I am convinced that this kind of nation-building at home is exactly what Mr. Obama is trying to deliver, and should be his unifying call: We need universal health care because it would strengthen our social fabric and enable our businesses to better compete globally. We need to upgrade our schools because no child in 21st-century America should be left behind and because we cannot compete for the best new jobs without doing so. We need a greener economy, not just to mitigate climate change, but because a world growing from 6.7 billion people to 9.2 billion by 2050 is going to demand more and more clean energy and water, and the country that develops the most clean technologies is going to have the most energy security, national security, economic security, innovative companies and global respect.
But to deliver this agenda requires a motivated public and a spirit of shared sacrifice. That’s where narrative becomes vital. People have to have a gut feel for why this nation-building project, with all its varied strands, is so important — why it’s worth the sacrifice. One of the reasons that independents and conservatives who voted for Mr. Obama have been so easily swayed against him by Fox News and people labeling him a “socialist” is because he has not given voice to the truly patriotic nation-building endeavor in which he is engaged.
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I have to admit I thought this was satire until I saw it was in the NYT and who the author is!
INC on November 1, 2009 at 8:45 PM
He spelled destroying wrong.
lorien1973 on November 1, 2009 at 8:46 PM
Translation: raising taxes. RAsiing lots of taxes to pay for all this.
Wethal on November 1, 2009 at 8:46 PM
well, this would explain Friedman’s respect for a police state.
rob verdi on November 1, 2009 at 8:46 PM
I hate to tell him, but the political elite have no intention of sharing or otherwise taking part in any sacrifice.
INC on November 1, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Mr. Friedman will try to spin a happy face on any and every thing this president does. Regardless of how it hurts the country. I don’t want our nation to be built into Europe. Can’t we please value the individual?
Cindy Munford on November 1, 2009 at 8:47 PM
Only when TOTUS is working well. One little glitch, and Obama is near incoherent.
Wethal on November 1, 2009 at 8:49 PM
I thought “No Child Left Behind” was the previous president’s line.
Crawford on November 1, 2009 at 8:49 PM
I think I’m confused. Wasn’t “nation-building” what they didn’t want us doing? And weren’t they against No Child Left Behind? And “the most energy security” when they’ve done everything they can to make sure we can’t drill here and now? National security? You mean the same people that want to close Gitmo and bring those prisoners here? Or the ones who shut down the missile defense and ended the fighter jets? Or the ones who wanted out of Iraq so badly and now have no clue what to do in Afghanistan? Economic security? With that 10% unemployment that is getting “better” because it didn’t drop by as much as expected… or the foreclosures leveling out… which means of course that they didn’t drop as much as last week? Innovative companies? Would that be the banks and car companies the government took over or bailed out that went into bankruptcy anyway with our billions going poof in the process? And “global respect”? Why? Because we’re on our knees and kissing the rings of the Saudi King? Puh-lease!
This Saul Alinksy thing about saying what people want to hear while you do the exact opposite is becoming increasingly visible to the naked eye. At this point, I’m not even sure the eye needs to be naked to see this!
UnderstandingisPower on November 1, 2009 at 8:50 PM
Less Zoloft, more common sense for Friedman.
SouthernGent on November 1, 2009 at 8:50 PM
He’s trying to remake the US in the image of his childhood Indonesia (as he exacts revenge on the whites and the successful and cuts the US ‘down to size’). Great.
Every person who voted for that traitor and moron ought to be shipped to Indonesia, since they love that sort of insane governance and thrid world mentality.
Morons.
progressoverpeace on November 1, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Nation building us all the way to the prosperity and freedom of Zimbabwe.
elduende on November 1, 2009 at 8:51 PM
The new watchword for socialism. How nice.
BobMbx on November 1, 2009 at 8:51 PM
Oh, and if Obama’s so fired-up about building the nation up, why is his rhetoric so focused on tearing us down? Why all the crap about how we can no longer be leaders, expect others to share our values? Why the insistence that, rather than showing the rest of the world how to create a wealthy and free society, we instead become just another member of the herd of the enslaved and impoverished?
Crawford on November 1, 2009 at 8:52 PM
TOM FRIEDMAN, SIR, IS AND IDIOT!
BJ* on November 1, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Yes he has. It’s called M-A-R-X-I-S-M!!!
csdeven on November 1, 2009 at 8:52 PM
Oh for the love of Pete…
OneGyT on November 1, 2009 at 8:52 PM
i love when democrats strengthen our social fabric
…
..always seems to tear it apart that way.
blatantblue on November 1, 2009 at 8:53 PM
You lost me there. How was it, again, that universal health care would enable our businesses to better compete globally?
