Why Friedman Is a "Must Read"

This past week, Tom Friedman reminded us why he is one of the op-ed writers everyone should read.

In his most recent article, "Where Did 'We' Go?", Friedman makes a frightening connection between the right's attacks on President Obama and the political atmosphere in Israel prior to the assassination of Yitzhak Rabin in 1995.  Indeed, it is disturbing to hear and see the intense anger and disgust of protestors and critics who falsely assert Obama in not a US citizen, that he will kill off sick senior citizens if his health care reform passes, that he is a "closet Muslim," or that he is a liar.  As Friedman notes, Obama's opponents are not so much interested in a debate as in trying to delegitimize him.  Debate is not possible with such people.  Even the Republican leadership in Congress - in fact, virtually every Republican in Congress - views the health care debate as an opportunity to hand Obama a defeat rather than a debate about how to best fix an inefficient and bloated health care system that acts like an anchor on our economic growth.

Friedman worries that solving the myriad problems we face in the coming days, weeks, and years will be difficult given the extreme partisan nature of our political system.  He's right to worry.  We can't afford gridlock on these issues, or watered-down, lowest-common-denominator policies that placate a Republican or two but render the solutions ineffective.

At best, Obama and the Democrats will be forced to govern like George W. Bush and the Republicans in Congress during his first term:  shove through their legislation and don't worry about bipartisanism.  My hope is that, if the Democrats are successful in passing serious legislation, moderate Republicans will start showing up to negotiate, especially if the legislation is popular.  But if they don't, I just hope Obama and the Democrats are willing and able to do what is necessary to take real action to solve the real problems we face.

Friedman's other important article this week was "The New Sputnik."  In it, Friedman warns:

...China’s leaders have decided to go green — out of necessity... What do we know about necessity? It is the mother of invention. And when China decides it has to go green out of necessity, watch out. You will not just be buying your toys from China. You will buy your next electric car, solar panels, batteries and energy-efficiency software from China.

I believe this Chinese decision to go green is the 21st-century equivalent of the Soviet Union’s 1957 launch of Sputnik — the world’s first Earth-orbiting satellite. 

Again, Friedman is right.  As he has encouraged for several years, we need to embrace the challenge of climate change as an opportunity to be a leader in developing - and selling - green technology to the world.  If we don't, we run the risk of losing even more jobs in the future to China and other developing countries that do understand that green technologies create jobs.

I may not agree with everything Friedman writes, but he sees the big picture like few others and understands important trends and how they might affect us over time.