THE ELUSIVE PRESIDENT (PART 2)

Reading all the tributes and commentaries on Martin Luther King, Jr., leading up to the formal dedication of his memorial this weekend, I recalled once again my own memories of King and the glorious cause he led.

When King delivered his “I Have a Dream” speech at the Lincoln Memorial 48 years ago this month, the outcome of his nonviolent approach was anything but certain. The Civil Rights law was still a distant dream – despite being only a year from passage -- and the brutality against Freedom Riders, with its ugly footage playing out in living rooms all across America and around the world, was a daily staple of the evening news.

Yet, even in the darkest times, King resisted the call to violence, even from some of his own supporters, tired of seeing men and women in the movement getting beaten up and killed. He had a dream that nonviolence would eventually carry the day and he was right. In the end, he was so right. And for that reason alone he deserves a special memorial on the Mall.

In a different context, the thought recently occurred to me that maybe President Obama has that same dream -- that his reasoned, balanced, nonviolent approach to governing will prevail in the end. Maybe that’s why he is not heeding the calls of his supporters, including this one, urging him to get tough and fight back against his political adversaries.

Maybe he thinks that those advocating an uncompromising “my way or the highway” approach will be the source of their own undoing in the end. As a good friend recently reminded me, relax, “just give them enough rope and they’ll hang themselves.” And, if the continued disclosures about GOP front-runners Michelle Bachman and Texas Governor Rick Perry are any indication, I think my friend and the President may be on to something.

Maybe that’s why the President insisted on going on vacation and not calling the members of Congress back from theirs. Maybe he is hoping that Americans in Congressional districts and states all across America will deliver the message he has been trying to deliver all along: that in the end a balanced approach and a spirit of true compromise is the only reasonable way to govern, despite our differences.

On reducing the deficit, for example, there is ample evidence that Americans want a balanced approach, which includes increased taxes on the wealthiest Americans, a position taken by multi-billionaire Warren Buffett. Moreover, polls show that the majority of ordinary Americans favor increased taxes on the rich, depending, of course, on what is meant by rich and where the line is drawn.

Just as importantly, if not more so, religious leaders of all stripes are protesting the tax breaks for millionaires because that would mean cutting funds for programs that help the poor and disadvantaged. Just this week, The National Catholic Reporter, reported that “almost no U.S. Catholic leaders (sic) have aligned themselves with the adamant Republican insistence on no tax increases for the very wealthy.”

If U.S. Catholic leaders continue to appeal to the Catholic Church’s time-honored allegiance to social justice, the Republicans – especially the Tea Party – are in for a world of hurt. Their position on abortion and gay marriage have pushed Catholics into the Republican ranks in recent elections, but now more and more Catholics whose position on abortion is unyielding realize there is such a thing as “life outside the womb” and that life deserves saving, too.

Does this mean that the President doesn’t need to pick up his game, as we and so many other fervent supporters have suggested? No, he definitely needs to pick up his game. He can’t continue to play “not to lose,” as Tom Friedman cautioned him in a recent New York Times column.

So, let’s hope the President spent his vacation getting his groove back and “goes big” in his jobs speech after Labor Day — the foremost concern of most Americans anyway — and goes to the country to fight for it. Let’s also hope that the August recess gives members of Congress a chance to listen to real Americans and not just the sound of their own voices in that echo chamber called the U.S. Capitol. Will enough Americans speak out? Will members of Congress heed the message? That remains to be seen.

Can the President pick up his game and rise to the challenge? Yes, he can — and I, for one, think he must because the alternative is unthinkable.

Gerald E. Lavey