Steven Den Beste on November 1, 2009 at 8:53 PM
More gems from your My Head is Flat book, Tom?
John the Libertarian on November 1, 2009 at 8:54 PM
Oh, and if shared sacrifice is so damned important, why doesn’t Friedman lead the way by turning his mansion into a homeless shelter and living in an ordinary home? Why doesn’t Friedman excoriate Al Gore for Gore’s lavish lifestyle?
Why doesn’t the self-declared elite hold itself to the standards they want to set for the rest of us?
Crawford on November 1, 2009 at 8:54 PM
And of course, throwing more money at schools will automatically improve them…
I was looking at a McKinsey report – in 2006, on standardized tests, we were 25th in math, and 24th in science world-wide. Where we were #1 is nobody spends more money per point of achievement on the math test – we spend 60% more per point than other developed countries. Thanks, teachers’ unions!
http://www.mckinsey.com/App_Media/Images/Page_Images/Offices/SocialSector/PDF/achievement_gap_report.pdf
Realist on November 1, 2009 at 8:55 PM
It’s a rather common lefty talking point. The basis, apparently, is that since companies in other nations don’t need to pay for their employees’ health care, we’re crippling our companies by putting that cost on them. Never mind that, in reality, non-US companies pay for their employees’ health care through increased taxes…
It’s a nonsensical claim, regardless. That it has become the received wisdom apparently comes from the lefty belief that anything provided by the government is “free”.
Crawford on November 1, 2009 at 8:59 PM
Oh, and on the schools — didn’t Obama shut down the vouchers program in DC? Are we supposed to believe that forcing everyone into mediocre union-run schools is the way to prepare for the future?
Crawford on November 1, 2009 at 9:00 PM
The only nation-building Obama is trying to do is a European Social Democracy.
Americans don’t want that.
p0s3r on November 1, 2009 at 9:00 PM
Hi INC: Did not realize that you were Be John…. Congrats.
jeanie on November 1, 2009 at 9:02 PM
I guess this is what you get for playing 18 holes with the president. Reporters who are lapdogs.
Chudi on November 1, 2009 at 9:03 PM
Has he borrowed Obama’s teleprompter?
jeanie on November 1, 2009 at 9:04 PM
Friedman likens America and it’s citzens, in this article, to the horse pulling the cart the elites sit on and direct by pulling the reins in the name of “Civic Idealism”. I, for one, would remind them of the end of the horse they are looking at.
Dede Scozzafava, and the RNC, found out what can come out of that end of the horse when you whip it up, and deserved every “Apple” dropped!
I don’t want the government, the elites, or anyone else directing me – with reins or a whip!
FloridaBill on November 1, 2009 at 9:05 PM
More like nation-bilking.
Jim Treacher on November 1, 2009 at 9:05 PM
Hi, Jeanie! Thanks, I’m one of numerous others!
INC on November 1, 2009 at 9:09 PM
Because in countries with socialized health care, the Health Care Fairy pays for it all – it doesn’t affect local businesses costs in the least…
Realist on November 1, 2009 at 9:09 PM
Wouldn’t it be great if obama did come out and announce he is nation building? The GOP would not have to worry about losing another election for 10 years or more.
jeanie on November 1, 2009 at 9:09 PM
INC on November 1, 2009 at 9:09 PM
Can we get a glimpse of the blueprint?
karlant on November 1, 2009 at 9:10 PM
Tom Freidman looking for the narrative that ties Obama’s big plans all together? … Try Marxism.
Dasher on November 1, 2009 at 9:13 PM
Leftists don’t build; they tear down what others have built.
Rational Thought on November 1, 2009 at 9:14 PM
Tom Friedman is a complete failure as a human being:
If Tom Friedman had his way I (and many others) would be a Laogai prison camp. Pure evil is now in charge of this country and the mainsewer media and academia cheer it on:
Kalapana on November 1, 2009 at 9:18 PM
I really am sick to death of reading this shallow minded collectivist claptrap. There is one word for such “if only we could pull together and work as a team toward the same end” nonsense – Marxism! Liberals really don’t understand that we are a nation of individuals, each with our separate hopes, dreams, aspirations and priorities. They see us as ants in an anthill, it’s as simple as that.
It comes to something when a grown adult like Friedman cannot think about life deeply enough to understand why collectivism doesn’t work.
Sharke on November 1, 2009 at 9:18 PM
For after The Precedent has razed the US and exacted his third world revenge on us … look at Indonesia. You can watch “The Year of Living Dangerously” for a hint of the society the Indonesian imbecile was raised in.
progressoverpeace on November 1, 2009 at 9:18 PM
Is that another word for propaganda?
misslizzi on November 1, 2009 at 9:22 PM
Londonistan with Death Panels.
