President Donald Trump made big news on January 31, when he met in the White House with top pharmaceutical company executives. Or at least he deserved to make big news, because the issues he raised in the West Wing’s Roosevelt Room will prove to be central to the health, and wealth, of every American.
1. The October Surprise
Remember the “October Surprise”? I sure do. Back in the 1980 presidential campaign, the October Surprise was the rumor that the incumbent president, Jimmy Carter, vexed as he was by the Iranian hostage crisis, would pull off some shocking ploy—such as gaining the sudden release of the hostages—as a way of winning that year’s November election. That October Surprise never happened, of course, and maybe we’ll never really know if it was ever anything more than a figment of someone’s imagination.
1. The Old Four Freedoms
In his 1941 State of the Union address, President Franklin D. Roosevelt articulated his vision of the American social contract, which became known as the “Four Freedoms.” These were, “freedom of speech,” “freedom of worship,” “freedom from want,” and “freedom from fear.” Those big ideas have defined much of the 20th century—and not just in America.
Second of two parts
In Part One, we were witness to the power of the 60 percent majority, and we saw how our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt, welded together the center-right majority of his day to achieve historic reform—there’s a reason why TR is immortalized on Mt. Rushmore. And we also saw, more briefly, how our 37th president, Richard Nixon, also built a center-right majority.
1. Urban Renaissance—or False Dawn?
One of the most consequential societal trends in the last thirty years has been gentrification. In many American metropolises, gentrification has turned the term “inner city” on its head. The old image was of a poor, blighted ghetto; the new image is of an affluent yuppie/hipster playground.
