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Advocacy Executive Director's Reports Focusing on what matters for America
We know how many times John McCain has been married. We know the name of Barack Obama’s former minister. We know their ages. We’ve heard their wives speak admiringly of their husbands. The media eagerly reports on each embarrassing stumble on the campaign trail. Speeches to large crowds are transformed into backdrops for 30-second nightly news snippets that focus on the latest poll results.
The election is being covered as though it were a year-long Kentucky Derby race. The home stretch is upon us, but the media coverage is still on the jockeys and owners, cutting back to the race briefly to show us who’s ahead, planning to give the full close-up in time for the photo-finish and the roses in the winner’s circle.
But this election is not a horse race.
What do we know of the candidates’ detailed positions on complex issues that are central to our country’s economic future? Does John McCain promise to oppose unfunded mandates that would cripple local governments, even when the mandates sound popular enough to win votes, and how would he fund the key environmental and infrastructure needs we face? Would Barack Obama end the federal government’s dismissive attitude toward cities and towns, even if that means giving up power and handing it to local officials of a different party, and would he follow state and local leaders in key areas such as job training and economic development?
Does either candidate believe that America’s prosperity will be guided by the success of our communities, as economists have been saying for several years, or are they trapped in the Old World belief that the federal government is the economy-builder and localities are simply beneficiaries of the fed’s largesse?
The problem is that during the summer the election seems to be on re-runs, with brief glimpses of the new fall season. The actual election day in November is getting less coverage than the new primetime line-up on NBC, CBS or ABC. This modern presidential campaign is in a kind of Twilight Zone, existing in a parallel universe, with very little media coverage of the key issues that must be addressed to make the American Dream real for families in every community in every state.
One of the nation’s most respected centrist think tanks, the Brookings Institution, is trying to break into this dismal coverage, and win attention to a basic tenet of the modern global economy. Echoing experts from academia, research institutions and economic organizations (including our partners at Northeastern University who authored our 2006 report “Revenue Sharing and the Future of the Massachusetts Economy”), the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings says that “the ability of our nation to grow and prosper and meet the social and environmental challenges of our time depends heavily on the health and vitality of our metropolitan areas.”
Brookings identifies metropolitan areas as large economic regions of interconnected cities, towns and villages that are home to 80 percent of the country’s population and jobs. Every Massachusetts community belongs to a metropolitan area, with five such regions in the Bay State, according to the Brookings analysis. Indeed, the Bay State is one of just a handful of states that includes every locality in a metropolitan region. These regions of large and small towns and cities “by definition are America’s economic centers.”
Proclaiming that the stakes are very high, with the national economy on the ropes, global competition intensifying, and the U.S. federal government largely ignoring the vital importance of metropolitan regions, Brookings has launched a major initiative, “Blueprint for American Prosperity,” to focus the national debate, engage the media, and transform the election and the federal agenda to address what really matters.
Brookings has developed an extensive portfolio of research reports, policy briefs and regional forums to promote this project. Local officials interested in obtaining these materials and learning more can visit their special Web site, www.blueprintprosperity.org.
We can no longer afford to have a federal government that administers a top-down, inflexible system that forces localities to live within rules that punish innovation and block regional collaboration on jobs, environmental protection, crime prevention, education and everything in between. Our federal system is upside down, and if nothing changes after the 2008 election, then this spells trouble for our nation, our communities, and our quality of life.
Brookings observes, “We believe strongly that national policy is most successful when it builds from the knowledge and expertise of local and regional leaders.”
Well said.
Let’s just hope that the candidates and the media will listen.
Advocacy Executive Director's Reports Focusing on what matters for America
Focusing on what matters for America
We know how many times John McCain has been married. We know the name of Barack Obama’s former minister. We know their ages. We’ve heard their wives speak admiringly of their husbands. The media eagerly reports on each embarrassing stumble on the campaign trail. Speeches to large crowds are transformed into backdrops for 30-second nightly news snippets that focus on the latest poll results.
The election is being covered as though it were a year-long Kentucky Derby race. The home stretch is upon us, but the media coverage is still on the jockeys and owners, cutting back to the race briefly to show us who’s ahead, planning to give the full close-up in time for the photo-finish and the roses in the winner’s circle.
But this election is not a horse race.
What do we know of the candidates’ detailed positions on complex issues that are central to our country’s economic future? Does John McCain promise to oppose unfunded mandates that would cripple local governments, even when the mandates sound popular enough to win votes, and how would he fund the key environmental and infrastructure needs we face? Would Barack Obama end the federal government’s dismissive attitude toward cities and towns, even if that means giving up power and handing it to local officials of a different party, and would he follow state and local leaders in key areas such as job training and economic development?
Does either candidate believe that America’s prosperity will be guided by the success of our communities, as economists have been saying for several years, or are they trapped in the Old World belief that the federal government is the economy-builder and localities are simply beneficiaries of the fed’s largesse?
The problem is that during the summer the election seems to be on re-runs, with brief glimpses of the new fall season. The actual election day in November is getting less coverage than the new primetime line-up on NBC, CBS or ABC. This modern presidential campaign is in a kind of Twilight Zone, existing in a parallel universe, with very little media coverage of the key issues that must be addressed to make the American Dream real for families in every community in every state.
One of the nation’s most respected centrist think tanks, the Brookings Institution, is trying to break into this dismal coverage, and win attention to a basic tenet of the modern global economy. Echoing experts from academia, research institutions and economic organizations (including our partners at Northeastern University who authored our 2006 report “Revenue Sharing and the Future of the Massachusetts Economy”), the Metropolitan Policy Program at Brookings says that “the ability of our nation to grow and prosper and meet the social and environmental challenges of our time depends heavily on the health and vitality of our metropolitan areas.”
Brookings identifies metropolitan areas as large economic regions of interconnected cities, towns and villages that are home to 80 percent of the country’s population and jobs. Every Massachusetts community belongs to a metropolitan area, with five such regions in the Bay State, according to the Brookings analysis. Indeed, the Bay State is one of just a handful of states that includes every locality in a metropolitan region. These regions of large and small towns and cities “by definition are America’s economic centers.”
Proclaiming that the stakes are very high, with the national economy on the ropes, global competition intensifying, and the U.S. federal government largely ignoring the vital importance of metropolitan regions, Brookings has launched a major initiative, “Blueprint for American Prosperity,” to focus the national debate, engage the media, and transform the election and the federal agenda to address what really matters.
Brookings has developed an extensive portfolio of research reports, policy briefs and regional forums to promote this project. Local officials interested in obtaining these materials and learning more can visit their special Web site, www.blueprintprosperity.org.
We can no longer afford to have a federal government that administers a top-down, inflexible system that forces localities to live within rules that punish innovation and block regional collaboration on jobs, environmental protection, crime prevention, education and everything in between. Our federal system is upside down, and if nothing changes after the 2008 election, then this spells trouble for our nation, our communities, and our quality of life.
Brookings observes, “We believe strongly that national policy is most successful when it builds from the knowledge and expertise of local and regional leaders.”
Well said.
Let’s just hope that the candidates and the media will listen.
Written by MMA Executive Director Geoff Beckwith