Kalapana on November 1, 2009 at 9:22 PM
That surely gave us a glimpse into his inner soul. He longs for control. Not freedom.
CWforFreedom on November 1, 2009 at 9:23 PM
I wonder how long it took Friedman to come up with this lame explanation of the dismantling of America. BTW, has Friedman spent the night at the White House yet? Maybe this little piece of pure crap will get him a weekend.
d1carter on November 1, 2009 at 9:28 PM
So what’s his exit strategy?
logis on November 1, 2009 at 9:44 PM
Piss around on the golf course, scare people with a big airplane, take his wife on dates whilst the nation burns? I mean, it seems to be his MO.
mjk on November 1, 2009 at 9:50 PM
If that’s really Obama’s goal, then he’s such an idiot, that I have to call him “retarded” whether that gets me banned or not. What are we to think of a president who wants to engage in “green” nation-building by spending billions of dollars on Brazil’s state-owned oil production, but doesn’t even THINK to beef up our nuclear power?
EVERY decision he has made so far is idiotic in the extreme — IF, and ONLY IF he really wants to nation-build.
On the other hand, if he wants to bring this country to its knees so that he can have an excuse to transform it into a Marxist state, then everything he is doing makes sense.
Daggett on November 1, 2009 at 9:56 PM
I’m sorry Tom, but we Americans have already built a fine nation. If Dear Liar wants to build a nation, well Somalia is in need of some of that.
rbj on November 1, 2009 at 10:06 PM
WTF
Well….this is the last Freidman article I will ever read.
pseudonominus on November 1, 2009 at 10:11 PM
Tom Friedman is so far divorced from reality, it is pointless to even make sense of this drivel.
WisCon on November 1, 2009 at 10:30 PM
This is typical feel good liberal BS – and the reason liberals have a true mental disorder that makes them want to appease and surrender.
Travis1 on November 1, 2009 at 10:36 PM
I trust he’ll forgive me for inserting [economic] reality.
CPT. Charles on November 1, 2009 at 11:13 PM
What is our exit strategy? It begins Tuesday, November 3. Then 2010. Then 2012.
publiuspen on November 1, 2009 at 11:18 PM
NO, not Nation Building… but Federal Government Building…
There is a difference. One makes things stronger… one makes things more expensive.
Romeo13 on November 1, 2009 at 11:27 PM
No he is nation building. Building it in his image.
FontanaConservative on November 1, 2009 at 11:27 PM
Tom, you have a beautiful 11,400 Sq Ft home on 7.5 acres with a very nice and very large swimming pool.
If we move 100 illegal aliens into your home, yes, of course you will still own the home and live there, just think of how that would fulfill your wishes:
“Universal health care”
- The doctors could make house calls with so many customers in one place. Think of the savings.
“Strengthen our social fabric”
- The feeling of being a close knit neighborhood all in one home, how cozy.
“Enable our businesses to better compete globally”
- At least 100 new customers, all from outside the United States. They will want to import many things from their own countries including the chickens and goats that will be slaughtered on site.
“Upgrade our schools because no child in 21st-century America should be left behind and because we cannot compete for the best new jobs without doing so.”
- A multi-culti dream, they can teach you Spanish and you can teach them English.
“We need a greener economy, not just to mitigate climate change”
- They be growing tall corn and vegetables in the 7.5 acre yard and the carbon foot print reduction with 102 people living where just your family lived previously will no doubt earn at least a mention and a smile from Al Gore.
Since you are not a Republican, it could be your turn to be given the Nobel Peace Prize!
Come on Tom, live the dream!
RJL on November 1, 2009 at 11:36 PM
Thinking on this meme a bit…
This is the TRUE difference between Conservatives and Liberals…
The Liberals see the building of the GOVERNMENT as the building of the Nation…
While we on the Right believe the building of the NATION is the building of the People… not the Government.
Romeo13 on November 1, 2009 at 11:45 PM
Yah, and that’s what Herr Tom Friedman’s like minded predecessors said about Hitler. He is, um, truly patriotic nation-building. History may not be repeating but it is certainly rhyming.
MB4 on November 1, 2009 at 11:48 PM
Peel a layer or two off the “Liberal Onion” and what is left is very often fascist to the core.
MB4 on November 1, 2009 at 11:50 PM
actually (ironically) David Sirotta may have said it best:
if a link is to Freidman, I don’t click thru.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/david-sirota/billionaire-scion-tom-fri_b_26164.html
r keller on November 1, 2009 at 11:55 PM
Freidman..eyes don’t work well at this time
r keller on November 1, 2009 at 11:56 PM
Friedman’s idea of patriotism is that of a bastard patriotism, a sarcasm, a burlesque. He has no such thing as a conscience. He is just a sick joke.
