yet many are currently being harassed by a government terrified of being embarrassed during this all important month and then of course there is that dialogue of the deaf that occurs so often Especially on human rights The sort China is said not to have The problem of course is that our ultra capitalist rich person's version of human rights Is much narrower than the broader economic human rights To food, to shelter to health care That people around the world quite often assume are also human rights Thus we rant about China's lack of human rights While the Chinese recall proudly of how many hundreds of millions have been pulled from absolute poverty And as for the games themselves I can assure my listeners Most Chinese are proud as hell that they are hosting the games And efforts to spoil them will be seen as anti-Chinese western rhetoric Not narrow assaults on their still authoritarian government So how should you watch the games Well if I could humbly suggest There is one thing I can say for certain about the Chinese They are really good at hosting spectacles of this sort So just sit back, enjoy the show Identify with the athletes accomplishments and disappointments and if it inspires you to pick up a few books to learn more About the world's newest superpower All the better Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. July 24, 2008: Sometimes You Just Have to Say the Obvious The thing that what struck me most about Nobel Lauriat's Al Gore's big energy speech of last week Is a sort of depression that we have reached a point in our increasingly dysfunctional society when ideas that are absolutely self evident sound so obviously original I mean what exactly did the always thoughtful Mr. Gore exactly tell us last week When he proposed a ten year national goal of converting our entire electrical energy grid into one sourced by renewable energy That the key to moving past our present economic slowdown the loss of jobs and the mounting financial dislocation the burden of sudden and unsustainable energy costs the climatic threat of loosing large chunks of our coastline to the threat of rising waters to the crisis of increasingly drought parched sections of America largely due to humanities forcing of the global climate into a new equilibrium not forgetting, of course the constant blood tax we pay to insure that our oil life line to the Middle East remains intact is to recognize that the key to an enormous percentage of the basket of challenges that currently face us is to take on a massive ten year effort to make sure that all the electricity in this country is generated from green energy a commitment that will most certainly push down the price of oil especially as electric cars become more common a massive effort that will ensure millions of new jobs, jobs that can not be outsourced to China or India to convert our electricity infrastructure An effort that will push our currently ailing stock market up quite nicely As money is spent, and it will be a lot, to invest in the future Because solar, wind, geo-thermal and hydro-electric energy may be free and renewable But putting the infrastructure in place to capture their full potential is going to cost big bucks Big bucks that will eventually create more stockholder wealth And good jobs right here in America as we rebuild or energy infrastructure No Al Gore's simple yet wondrous solution could not be more obvious, important and timely as is his more immediate effort to build up the national grassroots movement to make sure it happens because, there are as always plenty who have invested their personal futures into today's unsustainable fossil fuel electrical grid and their needs will have to be taken care of West Virginia coal communities helped out as part of the transition But entrenched interests will also have to be confronted by a committed citizenry ready to push toward this vital goal because it won't happen unless we, in our collective millions will it so which is why Mr. Gore is asking people To sign up simply by going to his wecansolveit.org website to learn how to take part in this ever so obvious solution to the basket of challenges that face us frankly I just don't understand why this so obvious path toward solving our current challenges was not, long ago, taken up by those who run this country After all, even if we did not face our current basket of challenges From climate change to rising fuel prices Our national energy grid is already deeply outdated and fragile as all those regular black outs remind us so often and needs updating anyway Which is why, signing on to this effort going to the wecansolve.org website makes so much sense for ourselves and our children Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. July 10, 2008: "On a National Health Care System We can believe in" It's really am amazing story. Back in the mid nineteen 1990s, Just after Bill Clinton assumed office, the government decided to overhaul the health care system. And there was good reason to do so... more than 40 percent of the population had no health insurance at all. Hanging out there --- left adrift allowed only as much health care as they could personally afford. Ironic given that fact incomes so often go down precisely because medical conditions hamper our ability to earn. But the government, concerned about human rights As governments occasionally do realized that health care should be a core human right. And set about to establish a universal health care system. And they pulled it off. And today Only a bit more than a decade later the vast majority of nation's citizens are quite satisfied with the system. And even better-basic health statistics as people have the ability to take care of themselves are improving nicely thank you. Oh, I am sorry, I forgot to mention something I forget the most important part I am not talking about the United States that huge nation with all those powerful insurance and drug companies that insist on putting their profits ahead of our most fundamental national security issue the health of our citizens. No I am not taking about the nation whose whose ravenous insurance and drug companies ganged up on those who tried to make sure that all Americans