Posted on 10/20/2012 4:29:19 AM PDT by billorites
One of my favorite movies of all time is Frank Capra's “It's A Wonderful Life,” starring Jimmy Stewart. In the film, Stewart's character, a despondent and near suicidal George Bailey, who runs a small savings and loan in the town of Bedford Falls, is given a gift: the chance to see what his town would be like if he'd never been born — if he'd never extended a helping hand to his neighbors when they needed it most, never helped his community understand how much they depended upon one another.
In this alternative vision, the town's plutocratic banker, Mr. Potter — without the decent George Bailey to counter him — rules everything. A bottom-line-is-everything, every-man-for-himself mentality runs unchecked, resulting in Bedford Falls' metamorphosis into “Pottersville,” an amoral, soulless place.
The movie has a happy ending, thank goodness, but its themes endure to this day and echo in the current presidential election, which at its core asks the question: What kind of country are we? Are we Bedford Falls or Pottersville? Are we all in this together — and stronger and better because of it — or are we entirely on our own, with a few “makers” on the top of a heap of “takers?”
I'm supporting President Barack Obama because there is no question about his answer to that question. Having observed Mitt Romney when he was governor of Massachusetts, and then watching him in the Republican primaries as he tacked this way and that whenever it suited him (but mostly to the far right, the Tea Party radicals, even the birthers), I can't be sure of him.
As a student of American history, let me give some perspective. Much like Franklin Delano Roosevelt (one of the subjects of a new documentary series we are working on — if Romney doesn't get his way and PBS isn't eliminated), President Obama took office at a time when lax regulation of the financial industry had brought us to the brink of a complete collapse, creating an industry that needed nearly a trillion dollars in President Bush-authorized bailouts. He also inherited two off-the-books wars that had further ballooned our budget deficit, an auto industry on the verge of bankruptcy, and a loss of prestige in the international community.
Like FDR, Obama has walked us back from the brink. He averted a depression, ended one war and put us on the path ending the other, rescued the auto industry, slowly building the sound footing necessary to have a sustained recovery — better, smarter regulation of those that brought this upon us, tax breaks to save a dwindling middle class, and a request that the very super rich, folks like Gov. Romney who have taken advantage of loopholes and deductions and off-shore accounts to amass their fortunes, pay their fair share. (Like FDR's hero, Theodore Roosevelt — also part of the new series we're making — Obama has deployed the shrewd combination of speaking softly and using a big stick. Ask Bin Laden.)
There's a lot more work to be done, obviously, but history itself suggests that changing the trajectory of things takes time and patience and, as FDR demonstrated, intelligent experimentation. (All Mitt Romney seems to offer is a return to the very policies that got us into this mess in the first place.)
Unfortunately, unlike FDR, who had great cooperation from across the aisle for many of his programs, Obama has had to pretty much go it alone. As the Republican Party ignored his gestures of compromise and bipartisanship, they also moved further and further to the right, the furthest right they have ever been since the party was founded in 1856. Further right than the days of President Ronald Reagan, who in his second inaugural address in 1985 said, “Our two-party system has served us well over the years, but never better than in those times of great challenge when we came together not as Democrats or Republicans, but as Americans united in a common cause.”
How different, that attitude, from the Republican position of the last three years, which has taken the very process that forged our Constitution and created this great country — compromise — and tried to turn it into a dirty word.
More than a student of American history, I am also the father of four daughters. They mean the world to me, of course, and I've tried to teach them those timeless American values “It's A Wonderful Life” promotes: a small-town hard-work ethic, holding to your inner principles and not changing with the first breeze of opposition, never lying, and loving both the country and its potentiality. And they constantly point me to the future, to the essential question George Bailey faced: What can one person do to make their community a Bedford Falls instead of a Pottersville? Well, there are many things. But one of them, I think, is to vote for Barack Obama.
Ken Burns, a filmmaker from Walpole, is director of “The Civil War,” “Baseball,” “The Dust Bowl” and many other documentaries.
What color is the sky in the world Burns lives in?
We HAVE become a nation of ‘takers’ supported by a small group of ‘makers’. A society has to have MORE ‘value creators’ than ‘rentiers’ and those that ‘capture value’. We need a SURPLUS!!
