Ah the pleasure of food that is either cold or hot! Place ice in coffee and it becomes lukewarm, and neither hot nor cold, to be spit out of the mouth. Since the time that Barry Goldwater and Mao Zedong coexisted, perhaps the world’s economic and political systems have globalized into a lukewarm concoction, unappealing to the senses, pulled headlong by a decentralized mass of multinational corporations.
As America’s current leadership struggles to redistribute wealth, some in the administration, have reflected admiringly on the ideals of Mao. From Anita Dunn, who said that Mao was her favorite philosopher to President Obama, who was influenced by Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals, the American administration points its ship in the direction of a distant socialist star. In stark contrast, elected Tea Partiers in Congress, repulsed by the mire of Washington’s lukewarm beauracracy, are waving the libertarian flags of Goldwater’s limited government.
Meanwhile, as America’s governance continues to linger in lukewarm languidness, China’s political class is struggling to keep ahead of mass entitlement implied by a move toward socialist capitalism. While a mildly heated temperature can still be felt in China’s economic success, as the acceleration of the Chinese economic miracle begins to fade, the vast middle of China will feel the lukewarm effects of unfulfilled promises as well.
As the great middle of each in our societies is impacted by our own brands of lukewarm politics, some will yearn to spit them out in favor of a fond memory for hot and cold.
Clif Carothers
Job Voucher Plan 