had adequate health care Even if God forbid they were not rich or accomplished enough to be employed by a company that could foot the bill No, I am not talking about the US, I'm talking about Taiwan From which I just returned from having spent an exhaustive week studying their most impressive recent accomplishment Their effort, begun in the mid 1990s To make sure that everyone had health care operating on that simple premise that health care is a human right And today Taiwan's citizens enjoy a health care system That is still operated by private hospitals and clinics A world where health care is universal, where no one goes bankrupt because they have become ill A system that allows them to go whatever physician they want without referral A system that allows them to quickly get in see a physician Who more than likely works not for the government but a private hospital or clinic A system where the premiums are shared by employers, the government and individuals Where extra help is available for those who can't afford their premiums or even The very reasonable co-pays everyone is expected to pay per visit No I am not taking about the United States what the term means That thinks only of rich people's human rights… you know political rights Like voting or freedom of speech But a nation which completely ignores that most fundamental of human rights The right to live with decent medical care The right not to worry constantly that even the most minor medical crisis could destroy not only one's health but one's entire financial future No I am not talking about our extraordinarily inadequate American medical system But little Taiwan that accomplished precisely what we failed To grow up and join the rest of the developed nations from Germany to France, from England to Canada To ensure that everyone of its citizens had affordable access to medical care A system, that if we work very hard this fall We Americans might ourselves finally pull off But only if we recognize that it can be done only if everyone one of us takes up the fight…. Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. June 26, 2008: On Real Public Election Financing I must say, I was delighted that Barak Obama opted out of the public election financing system Delighted that we finally have a candidate who understands what century we are in Understands that a new century means new methods for practically everything Including raising money for elections Now, I suppose I should back up I am a child of the computer age. Born and bred in California's Silicon Valley One of my high school classmates invented the Apple computer Started sending e-mail in the mid 1970s seventies And then having had an early taste of the future I was required to wait patiently for decades until the rest of the world managed to catch up with Cupertino Waiting patiently for the new communications revolution to finally hit that tipping point when it would be almost as easy for individuals to broadcast their ideas widely As book publishers, radio and TV. producers have been doing for generations That moment when the general public went from being a passive audience for the ideas of those who held the reigns of media power to players themselves That day when mass communications would become a two way street As everything from those early listserves to today's youtube have demonstrated Which brings me back to the question of Obama's decision to forgo Public financing for his presidential bid Or should I say, his decision to forgo "last century" "public financing" The sort the government has been providing by pulling money from all those public minded types who clicked that little box on their federal taxes A great idea of the "last century" that helped the masses compete with the big money interests Even as it forced us to … given the nature of the system To contribute to political parties and candidates we detested After all the money was equally divided A crude but well intentioned effort to make elections less a contest between the really rich and the rest of us And that fine but "last century" idea Certainly fit the times, but those days are gone And a new century --- a new era of interactive mass communication has arisen And finally begun to have its long anticipated impact on our political system A revolution we have long known was coming From the early days when blogs started to compete with the main stream media And now, finally at lest we have arrived in an era When we can have not government run but real publicly financed elections A system that won't force us to support the campaigns of those we oppose I mean, let's be honest here.. how "last century" But of course in this new century We can now run campaigns financed by millions of average citizens Who might not be able to max out their contributions like the rich folks But who in their scores of millions can, if they set their mind to it with a few clicks of a computer mouse compete very nicely thank you with the rich folks who so dominated the politics of the last century provided of course that our political system brings forth a leader who can inspire them to contribute To pay not only for the government they have through taxes But the government they want through contributions And if a candidate can't inspire that small effort well they should not be running anyway no, from the perspective of this commentator having a candidate, like Obama demonstrate that he understands the money demands of winning this next election Easily the most important of our lives What with taking on unprecedented challenges from climate change to a decent system of national health care no, having a presidential candidate who understands that in this is a new century All the rules have changed Makes him, in my book, even more ready to lead Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. June 19, 2008: ON TIPPING POINTS They are called "tipping points," that moment when the climatic system having been pushed just so far by humanity no longer require our efforts --- our inputs as scientists say no longer needs us to pump any more greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere no longer requires us to burn down any more Co2 absorbing