4A - Wednesday, November 7, 2012
The Michigan Daily - michigandaily.com 0
4A - Wednesday, November 7, 2012 The Michigan Daily - michigandailycom 6
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TIMOTHY RABB
JOSEPH LICHTERMAN and ADRIENNE ROBERTS ANDREW WEINER
EDITOR IN CHIEF EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS MANAGING.EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board.
All other signed articles and illustrations represent solelythe views of their authors.
FROM THE DAILY
Second chances
Obama should push for more innovative policies
President Barack Obama won a decisive victory Tuesday night
to serve a second term as President of the United States. This
week, The Michigan Daily endorsed the President with hesi-
tation that was common nationwide, citing his success in foreign pol-
icy and pushing a progressive agenda in the face of an unreasonable
Congress. Obama has earned a second term - but winning elections
is only a small part of politics. Obama must take advantage of the next
four years. The president needs to take a stronger stand in the face of
Congress and continue to push more innovative policies.
What makes America exceptional are the
bonds that hold together the most diverse
nation on earth."
- President Barack Obama said during his victory speech Tuesday night in Chicago.
GUS TURNER VEINT
More than instant gratification
0
a
By and large, Obama was the stronger
candidate. The country is incredibly divided
on party lines. Because of this division, the
president was unable to enact the sweeping
changes he promised upon election in 2008.
The President did not win over conservative
voters in the election by being more moder-
ate, and the same rules apply in Congress.
In his victory speech on Tuesday night,
Obama touched on progressive ideas he
hasn't mentioned as much in his campaign
like climate change, immigration and mar-
raige equality. This is the second time
Obama has promised to bring real change
to Washington - hopefully, this time he
delivers.
In order for the President to make a real
difference as a policymaker, he must improve
negotiations and stand up to opposition from
congressional Republicans. This is not to
suggest he goes the route of political brink-
manship, but Obama has too often come to
the bargaining table too close to the middle
and folded too quickly.
Now that Obama has secured a second
term in the White House, he must push
for broader intervention in key issues. The
economy should be his primary concern. In
2009, the Obama administration backed the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act,
a $787-billion stimulus package that creat-
ed between 1.4 million and 3.3 million jobs.
Obama and Congress should allow the Bush
Tax Cuts to expire, and propose legislation
to lower the middle-class tax rate. While
these are positive interventions, the Obama
administration needs to take a stronger step
in reinvigorating the economy. The President
should advocate a second stimulus package
during his next four years in office.
In his first term, Obama took steps to
improve education and broaden opportu-
nities for students. However, many of his
attempts to expand access to education fell
short of his progressive promises. During
his first term, the Obama administration
increased funding to the Pell Grant program,
which provides financial aid to students from
low-income families. However, the expan-
sion of these grants came at the expense of
lowering subsidies for the Stafford Loan pro-
gram for graduate students.
In June 2012, Obama issued an executive
order to forbid the federal government from
initiating the deportation of illegal immi-
grants who met specific requirements. While
undocumented students benefit under this
order, they have to apply again for U.S. resi-
dency every two years.
Obama has the latitude as a second-term
president to make the next four years more
fruitful than his first. Much of his success
will be dependent on his interactions with
Congress, which has been largely deadlocked
for the past four years. Obama should expect
plenty of difficulty - and we need to support
his agenda by staying involved in politics
post-Election Day.
Allow me to preface this article
by saying that I'm the absolute worst
person in the world to have a horse
in any race.
Whether it's sports, politics or
a county fair chili cook-off, the
"impassioned observer" has never
really been a role that I've been
able to take on. This isn't to say
that I'm just another Little League
dad who's heckling the umpire the
entire time, though. .
In a lot of ways, I'm the consum-
mate Michigan fan: I don't believe
that any victory is secured until
the very last second, I'm constantly
underselling my team and, in the
event of a close contest, my stom-
ach is busy performing an Olympic
gymnastics routine. So yes, despite
the fact that it was 11:40 p.m., and
numerous major news outlets pro-
jected President Barack Obama
passing 270 electoral votes, I still
couldn't help but be a little wor-
ried. This is, after all, my first rodeo
in terms of presidential elections.
Surely something, anything, could
happen to reverse this victory.
Maybe New Jersey's last-second
voters would swoop in and steal the
state away from the President. Per-
haps the remaining eight percent of
Florida will swing toward Romney.
I know that it sounds ridiculous, but
this doesn't feel right.
Is it wrong for me to be a little
skeptical given how tense I've been
feeling the last few days? All the
weight we held on our shoulders -
the concern that our guy, whether
it was the president or Republican
presidential candidate Mitt Rom-
ney, wasn't going to pull it out-was
wiped away in a matter of minutes.
As early as 8:45 p.m. this evening, I
sat in the Union's University Club
where aroomful ofbuzzingstudents
eagerly awaitedthe results, and all of
us, whether internally or externally,
were nervous wrecks. Electoral vic-
tories projected by CNN elicited just
as many groans as they did cheers.
