(Newser)
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After three days of listening to speeches at the Republican National Convention, Thomas Friedman grew tired of listening to endless propounding about "American exceptionalism," he writes in his latest column in the New York Times. Fifty years after President Kennedy launched America on a great journey to the moon, no great visions were announced at the convention (except, perhaps, the dismantling of the welfare state), and Romney-Ryan just blasted President Obama for failing to tout our exceptionalism. Therein lies the race to the bottom, Friedman writes. "You give up the great journeys and just assert your exceptionalism louder."
One problem, according to Friedman, is the lack of connection between Romney and the Republican base. "He is renting the party to fulfill his dream of becoming president, and they’re renting him to get rid of President Obama," he writes. Instead, Friedman thinks both parties should be campaigning on big ideas, like the original journey to the moon. How about making Americans the best-educated nation in the world? Or a dream of doubling the number of new companies formed in America each year, from 500,000 to 1 million within a decade? "If only this election were a choice, not between two parties or two candidates, but between two exceptional journeys," concludes Friedman. Click for his full column.
