It seems that everybody is writing memos to Barack Obama. Missives about "what I'd do if I were president" pour forth from columnists, political-sages, bloggers and citizens. The official transition team has even set up an online suggestion box to sample this eager tidal wave of participatory democracy.
Of course, any tsunami is mostly water and air, with only a small amount of material that’s surprising or unique. Likewise, most of the recommendations for the coming administration are pretty predictable. Fix health care. Get us out of Iraq. Create jobs. Prosecute some of the klepto-thieves who turned the first decade of the 21st Century into the Naughtie Oughties. These unsurprising exhortations do help measure public concern -- or outrage -- but they won’t fire off many new light bulbs in the minds of Team Obama.
Or take Discover Magazine’s recent feature "Advice for the Next President." I was asked to opine alongside Edward O. Wilson, Steven Weinberg, Jack Horner, C. Everett Koop, Danny Hillis and others about ways to restore America’s position as world leader in science and technology. Several of us urged that science education should get top priority, and that Congress restore the independent advisory commissions that Republicans demolished, so that policy deliberations can be based on facts, rather than stories.
Important? Sure. But also pretty obvious.
And so, I refrained for a month, browsing what everyone else was saying, winnowing my own list down to only items that are different, unconventional... perhaps even a bit contrary.
Oh, I won’t claim total originality. A few of my suggestions have appeared elsewhere. They range from slightly-skewed perspectives, to some that may seem arcane or even bizarre. From nonpartisan and pragmatic to a few that are fiercely partisan. But when it comes to saving the Republic, can the earnest folk in the new government afford to overlook anything?
Let’s start with the current economic mess. Then I continue to defense, foreign affairs, domestic policy, politics and, finally, some ideas that are really out there, on the fringe. Feel free to skip around at your whim or read them in order.
Suggestion #1: Offer a fresh deal to labor and management
Suggestion #2: Try a fresh approach in the Horn of Africa... and (carefully) assert power for good
Suggestion #3: Save Capitalism with Transparency -- Radical Transparency
Suggestion #4: Make government agile enough to deal successively with the new Global Players
Suggestion #5: Avoid a crisis caused by "just-in-time" economics
Suggestion #6: Repair the U.S. Civil Service.
Suggestion #7: Free the Inspectors General!
Suggestion #8: Micro-Suggestions about the economic crisis
Suggestion #9: Act swiftly to restore the Army, the Reserves and National Guard
Suggestion #10: Enhance our nation's (and civilization's) overall resilience
Suggestion #11: Control the borders
Suggestion #12: Investigate wartime contracts that were allocated under "emergency" over-rides to bypass competitive bidding rules
Suggestion #13: Restore independent advisory agencies for science, technology and other areas of skilled analysis
Suggestion #14: Insure the kids
Suggestion #15: Truth and Reconciliation?
Suggestion #16: More Truth and Reconciliation - Will President Obama soft-pedal bringing some crooks to justice?
Suggestion #17: Political Matters
Suggestion #18: Time to do something about gerrymandering
Suggestion #19: Consider a few CRACKPOT Items
Suggestion #20: Seek ways to end Culture War
Suggestion #21: Addendum Suggestions, distillations and write-ins
David Brin is a scientist and best-selling author whose future-oriented novels include Earth, The Postman, and Hugo Award winners Startide Rising and The Uplift War. (The Postman inspired a major film in 1998.) Brin is also known as a leading commentator on modern technological trends who consults for many agencies (CIA, DoD, and dozens more) and companies (Microsoft, IBM, Google, Procter and Gamble) offering unusual perspectives on the future. He appears frequently on shows on the History and Discovery channels and PBS networks. His nonfiction book -- The Transparent Society -- won the Freedom of Speech Award of the American Library Association. Brin's newest novel Kiln People explores a fictional near future when people use cheap copies of themselves to be in two places at once. The Life Eaters -- a graphic novel -- explores a chilling alternative outcome of World War II.
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