Eventually, as I exited this bee-
hive, the race began to take a more
substantial shape. Just before 11
p.m., Romney led Obama by one
electoral vote. Watching the pro-
ceedings from the comfort of a
friend's sofa, I went upstairs to
grab a glass of water, came back
down and, suddenly, Obama had
253 votes. A few minutes after that,
CNN called Obama the winner.
Say again?
I, and the other fellow Demo-
crats with whom I was digesting
this information, sat in stunned
silence. Even around midnight
there was still an air of uneasi-
ness with the result. Where were
the hugs and raucous celebrations?
Why weren't we running into the
streets, ripping off our clothes and
proclaiming victory for an America
where Paul Ryan doesn't control its
collective uterus?
Of course, the payoff could
never quite equal what it took to
get there. On Tuesday morning,
technical difficulties and a line out
to Main Street had me waiting for
nearly two and a half hours before
I could finally cast my vote. It was
never in question whether or not I
was going to fill out my ballot, but
the amount of time that went into
the whole ordeal certainly deep-
ened my attachment to the result.
As children, we blindly follow the
allegiances of our parents when
we watch an election. This time
around, it was my voice that was
being counted, and I'll be damned
if I said that didn't mean something
to me.
So yes, maybe I expected a little
too much in terms of how we'd
all react. Far be it from me to say
that life can be more than a little
anti-climactic at times. But it's
not always about receiving that
instant gratification that so many
of us crave in these monumental
moments. In the case of an election
as pivotal as this, it's about being
able to wake up tomorrow, and the
next day, and every one after that
for the next four years and feel gen-
uinely optimistic about the country
that you love. To my Republican
friends - who couldn't be reached
for comment, by the way - I assure
you, you'll get your chance. For now,
though, my horse won by a nose.
GusTurner is an LSA junior.
EDITORIAL BOARD MEMBERS
Kaan Avdan, Sharik Bashir, Eli Cahan, Nirbhay Jain, Jesse Klein, Melanie Kruvelis,Patrick
Maillet, Harsha Nahata, Timothy Rabb, Adrienne Roberts, Vanessa Rychlinski,
Paul Sherman, Sarah Skaluba, Michael Spaeth, Gus Turner
Big ideas, bigger impact
I
a
CAPS is here to help
These four - sometimes five - under-
graduate years at college are supposed
tobethebestofour life. Movies, televi-
sion shows and crazy sto-
ries from our parents are
constant reminders ofthe
fun we should be having,
the friends we should be
making and the once-in-
a-lifetime experiences
we'd be crazy to miss
out on. Unfortunately, a MARY
large number of Univer- GALLAGHER
sity of Michigan students
find themselves unable
to take advantage of these unique opportuni-
ties. For many of these students, mental health
problems are a significantobstacle in their path
to a happy university career.
Most freshmen arrive during Welcome
Week and are suddenly cut off from the sup-
port system they've spent much of their lives
establishing in their hometowns. Before,
their parents, old friends and high school
coaches and teachers looked out for their
best interests. Now, after they have unpacked
their bags and gone over their favorite color
and type of food with their new roommate,
they have to build that entire support system
up again.
Usually, the signs that a student may be
having a problem are lost in the initial excite-
ment of the first couple months of college. But
by this point in the year, many students have
settled into their new lifestyles, built them-
selves a niche in a new friend group, found a
student organization to get involved with and
pulled themselves through their first set of
midterms. When everyone around seems to
suddenly have it all figured out, it can make it
even more obvious that everything isn't going
entirely as planned. Sometimes, it takes being
removed from the comforts of your home set-
ting to realize that all those gnawing anxi-
eties have morphed into something bigger,
something uglier.
I had a similar experience around this time
freshman year. I'd been dealing with various
degrees of sadness and hopelessness for years,
but being in a place that was supposed to be
the setting for the happiest times of my life
was a real wake-up call to the fact that I had
not been living my life the way I wanted to
be. That was when I pulled a little blue stress
football out from the depths of my dorm desk
and called the number written on the side.
That's how I ended up at the University's
Counseling and Psychological Services. I felt
uncomfortable there at first, almost guilty, as
though it was a space intended only for people
with what I thought of as "real" problems. I
thought that my array of suburban white girl
stresses hardly qualified me for outside help,
and I almost expected the counselor assigned
to me to roll her eyes as I spoke about my life.
We need to stop
stigmatizing mental
health treatment.
Of course, she didn't. What I didn't under-
stand was the fact that just because a problem
is only in your head doesn't mean that it's not
real or doesn'tneed attention. The counseling
services offer assistance to students with any
number of issues - from day-to-day stress
to relationship counseling to severe disor-
ders. That's why they offer a wide variety of
counseling options, from the standard one-
on-one treatment to weekly group counsel-
ing with like-minded peers, to daily meetings
that offer a no-pressure overview of common
concerns encountered by Michigan students.
