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.
Hard-work ethics and government dependancy are antithetical. This man is truly, sadly deluded.
So ‘Big Bird’ has finally been exposed... I didn’t realize Ken Burns was so tall. It’s too bad that he’s so short sighted.
Stick this guy in the “Loone” category. 4 Daughters? He is crazy to put their futures in BO’s hands.
I have two daughters, Ken. I raised them to make their own way in the world, not relying on government subsidies to be successful.
I am proud to say that they both have far surpassed my modest achievements. How are yours doing?
Cocaine. It’s a hell of a drug.
Obama film grant — I agree. There is much work ahead on the infrastructure of Barry’s image. They’re going to have to shore him up and turn him into a “Jackie Robinson” kind of character. It’s going to take years, and I’d say Ken Burns and PBS are already in preproduction.
Everything you need to know about Ken Burns can be explained in one word: Hampshire College.
How many undecided voters were out there just waiting to see how Ken Burns was going to vote? He is irrelevant.
How many undecided voters were out there just waiting to see how Ken Burns was going to vote? He is irrelevant.
This crap begs one to question where he researched his understanding of history. Maybe someone with a good grasp of history like Beck’s researchers need to pick this little self absorbed idiot apart.
Like most liberal intellectuals Ken Burns has to write an elaborate and mostly fictional explanation for his actions. The reality is probably far simpler - he has made a fortune from PBS, and he wants to keep his income stream and posh lifestyle going. Like most liberals he reaps outsized benefits from the tax money taken from other hard working Americans.
“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”
Did not Obama have two years of total control?
“Ken Burns: Why I am voting for Barack Obama”
Because he’s a socialist/Marxist little twerp!
There must be a pony in there somewhere!
I’m sorry Mr burns but once again your political leanings suggest that compromise means I agree with you which, I do not.
What a miserable, selfish little communist jackass...
Sure makes me question the veracity of every other “documentary” he’s done. Oh, and with my money, too.
Just another Dem Fluke.
So, let’s talk about Bedford Falls, under an Obama administration. They’d regulate businesses to the point that most would close down, and move off down the road to the next town.
Bedford Falls would have a crisis with the local banks because they might have money, but because of regulations...they really can’t loan money out unless you have outstanding collateral (zero risk is the hint here).
Bedford Falls would be trying to lure energy companies to relocate into the town and provide set-up capital...only to find each company failing within a year and carving out the set-up capital as profit.
Bedford Falls would tell you that 30 man-hours a week is the new full-time level (not forty hours). So you’d flip your employees over to 28-hour weeks to avoid any unnecessary new taxes that Bedford Falls created.
Bedford Falls would have a problem in functioning beyond the mayor’s level. Out of the nine-man city council...the mayor just won’t talk to four members under any condition. So the mayor kinda runs the city by his orders. To be honest, Bedford Falls hasn’t had a real budget agreed upon by the full city council....in three years.
Bedford Falls has the highest pension level of any city in the state, but can’t possibly ever sustain that pension.
Bedford Falls has high priorities for the school and library in the city...to the point that it’s consuming a huge amount of the yearly revenue collected.
Bedford Falls has empty houses, which the banks can’t get rid of, and they sit mostly empty.
Yeah, Bedford Falls might have been a neat place to live years ago...but this modern-age Bedford Falls is Detroit, and it’s crumbling around the edges of society. End of story.
Obama’s wears a ring adorned with the first part of the Islamic declaration of faith, the Shahada: “There is no god except Allah.”. So much for Obama’s opinion on Christian and American timeless values
“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”
Oh, if we could only make it so.
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