My Sentiments Exactly

From today's Boston Globe:

IN THIS YEAR'S presidential campaign, both candidates have attempted to position themselves as champions of change. However, neither John McCain nor Barack Obama has devoted much attention to the obvious and troubling ways that America has already changed.

It wasn't so long ago that America was in a class by itself. American industrial, military, and scientific strengths played a vital role in winning World War II. In the postwar period, the standard of living enjoyed by the average American family was beyond the imagination of most of the world. American cars, appliances, and electronics set the global standard. And when a challenge did arise, from the Soviet Union's emergence as a nuclear power and its launch of Sputnik, America's response was to increase investment in education, research, and development, and to pledge to put a man on the moon within a decade.

That was then. Today's America:

Achieves inferior health outcomes and life expectancies compared with many other developed nations despite spending more money on healthcare and covering fewer people;

Has an education system that produces mediocre results and leaves millions of high school dropouts behind every year;

Holds only 3 percent of the world's oil reserves but consumes 25 percent of the world's oil, building up the economic, political, and military power of petroleum-exporting countries and spewing more greenhouse gases into the atmosphere than any other nation;

Spends more on its military than the 14 next highest-spending countries combined, but finds itself bogged down in two wars still seeking an elusive security;

Supports its consumption and lifestyle by tapping into home equity, maxing out credit cards, and becoming the biggest debtor nation in the history of the world by borrowing hundreds of billions of dollars from other countries.

These are certainly among the most critical challenges facing our country in the coming decades. But for the most part, you wouldn't know it from the candidates' speeches and debates.

One candidate or the other may tiptoe up to one of these inconvenient truths if he thinks he can blame the other party for them. Obama and McCain have both tried to pin responsibility for the massive financial meltdown on the opposing party. But much of the campaign has been devoted to blather about how we can drill and mine our way to energy independence. Or tired platitudes about how our workers can out-innovate and out-compete anyone. Or outright falsehoods about American medical care being the envy of the world. And, of course, studied silence about how a country so deep in hock can maintain its standing in the world and afford all its spending commitments.

Hey guys, it's not 1958 anymore.

There's no secret why candidates tend to speak so bullishly yet vaguely about America's future: Voters like optimism. Such different presidents as George W. Bush, and before him Ronald Reagan and John Kennedy, and before them Franklin Roosevelt made optimism the hallmarks of their political personae.

Projecting confidence in the future is one element of leadership. But if candidates largely avoid candid talk about the most important challenges ahead, our election campaigns, for all their length, expense, and 24/7 news coverage, do less than they should to engage voters on the issues facing the country. Maybe this is smart electoral strategy. However, if so it comes at a cost - namely, a lost opportunity to build popular support for critical decisions the new government will have to make.

The stakes are very high in this election, and there are passionate partisans on both sides. But whomever the voters choose next week, America will not magically become more prosperous, healthy, competitive, and secure next Jan. 20.

As our new president-elect contemplates the awesome responsibility he soon will inherit, he should consider this: More Americans than ever believe the country is on the wrong track. On some level, the American people know that the sunny bromides of politicians do not reflect America as it is today and will not help to build the future Americans hope for.

Maybe once the campaigning is over and the governing begins, they will be ready for some straight talk.

Jim Gomes, a guest columnist, is the director of the Mosakowski Institute for Public Enterprise at Clark University.