locus communis

…it is worth listening to the historian Richard Longworth and his tell-it-like-it-is explanation of why the system that has served the United States well in its first two centuries might be inadequate for the third: “Globalization really does lead to an urban-rural split. In too many states, the present is anchored to rural areas and small towns that control state governments and state legislatures. More and more, these rural area and their people are being left behind, cut out of the global conversation, far from the global action, embittered by loss and resentful of the global elite in cities and college towns. To the degree that state governments are controlled by global losers, they’ll be crippled in meeting globalization’s challenge.” Without question, this judgment is harsh and flies in the face of the current trend in Washington to avoid critical issues by hiding in the bunkers of states rights and “American exceptionalism.” Longworth is correct to suggest the need for a new and competitive game plan: “The job of state government in this new world is to get out of the way of this new regional future, while providing some sort of safety net for those left behind. The job of the new dominant cities is to join in new and powerful alliances, to mount a twenty-first century power base, to leverage their strengths.” (28) Much of the rest of the world has adopted this game plan while we are on the sidelines arguing amongst ourselves.