CAPS also provides urgent and crisis services
for patients who must be seen that day and
referral services for those seeking long-term
treatment elsewhere.
There continues to be stigma toward getting
treatment for mental health problems. Some
people worry that if they do, they'll be seen as
weak, or as cryingout for attention. I know that
was one of my concerns. But I can honestly say
that going to CAPS has improved my college
experience more than I could have ever imag-
ined by opening me up to new opportunities
and a healthier way of viewing the world. Don't
let the stress of college get you down - those at
CAPS are there to help.
- Mary Gallagher can be reached
at mkgall@umich.edu.
t seemed like it might go on
forever, but the 2012 election
finally came to an end Tues-
day night. We've
learned a lot
during this elec-
tion cycle, but,
perhaps the most
striking lesson
was the painful
lack of unity and
inspiration in MICHAEL
our country. SPAETH
This presi-
dential cam-
paign was largely fought within
the margin of error, representing
a bitterly divided electorate. This
time around, there was no "hope"
and "change." Crowds at Presi-
dent Barack Obama's rallies were
smaller than in 2008. The New
York Times reported on Sunday
that Obama attracted a crowd of
"24,000 here in Bristow, [Va.] com-
pared with 60,000 and 80,000 in
his final days in 2008."
This campaign ultimately was
about small ideas. Neither candi-
date stood in the blistering summer
heat or the chilly autumn breeze to
declare that we will build an inter-
state highway system to connect the
nation or put a man on the moon.
Compared to these bold goals that
were met decades ago, "I'm going
to fix the economy" is a bit of a let-
down. The 2012 campaign was
about cleaning up the nation's prob-
lems, not lifting it up with inspira-
tion and grand ambition.
Where are the big ideas that will
bring the country together?
Some have observed that big
ideas in general are in short supply
right now. Neal Gabler, a senior fel-
low at the Annenberg Norman Lear
Center at the University of South-
ern California, wrote in 2011, "In
effect, we are living in an increas-
ingly post-idea world - a world in
which big, thought-provoking ideas
that can't instantly be monetized
are of so little intrinsic value that
fewer people are generating them
and fewer outlets are disseminating
them, the Internet notwithstand-
ing. Bold ideas are almost passe."
The lack of bold ideas extends
to politics as well. After the 2010
midterm elections, Timothy Egan
wrote in the Times, "One of the
mystifying paradoxes of Obama is
how this gifted writer, this eloquent
communicator, has not been able to
come up with a simple, overarch-
ing governing frame." Egan listed
Teddy Roosevelt's Square Deal,
Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and
John F. Kennedy's New Frontier as
big ideas that provided clear narra-
tives for their presidencies.
Everyone in America should be
directly involved in the develop-
ment of a new big idea. Citizens
should make suggestions while
intellectuals and experts design a
specific policy that helps the econ-
omy with as few flaws as possible.
The president clearly explains the
benefits of the big ideas and uses
inspirational language to motivate
people to get involved. Businesses,
organizations and ordinary citizens
directly contribute their unique
talents to developing the big idea.
Social media promotes the ben-
efits of big idea and engages more
citizens. News organizations cover
the latest developments. Previously
uninvolved people watch the news
or check social media and decide
to get involved. When everybody
has a role to play, everybody feeds
off the involvement and the process
becomes self-sustaining.
The key ingredient is direct
citizen involvement. During tough
economic times, people want to
feel like they have something valu-
able to contribute - particularly
people who have been unemployed
for. a while. Instead of feeling
helpless and at the mercy of Con-
gress's decisions, ordinary citizens
should have the power to use their
own skills to personally improve
the economy. This empowerment
would inspire people and raise the
public's approval for the big idea,
which would silence many politi-
cians who would criticize it. Unlike
the abstract ideas of "hope" and
"change," people can stay united
around a tangible idea with clear
benefits backed up by effective pol-
icy. This allows citizens to directly
contributetheir own hard work.
People need more
than just the
ideas of 'hope'
and 'change.'
a
a
The big idea could be renewed
space exploration, where experts
conduct the missions, the presi-
dent gives inspirational speeches
and citizens raise money and edu-
cate their peers. The big idea could
resemble the Works Progress
Administration during the recov-
ery from the Great Depression,
where unskilled and unemployed
workers rebuilt the economy with
their own two hands. But we can do
even better than these two ideas.
With the innovative spirit of the
21st century, and the increasingly
advanced tools at our disposal, we
have the potential to dream up and
implement some truly extraordi-
nary and inspiring new ideas in the
present era.
Sensible, small ideas are logical
solutions for a stubbornly divided
nation. But the addition of a big
idea to the incremental progress
we're already making would not
only jump-start our economy - it
would also rekindle our national
pride, inspire us and unite us at a
time when we desperately need it.
- Michael Spaeth can be
reached at micspa@umich.edu.
f