Leadership and creativity Obama needs to prove can restore our nation himself to large segment

After Election Day, there was less uncertainty in America. But will there be greater confidence? The election will not solve fundamental issues such as transportation, education and health care. Doing so requires strong leadership at the state and national level.

Leadership is not just about ideas and policy. It’s about taking the initiative to bring people together for a common goal. This is important: America appears more politically polarized than ever. Imagine if this nation could function consistently at the level of unity shown after tragic events. There was no Republican versus Democrat in the wake of 9/ 11. There is no “us versus them” when tornadoes or floods strike.

Think this is too Pollyanna? Consider last year’s sweeping criminal justice reforms. This legislation passed the Georgia General Assembly unanimously. Other than resolutions praising Miss Georgia or some hometown hero, nothing passes Georgia’s Legislature unanimously. There is indeed hope. Such leadership must be demonstrated at the national level.

Regardless of election results, we face a national debt on a sure course to bankrupt and devastate our great nation unless it is addressed. That will mean significant cuts to federal programs — no matter who is elected. It’s time to begin preparing, but it’s also an opportunity to implement new approaches instead of simply replacing federal dollars with state dollars.

One of my favorite professors in college described government as a safety valve that is demanded when our other institutions — families, businesses, philanthropies and churches — fail. This is what is referred to as “civil society.”

Lawrence Reed, president of the Foundation for Economic Education, has noted that when the French social commentator Alexis de Tocqueville visited a young, bustling America in the 1830s, “He was amazed that Americans were constantly forming ‘associations’ to advance the arts, build libraries and hospitals and meet social needs of every kind. If something good needed doing, it rarely occurred to our ancestors to expect politicians and bureaucrats, who were dis- tant in both space and spirit, to do it for them.”

How does Georgia reinvigorate our “civil society”? How do we ensure government isn’t crowding out these private efforts or putting regulatory barriers in their way? How do we ensure that government is truly the safety valve rather than the first option?

Steve Jobs encouraged us to “think different.” Our elected officials need to think different to engage all of our resources in solving these important challenges. Onesize-fits-all, top-down solutions don’t work. And we can’t afford them anyway.

It’s time for creative policies that combine personal responsibility, civic engagement and public-private partnerships. This nation requires leadership to resolve its challenges, not just management to shuffle the deck chairs on the Titanic. If Georgians and Americans expect better schools, affordable access to health care and a return to a thriving economy, we must demand more of our elected officials — and expect more from ourselves.

The 2012 elections are safely behind us, but sadly, our politics have hardly changed. In the days since President Obama won re-election, Republicans retained control of the House of Representatives and Democrats retained control of the Senate, politicians and pundits have all weighed in on the prospects of getting anything done in Washington. The prognosis is not hopeful.

Because the balance of power did not change, both sides appear to merely tweak their old agendas. House Speaker John Boehner for instance, has pledged to work with President Obama to help avoid the fiscal cliff. To his credit, he has offered to consider some revenue increases in concert with budget cuts. However, he still wants a tax rate cut for the highest income bracket.

In reality, it is going to take a lot more effort to bridge the divide between President Obama, House Republicans and Senate Democrats. All sides have their preferred policy positions, but Tuesday’s voters have preferences that must also be considered. Sixty percent of Tuesday’s electorate supported tax increases on at least those with incomes over $250,000. Most of these voters supported President Obama. When you consider that even about 40 percent of Romney voters supported some form of a tax increase, this suggests that Republicans may want to consider further compromise on this issue.

For his part, President Obama has to acknowledge that the public remains deeply divided in its perceptions of his management. While Obama earned high marks for handling international crises, voters were deeply divided in their perceptions of whether Obama, relative to Mitt Romney, could adequately address both the economy and the federal deficit. When we consider that 59 percent of voters cited the economy as the most important issue facing the country this means that President Obama has his work cut out for him.

While President Obama’s victory is a personal vindication of him, he still must prove himself to a large segment of the American population. In Tuesday’s exit polls, voters were asked to pick the one trait that mattered most to them as they selected their presidential candidate: shared values, strong leadership, empathy and having a vision for the future. A plurality of voters (29 percent) considered vision to be the most important trait in a presidential candidate, followed by shared values (27 percent), empathy (21 percent) and strong leadership (18 percent). President Obama was the preferred candidate (by an overwhelming margin) only among those who ranked empathy as the most important trait. In contrast, those who ranked vision and leadership highest were more likely to vote for Mitt Romney.

These findings present both a challenge and an opportunity for President Obama. His supporters clearly think he cares about them.

President Obama’s task, then, is to devise a plan to help facilitate employment, figure out how to frame this plan in a simple, elegant way that resonates with the public, and then skillfully negotiate with Republicans to ensure the passage of his priorities.