Death to Vision and the Twilight Saga

This blog would be properly entitled “The Vision Thing, Part III” if I were in any sort of good mood at all. However, it’s nine degrees outside and Tuesdays make me cranky. Apologies in advance.

We last left off our great Visioneers at Jimmy Carter, which means upward and onward to Ronald Reagan. While he had a knack for making cool alliterations with ‘E’s (think Evil Empire, Elected Elephants, and Existent Economy), he also had a knack for committing to things. His main three goals could be described as a focus on a strong military, less federal involvement in the economy and low taxes. He was also committed to the Cold War until Gorbachev decided to call olly olly oxen free. Score on the vision scale (which I just invented and runs from 1 to visionary) would be approximately a 7.

Usher in George H.W. Bush. One might speculate that in comparison to Reagan, Bush Sr. was a bit more involved. One might even whisper “control freak” and giggle giddily like a middle school girl at the latest Twilight premiere. To be fair, he was the most qualified of any recent U.S. president, and because of his previous experiences, maybe he felt like he needed to run a tight ship. Greenstein says that he was suspicious of political change; Bush seemed to be more focused on looking behind him in order to avoid making mistakes in the future. To me, this doesn’t make a lot of sense. You can still trip while you’re walking backwards. Bush’s vision developed per situation and was therefore not extensively intricate. Score on the vision scale? Perhaps a 6.5.

Next up is Bill Clinton. Besides his knack for spotting attractive interns, Clinton is said to have possessed unrivaled vision during his time in office. Especially in the domestic arena, Clinton was very specific in his goals. Welfare and Medicare were expanded under his watch and he was fiscally responsible. Vision score: 9.

Following Clinton is George W. Bush, who followed his father into the White House and had more of an idea of what he wanted to do while he was there than his father did. For example, his No Child Left Behind Act was definitely a disaster, but it was his disaster. He also had ideas of stimulating the economy and winning the war in Iraq. Things aren’t looking so good today, but only time will tell the successfulness of these Bush Jr. Era goals. Score of Visionary Prowess: 7.5

Welcome to the time of the Barack Obamacrats with visions of change. What were we changing exactly? I don’t remember. But at least there’s something proactive going on in the government now. Obama’s score on the vision scale: Visionary, at least according to the Nobel Peace Prize committee. Maybe they can see the future.

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