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January 05, 2008 09:20 pm
Boren's book, "A Letter to America," contains a sense of urgency
Column
By Andy Rieger
CNHI News Service
NORMAN, Okla. — University of Oklahoma President David L. Boren, a former state legislator, governor and U.S. senator, can now add published author to his resume'.
His book, “A Letter to America,” will be on store shelves soon. Word of its existence has been circulating for weeks, and the bipartisan conference on campus Monday may have hastened delivery of the advance press copies.
The book is a quick but thoughtful read that won’t be on Oprah’s list and won’t likely be made into a major motion picture starring Fred Thompson as President Boren and Diane Keaton as Molly Shi Boren, the university’s first lady.
But it should be a must-read for anyone in a leadership position or those who envision such a career path.
The themes are not new to those who have followed Mr. Boren’s career. His introductions of world leaders, historians, journalists and others over the years have included some of the same ideas, and the same big-picture questions.
The prime campaign season publication of “Letter to America” and the much-hyped conference will be seen by some as an indication of Mr. Boren’s rekindled interest in elective office. He left Washington politics in 1994, publicly frustrated by the partisan gridlock that paralyzed the nation’s Capitol. Mr. Boren’s father, Lyle Boren, served in Congress before him, and now his son, Dan Boren, serves there.
My take, after watching and listening to him for the better part of three decades, is that he has no such interest in diving back into the shark-filled waters of partisan politics. His personal health battles over the past few years may have been a wake-up call to his own mortality and the legacy he will eventually leave. The birth of a grandchild, too, always gives cause for personal reflection.
Mr. Boren’s book addresses our perceived arrogance, the declining image of the United States abroad, a growing cynicism of government by its own citizens, the declining middle class, corrupt political campaigns and the looming entitlement funding crisis.
Letter to America could potentially give rise to an independent presidential and vice presidential candidate but it won’t be President Boren.
America’s disconnect is a common story line in the book.
Mr. Boren’s experience in the classroom with freshman political science students has given him many anecdotes. He sees both optimism and concern among the young scholars.
Although most volunteer for a charitable cause, few aspire to public office. They don’t want to endure the rigors of campaigns that have descended from spirited debate to non-stop fundraising and mean-spirited attacks.
If they were to somehow win an office, Mr. Boren writes, they will find the party line doesn’t always align with the national interest. More times than not, it’s about how can we best make the other side look weak and vulnerable before the next election.
He advocates campaign spending limits, a ban on contributions from out-of-state interests, no more special interest gifts and an outright prohibition on political action committee donations. One idea to resurrect grassroots democracy is for candidates to accept campaign donations from only those who live in that candidate’s home state or district.
Mr. Boren also wants to bite the bullet on the nation’s entitlements. He seeks to raise the retirement age to qualify for Social Security and Medicare and tax those government benefits based on the ability to afford it.
Universal health care also gets his support.
“It is time to recognize that our inaction is immoral,” he writes after painfully summarizing a fellow OU employee’s family health care crisis.
Problems with higher education are not exempt from Mr. Boren’s treatise. Too few universities require American history or government classes of their graduates. Students leave college with little sense of the nation’s Constitution, its history and, sadly, its soul.
Our public school teachers should come from the top third of graduating classes. Their compensation should be commensurate with the importance of the task, he writes.
Longer school years and massive expenditures in the country’s crumbling infrastructure are also among his recommendations.
The worldly challenges Mr. Boren writes of won’t make headlines. They are the result of years of not listening to our allies and confusing world leadership with world dominance.
He suggests the United States begin treating emerging world powers like China and India with the same respect reserved for any equal partner.
“If we allow ourselves to become adversaries, we could face a situation far more dangerous than we faced in the Cold War with the Soviet Union,” he writes.
Even though the book could be viewed by some as a wake-up call for America, Mr. Boren writes with much optimism. Volunteerism and charitable giving are up. Immigrants are still standing in line to get here and our standard of living rises with each generation.
But could the perfect storm be forming somewhere over Middle America? In Mr. Boren’s world, such a storm could unleash an independent presidential candidate who could encourage future bipartisanship in a unity government. Let them govern for a couple of terms and then return to the historic two-party system, ever mindful of what could happen if they again descend into bipartisan gridlock.
Andy Rieger writes for The Norman (Okla.) Transcript. Contact him at editor@normantranscript.com
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