MB4 on November 1, 2009 at 11:57 PM
Nation building? The truth is nation demolition. The liberals want to steal everything from their fellow Americans and then bulldoze their lives under. Every liberal policy they have put forth has destruction as one of its results. They say no to energy, no to your earnings, no to your property, no to savings, no to jobs, no to your lifestyle,… they are the party of no led by Nobama and they hate you.
ray on November 2, 2009 at 12:06 AM
I’ve never seen such a blithe endorsement of the technocratic state–blithe and naive:
That’s part and parcel of a technocratic bureaucracy, especially one that still somewhat preserves its basis in representative democracy. This isn’t the Fatherland, where calls to unity are meant to be received with universal enthusiasm. We don’t all share your vision, Tom, and we’re not obligated to, shocking as that is. In fact, I don’t think your own vision lives up to its demands. We do indeed need clean energy, but the current administration is doing nothing but hamstringing the energy industry. We should be building everything and drilling for everything while transitioning to new forms of energy. The government can’t force breakthroughs in clean energy; what it can do is get out of the way and let technology proceed apace.
Bill Ramey on November 2, 2009 at 12:11 AM
Nation-building? Oh how I hope they actually appropriate this characterization and make it a talking point.
NoLeftTurn on November 2, 2009 at 12:20 AM
…is that they found out what kind of a snake oil salesman he is and they have reengaged their brains.
Schadenfreude on November 2, 2009 at 12:57 AM
One of the reasons that independents and conservatives who voted for Mr. Obama have been so easily swayed against him by Fox News and people labeling him a “socialist” is because he
has not given voice to the truly patriotic nation-building endeavor in which he is engaged.ran as a moderate but suddenly exposes himself as a radical thuggish totalitarian socialist.petefrt on November 2, 2009 at 2:02 AM
Hate to break this to you, Tommy boy. but the nation was built in 1789 and then repaired in 1865.
Our social fabric is based on (or had always been until it was eaten away by stealth communists in our midst) individual freedom and liberty, and the opportunity to achieve to the best of our own abilities. THAT is what makes us who we are and defines American exceptionalism.
I. HATE. THOMAS. FRIEDMAN.
J.J. Sefton on November 2, 2009 at 5:07 AM
…said Tom Freidman as the nice men in white jackets tightened the straps on his strait-jacket and wheeled him away.
Alden Pyle on November 2, 2009 at 6:58 AM
This nation was already built by far better men (and women) than Barack Obama. It was built by people who understood that free men don’t need an intrusive, all-powerful government dictating to them how they should live their lives. It was built by people who understood that individuals are perfectly capable of deciding for themselves what they need and what they are willing to do and/or sacrifice in order to get what they need; they don’t need or want government making such decisions for them. This nation was built by people who understood that the government that governs best governs least. They understood that government is a necessary evil, and that it must be kept strictly limited in power or else it will eventually morph into the type of nation-destroying monster that idiotic morons like Tommy Friedman fantasize about in worthless rags like the NY Times.
AZCoyote on November 2, 2009 at 7:05 AM
Ah, so a subtle admission that businesses are going to dump all their employees on to the government option…and that the middle class will get soaked.
And the only relevent executive experience Obama had before becoming president was running the Annenberg Fund – which funded lefty social agendas instead of basic education like math, science and reading.
Yet leftards scream whenever we talk about using nuclear power and seem obsessed with making sure we’ll never access our own natural resources of oil and gas which would actually bring energy independence. The path to energy freedom and saving the world from climate change is just over the horizon and all we’ve got to do is bankrupt working energy industries and trust in Dear Leader that untested alternatives will pop up to take their place and not fail us!!!! Spain already tried to walk this road an it further sunk their economy and cost jobs.
gwelf on November 2, 2009 at 7:19 AM
But Glenn Beck has tied together a single narrative explaining very well who is running all these policies—–Reds, Communists and Kooks.
Herb on November 2, 2009 at 8:57 AM
Speaking as one who has tutored black kids in inner-city schools, this is horsesh*t.
The most important thing that Obama and right-thinking middle-class blacks could do is destroy the notion that doing well in school and getting a good education is “acting white.” It’s attitude that’s creating a permanent underclass among a substantial number of blacks. No more increased funding for these schools until there’s a commitment from the communities. The ignorance must end, or we’ll continue to throw good money after bad.
BuckeyeSam on November 2, 2009 at 9:07 AM