forests to begin its roller coaster run toward a new climatic balance of higher waters, much more powerful storms and wide spread drought shoving us into a geo-political environment where nations fight and people die to secure dwindling water resources and the problem is that we don't yet understand exactly where those tipping points are don't know yet just how much more green house gasses we can pump up before our contribution to a general melting no longer matters and while I think its great that both presidential candidates Barack Obama and John McCain understand the threat we are under It's now gone way past getting a president in place Who can actually appreciate the science of our deeply threatened civilization No, now we have to immediately start fighting for our way of life Fighting for the political changes that will allow us A reasonable chance to preserve the climate we have built our civilization within A battle that must be engaged now As the pre-eminent issue After all nothing is more important than everything And this struggle is not some abstraction But a good chunk of our entire core economic and security challenge Intimately tied to rising food prices and energy costs As inclusive as an issue can possible be in this season of decision And I must say that I'm delighted that even the republicans are finally starting to get it That they finally nominated a man, McCain, who knows how threatened we are Delighted that the national Republican Party is belatedly seeing the light Emerging from the cocoon of denial they have long lived in Moving past their decades long effort to stop our citizens from saving themselves but I also watched last week's senate debate on putting in place a plan to actually do something about the climate crisis listened carefully to what the republicans were saying and what I brought away from that debate is that too many republican leaders still don't get it that the same republicans who empowered George W Bush to stall so long that we are most probably droving toward one of those tipping points right now toward the cliff edge with the same speed those movie heroines Thelma and Louise once did in that great film's climatic ending racing toward climatic tipping points which will push us beyond the ability to save ourselves But not all tipping points are tied to the physical world we are also hitting a political tipping point when America begins the effort to save the climate balance we have so long known but let me be very clear, I am not trusting the republicans to get religion fast enough to save my family's future not risking the entire planet on a political party that tried to stop us from saving ourselves that caused us to loose almost a decade in this, the fight of our lives and for those who agree with me our most immediate task now that primary season voting is behind us is to start organizing and training, building the street level campaigns that win elections working as if our world depended on it.. because it really does and its time to start contributing money big time to make sure that we create our own political tipping point that will see us taking vigorous efforts to save our planetary climate now I know most of us don't have that much ready cash that what we have is increasingly going to enrich the very oil barons that are ruining our future as they get rich off our present but there are a lot of us.. and a few bucks each every month to save the future is not a bad bargain at all Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. May 29, 2008: It's the Ideology Stupid I probably should not mention it Given how partisan our politics have become Red states, blue states Moderate republicans and wacko republicans Clinton and Obama supporters but frankly I like all three possible presidents admire their personalities, their personal histories and accomplishments but I also don't care about any of that after all I am not planning to invite any of them to dinner sure sometimes individual personalities have been very important to me I thought George W. Bush was dumb and Al Gore smart I was more impressed with Gerald Ford than Jimmy Carter but not this time no, from my perspective if this time it's not Bill Clinton's famous "it's the economy stupid" this time its "the ideology stupid" in fact the answer to a very basic question A question that has had a profound impact on humanity over the last century what should the relationship be between the government and the economy? on one side the extreme answer, the answer of the command economy folks --- mostly the communists what should the relationship be between the government and the economy? as much as possible and on the other…. On our side, the capitalist, market economy answer as little as possible sure there were those in the middle, those who rejected the dictatorship of communism and the laissez faire capitalist obsession with profit sure there has long been a middle ground to the question particularly among European social democrats but most Americans hardly know they exist so their own answers have added little to American political discord no -- as far as we were told there were only the two most obvious answers to our simple question, what should be the relationship between the government and the economy? our own frequently very productive profit driven private capitalism and the extraordinarily inefficient command economies of Moscow and its friends a particularly convenient perception given long standing republican opposition to everything from social security to Medicare to their obsession with privatizing everything from the military to education but the cold war is over and a new century has begun and the way I see it… we have two fundamental issues facing us this November And I don't mean the war Clearly that is winding down whatever we do No our two core challenges are The challenge of an energy conversion away from carbon based fuels like oil Because our current system leaves us to the mercies of countries that despise us Because our current system is destroying the climatic balance within which humanity has flourished for the last ten thousand years And creating a national health care system which guarantees that