I have been on the road much of the past month. This weekend I was involved with my son’s wedding. Sam and Lili Lu were married on Sunday, now off to Oslo and points north for their honeymoon. I have been in deep family mode. It has been hard to fit in a week in review post, but now I can offer some thoughts about the past few weeks at Deliberately Considered and in the world.

Oslo. I was in Wroclaw at the time of Anders Behring Breivikis’s atrocious act, ironically, the city where  he may have bought chemicals for his bombing. A Polish visitor to the Institute, an alum, had worked in Norway. His first concern was to confirm that a friend, who called and left a message on his cell phone the day of the massacre, was ok. Upon speaking to his friend, our Polish colleague reported that “everyone” in Norway is relieved that the despicable act wasn’t the work of an Islamic radical. In my class on media and crisis, we discussed this judgment. A majority thought this relief was based on an understandable desire to not have Norway drawn into the conflict of civilizations narrative, but then a student from Albania (an historically Muslim nation) spoke. For her, the early reports of the fanatical anti-Muslim commitments of Breivik were deeply troubling, part of a larger civilizational whole.

When I came home, I discovered that the talking heads on conservative talk radio and Fox News were denouncing the idea that Breivik was a Christian xenophobe, representative of a deep cultural problem. I also heard about the new project to build the “ground zero Mosque.” The absurd side of our academic discussion was revealed.

Economic Crisis. Trying to explain the American debt ceiling crisis to Europeans is next to impossible. In the Euro zone, the economic crisis is the result of a fundamental problem. One currency is being used in a diverse set of nation states, each with independent economic decision- making. There is no simple straightforward solution short of a much stronger central authority or disunion. The American crisis in European eyes, by contrast, seems to confirm the worst European anti-American prejudices. Wild cowboys, with clowns as political leaders, who make little sense and seem intent on burying their heads in the sand as they contribute to a global crisis.

As I maintained in my last post, I think more is involved and in an odd way it has a European accent. The Republicans have become a Party driven by a unified simple set of ideas, based on true belief. They look more like an ideological European party, than a pragmatic American one. Our political system is not well suited for this, though I find quite intriguing Casey Armstrong’s argument that a new form of pragmatic compromise may be emerging in Congress that could address the problem.

As President Obama tried to calm the crashing global stock markets yesterday, he was asserting that such an American style pragmatic solution to our economic problems is still likely. While I understand that he coolly pointed to the signs that this is possible in hopes of calming panic, I think he will have to follow up with a very forceful economic plan, sooner rather than later. He must highlight the fact that the deficit and debt are medium and long term problems, requiring fundamental reforms in Medicare, linked to overall health care reform, and that there also must be tax reform that increases government revenues. Entitlement reform and tax reform must be seriously enacted, building on the consensus positions of various bipartisan proposals of the past year, of the President’s commission, the “gang of six,” and the Boehner – Obama grand bargain, while the economy must be further stimulated to foster economic growth right now. Serious conservatives and liberals do have differences in emphasis, but there is a broad consensus on this. Though conservatives will always choose to stimulate with tax cuts and balance with spending cuts, and liberals will always suggest it should be done the other way around, stimulate with spending increases, balance with tax increases for the wealthy, there is a broad understanding about “what is to be done.” The problem is how will we get going and start doing it. Now is the time for a forceful and persuasive political leader.

The Tents Movement in Israel and the civil unrest in London. Reports from London and Tel Aviv suggest to me that the popular opponents of the Tea Party are now expressing themselves in both commendable and deeply problematic ways. Perhaps an early sign of this was the struggles in Wisconsin. The market fundamentalist way of the world economy has led to breakdown in the form of the financial crisis and the great recession, and it is now facing serious popular protest. A common sense understanding of decency is being expressed. I think this is the beginning of something very important.

Oslo, the debt crisis and recession, and popular violent and non-violent protest, these are some of our topics of the past weeks. They all suggest to me a deep singular problem in democratic political culture. More on this in my next post.