Arthur Schlesinger, Jr.
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr. died last night. His passing isn’t strictly relevant to Warren Reports matters, but for those of us interested in policy who conscientiously draw lessons from history and believe in the political power of big ideas, his loss is remarkable.
Throughout his career, Schlesinger reminded students of history that presidents are far more than public chief executive officers. Presidential policymaking frames whole historical eras, for good (FDR and the New Deal, in Schlesinger’s view) and for ill (Nixon and the imperial presidency). More than 600 days before America chooses its next president and, with him or her, our next set of national priorities, our collective attention has already turned to the race. The drawn-out, multi-billion-dollar nomination and election process has its drawbacks, but thanks in part to Schlesinger, we know high the stakes are.
"The president has adopted a policy of "anticipatory self-defense" that is alarmingly similar to the policy that imperial Japan employed at Pearl Harbor on a date which, as an earlier American president said it would, lives in infamy."
Rarely do we get to hear the supremely wise voices of America's past comment on our current course.
http://www.commondreams.org/views03/0322-01.htm
March 1, 2007 5:07 PM | Reply | Permalink