each and everyone American has adequate health care Without fearing bankruptcy in their effort to stay healthy Making sure that our corporations don't bare the burden of health care When their international competitors don't Which is exactly why the fact that I admire John McCain, Barak Obama and Hillary Clinton Is absolutely meaningless Because both of our great new 21st century challenges Require not new personalities But a rethinking of the simple question What should be the best relationship between the government and the economy And the way I see it, the democratic party With its roots in the revolutionary transformations of the FDR years Of the New Deal Of programs from social security to Medicare All of which caused paroxysms among the most conservative among us has already done enough preliminary thinking To embrace the kind of intelligent government economic intervention The sort that will make sure we get a decent health care system The sort that will create the new energy regulations That will ensure that businesses can make a profit even as they are saving our planetary climate Which is why, this time Its not about John, Hillary or Obama Its about which party, which ideology Is most ready for the 21st century Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. May 15, 2008: On Dan Quayl I should probably admit it at the outset that while Dan Quayl served as vice president, I did not spent a lot of time thinking about him. Well, maybe that's not entirely true, I do remember feeling quite sympathetic When it turned out he couldn't spell potato. I can't spell either. But that most undistinguished vice president has been On my mind lately because, from my perspective... all this talk about Hillary being unwilling to serve as vice president to the obviously less experienced Barak Obama Seems really weird. After all, the last time a newly inaugurated president had more national political experience than the incoming vice president was twenty years ago. when George Herbert Walker Bush chose Dan Quail. No, in recent American political tradition the sort of team an Obama Hillary Clinton ticket offers Has, in fact, become the norm. Does anyone really think that Bill Clinton's experience governing one of the smallest states in the United States matched Al Gore's, service in Vietnam, his national electoral experience in the house of representative and the senate? Does anyone possibly think George W. Bush experience Governing Texas and a "baseball team" Matched Dick Cheney's experience as the White House Chief of Staff, Secretary of Defense and Congressman! Or for that matter, does anyone imagine that John Kennedy's political experience matched that of long time Senate leader Lyndon Baines Johnson? Now one can easily understand why Barak Obama might not want to serve as third fiddle In an administration dominated by Hillary and Bill Clinton. And for those of us, who would prefer that the extraordinarily talented but too frequently undisciplined Bill Clinton not end up back in the White House Even as first husband - having Bill Clinton's insights and experience available just down the road at the vice president's official home would be a perfect solution. Close but not too close. And Hillary herself certainly knows, that in FDR's time the vice presidency Might not have been---as it was said -- worth a bucket of warm spit But more recent vice presidents From Walter Mondale, to Al Gore and Richard Cheney have seen the role grow into a position of real influence So from the perspective of this commentator Letting this battle over the democratic nomination A battle between two fine and able potential leaders go on a bit longer Seems just fine. And then, if the numbers play out the way they seem to be I'd be more than delighted to see an Obama Hillary Clinton ticket Take on the republicans this fall. Now that's change I can relate to Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. May 1, 2008: America's Health Care Choice I should probably apologize in advance; I might not get through this commentary You see, I have very bad asthma In fact, if it were not for the excellent audio editing skills of the staff of Northeast Public Radio These commentaries would probably not be comprehensible What with all the wheezing and coughing... Which is exactly why I am not particularly interested in the silly battles which currently dominate the contest for the democratic presidential nomination You know the stuff about Hillary's exact stance on NAFTA or Barak's loose cannon former pastor For me the choice was made long ago I am voting for who ever wins the democratic nomination Because unlike the Republicans…the Democrats have committed themselves to fixing the American health care system committed themselves to pulling our country from our embarrassing thirty seventh place in the World Health Organization's assessments of national health care systems Into a system that guarantees health care for every American while removing the fear of going bankrupt because of medical bills. I suppose it's not surprising that I am so concerned Given how critically dependent I am on medicines to hold my asthma at bay No, its time for America to catch up with the rest of the successful democracies And provide the sort health care one finds from Taiwan, to Japan, from England, to Canada, from France and Germany to Switzerland guaranteed health care, without the fear of bankruptcy Sure some would say I act rashly so totally dismissing the republican John McCain Sure I would have much preferred him to have been in the White House than George W. But McCain may be a maverick when it comes to challenging his president on torturing prisoners But he's just like the rest of this party in his commitment to stopping Americans from creating a truly world class universal health care system No, the Republican Party and Senator McCain himself just don't seem to be able to make the intellectual leap past that absurd idea that all Americans should have a guarantee of legal help If they get in trouble with the law --But no rights whatsoever to that ever so much more basic human need health care Sure we all know the republicans especially love big business, love corporate