Is Optimism Dead?

Everywhere I look I see the soothsayers of doom be it on the left, or on the right. The fears of a double dip recession fill the blogs and headlines and accordingly the markets drift sideways with rampant bouts of collapsing prices only to be pushed up for a couple of days before the next onslaught.

What is strange to me is that although the left and right both seem to agree that we are in grave danger, they don't appear to be able to look over their own castle walls and discuss things.

Now I read from a Brit in America writing for the BBC that the problem is that the USA is caught in a quagmire of pessimism. According to some commentators, this is a reflection of the intense political polarisation that has permeated the land.

What is especially galling is now all of a sudden the Right claims it is Obama that is polarising the land! Do they all suffer from collective amnesia or do they forget Newt Gingrich, Karl Rove and GW?! (Not to mention Sarah Palin and her Tea Party cronies!)

And what about those on the Left that thought he could solve everything with his eloquence who are now also attacking him? He inherited two wars and a financial crisis that threatened to become the Great Depression Part II. We had a massive deficit before the credit crisis hit. Certainly getting out of this mess would require some patience.

I for my part, despite my living abroad am slowly becoming an isolationist. I have to believe that a NAFTA economy, which already has a customer base which in the past was the world champion in consumerism could create jobs and new industries which would essentially be self-sufficient.

Yes this flies in the eye of globalism-but I am not convinced that globalism is actually in the national interest. It is certainly in the interest of multinational companies and a lot of them are indeed American, but recent history would suggest to me that the pursuit of corporate profits and the creation of American jobs are not very well correlated.

If the USA were to focus on alternative energies and build products predicated on these new technologies we would put people to work, and thereby create a customer base with the money to purchase the goods.

No, I don't think optimism is dead. I think we need to rethink what it is that we are trying to achieve. And somehow that starts with putting America back to work.