Like participating in an NPR pledge drive it's just something he's got to do.
You got it exactly backwards Kenny boy, barack is Mr. Potter and we need a George Bailey. I cannot believe the delusional people in this country.
Post of the thread!
It’s the evil business guy who is into the environmentally unfriendly “plastics”, if I recall correctly!
The first few comments after the article are golden. Then the progs find out their boy is being attacked and it goes downhill.
With all due respect, Mr. Burns, I see neither quality in Barack Obama, who has made every effort to conceal his past and present. But your fantasy world, where we live out a movie as one happy community, resembles that of my liberal acquaintances, who for reasons I cannot quite grasp, fail to tell the difference between reality and fantasy.
They say creativity is related to mental illness. It could very well be you are a consummate case in point. How about you stick with the great movies and documentaries, and let people who live in the real world do the voting?
What a non-sequitor!
Obama is for a small-town hard-work ethic? never lying? loving both the country and its potentiality?
His action speak louder than his words. Burns, the child, only hears the magic words and can't see the toxic actions.
I liked his CIVIL WAR. AFter that it was down hill. Baseball was an utter waste. Several good moments, but in the end You have all these great ball players still living, and instead of interviewing them at length, we get celebrities singing take me out to the ball game.
...by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention. Nor is it always the worse for the society that it was no part of it. By pursuing his own interest he frequently promotes that of the society more effectually than when he really intends to promote it. I have never known much good done by those who affected to trade for the public good. (Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations, Book IV, Chapter II, p. 488-489.)
Milton Friedman on this quote and "do gooders" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OoQIr-naNiQ
This is a typical liberal taking the absolute opposite message from an important cultural story - when the story itself is actually pro-conservative.
George Bailey voluntarily helped people because he was fundamentally decent(Just like his neighbors voluntarily helped George at the end of the film when he needed it). Not because the government forced him to. Potter’s just like Obama - mouthing phony platitudes about a “thrifty working class” but doing things in practice that help undermine it.
Reciprocal altruism doesn’t need a government mandate - even social animals do it.
When Potter runs everything in the town, despair is rampant and the moral fabric breaks down - that’s when hope really disappears because nothing happens without Potter’s say-so. Potter’s the government in this analogy, not some evil capitalist.
In the same way, liberals pretend the Robin Hood story is about them (rob from the rich and give to the poor), but in reality it’s the opposite. Robin Hood stole from corrupt, illegitimate government that was illegally overtaxing people in order to benefit themselves and keep people under their thumb. Robin Hood wanted low taxes and the legitimate rule of law. That’s a conservative message.
Know what this reminds me of?
Everything you say is true and I know Carly Simon is a libtard but....I fell in love with her slow version.
Potter is the government. Intrusive, dictatorial, demanding, pedantic, arrogant, tyrannic.
George Bailey is the TEA Party. Independent, self-reliant, entrepreneurial, optimistic, charitable, homey.
Interesting that he used “Its a Wonderful Life.” George Bailey was trying to give the less fortunate people a step up so they could keep some of their money and move forward. Ya know, into a capitalistic society.
Maybe I’ve been watching the other version all these years.
Ok I’ll bite on the movie analogy. We are the ones fighting for Bedford Falls. The people help themselves and each other by their own free will. It’s not Bedford Falls vs Potterville in the real world; it’s Bedford Falls vs Moscow.
This moron has spent his life on the public teat. Its time to get him off of it by defunding PBS.
Burns is the ultimate educated parasite. His income is mainly from producing similar (mediocre) films about a variety of subjects at taxpayer expense (partially). I would take his advice if he takes mine: STFU, you lib loser.
All you had to do is look at his haircut and you knew which way he voted.
I wonder if he like to smoke meat cigars too?
Yup. Did you notice how he stayed away from, “Mr. Smith Goes To Washington?”
Nope. He couldn’t quite pull out a Jimmy Stewart film that centers on the rampant corruption inherent in government!
Cheers!
Killed what little respect I had for Burns
I prefer "knuckleheads", but yours is just as good.
FMCDH(BITS)
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