profits But they don't seem to get the emerging reality that it's not the just the American people who are hurt by our lousy health care system A system so much more expensive and less efficient than elsewhere But that our corporations ---who employ so many of us Get burned as well Burdened as they are financing the health care costs of their workers While so many of their international corporate competitors don't carry bare such a burden No for me for, one of the biggest choices in this up-coming election Is the absolute necessity to back not an individual but the party that has committed itself To universal health care That has made it clear that we can learn from the more impressive systems around the world Literally from England to Taiwan National health care systems so amusingly documented in Michael Moore's quirky but delightfully entertaining Sicko And PBS's the infinitely more impressive and sophisticated look at the same subject Which just appeared on pbs last week Sick Around the World .. easily available at the PBS Frontline web site But of course learning more is not enough, now it's time to get involved…to get up from that couch or the computer It's good for your health anyway And attend one of the many public events around our area designed to raise public attention like May 6ths noon time legislative rally at the New York State Capital building in Albany Always keeping in mind That it's finally time that honest tax paying American citizens with health problems should get at least as much consideration as accused criminals with legal ones Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. April 17, 2008: Reflections on National Identity He was an older gentleman, a symbol of the nation he'd led for years But once arrested he spent his first days clapped in irons For his effort to challenge Abraham Lincoln's vision of a unified United States of course today, Jefferson Davis is not well known But he has been on my mind lately As I have watched all those Tibetan Independence demonstrators doing everything they can to support Tibet and humiliate China on what the Chinese had hoped would be their proudest hour The Beijing Olympics Demonstration so often inspired by the charismatic Dalai Lama But while Westerners see the Dalai Lama as a man of non-violent wisdom Most Chinese leaders look at the Dalai Lama with the same eyes Abraham Lincoln reserved for his arch enemy, Jefferson Davis Because, the simply fact is, that the Chinese leadership and almost certainly a majority of the Chinese people really do think Tibet is part of China that the Dalai Lama is trying to break up their country As Western imperialists came so close to accomplishing in the nineteenth century Now let me be very clear The Tibetans have plenty of grievances In the nineteen sixties their culture experienced a physical and culture assault They barely recovered from While today, their enormous land, at its largest expanse 15 times the size of the United Kingdom Is filled with only a few million ethnic Tibetans A reality not surprising given the Tibet's historic decision To have an extraordinary percentage of their population live out their lives as celibate monks and nuns A decision that made Tibetans less able to populate the land they have so long claimed And who have now by virtue of their own population decisions And current Chinese policies Become vulnerable to the flooding of their ancestral homeland by arriving Han Chinese immigrants A reality any Native American can easily identify with And while it is true, that in today's Tibet monasteries and language studies have again flourished Any Tibetan who has not embraced a Chinese education and lifestyle Has, very few professional options No the Tibetans have plenty of reason to vent their anger As anyone who has spent time there can easily attest But as is so often the situation is much more complicated than it initially appears Especially the claims that Tibet is simply an independent nation conquered by the Chinese in 1950 When the reality is quite different In deed, while pre-modern Tibet did not include significant numbers of Han Chinese China and Tibet have been historically intertwined for centuries At times China has even served as Tibet's defender against aggressive outsiders from the Nepalese to the British While the Tibetans even served as the spiritual guides of the Mongols who conquered medieval China Indeed the relationship is so intertwined that this historian could easily build a case either for or against Tibet's independence from China A tale of competing narratives that would reveal little light to the current reality That Tibet's few millions have absolutely no chance to become separate from China billions And the hard but certain reality that if Tibet is to preserve its cultural identity It will only accomplish that goal within the People's Republic But that won't happen as long as the Tibetan movement Encouraged by outsiders, especially officials from the American government Keep forcing the Chinese to see Tibetan culture through the mirror Of a western plot to destroy the People's Republic As westerners had once hoped to pull down the Soviet Union A perception easily maintained given America's historic Cold War nurturing of the Tibetan independence movement so what should those who want to preserve Tibetan culture do? Well, frankly I would avoid leaving the Tibetans as China's principal scape goat if they are humiliated internationally While doing everything one can to visit Tibet itself Ignoring those who call for a boycott of Chinese held Tibet I would plan an extended visit, learning about the Tibetans, learning from the Tibetans Supporting their businesses and building up Tibetan tourism Making it easier for Tibetans to maintain their cultural traditions And convincing the Chinese, ever mindful of the need for economic development Of the financial value of keeping Tiban culture alive Doctor Steven Leibo is a Professor of International History and Politics at the Sage Colleges. He is also the author of the annual, “East & Southeast Asia”, which is reissued every August in the Striker Post’s Wold Today Series. |
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