The Problem of Political Leadership in America

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robert-kuttner/from-depression-to-public_b_822685.html

Kuttner contrasts the leadership that took place after the Great Depression and the political leadership today. Many of our iconic infrastructure projects were undertaken to lead the country out of the Depression and to provide the infrastructure that has helped the country to grow. Other countries, like China, are making the infrastructure investments that will pave the way to the future. In the US we have one party that has an internal battle about how much they should cut investment for our future in order to appease its political base. The other party is led by a president that believes in making investments for the future but appears to have been tamed by the results of the last election. He has chosen to take the practical route of following public opinion rather than leading the public in the direction that we should be taking. His pragmatism may be due to his recognition that the media have become the primary source of opinion formation in the US and that he is unable to harness it to his advantage. The consequence is that our leaders are following an electorate whose information and opinions have been shaped by the media.