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Inside Wesley Clark: Retired general’s trial political balloon is still aloft, and he has serious ideas about America’s future
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| Contributor | ArmyDem |
| Last Edited | ArmyDem Jul 13, 2003 01:41pm |
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| Category | Commentary |
| News Date | Sunday, July 13, 2003 06:00:00 AM UTC0:0 |
| Description | Paul Barton, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Presidential candidates often express a long-range view of America, but retired Gen. Wesley K. Clark, who may run for the White House in 2004, looks further into the future than most. Clark, 58, talks about the country in 100-, 30-, and five-year increments.
America early in the 22nd century should resemble "a park in Switzerland, only grander," he said as he laid out his vision during an interview last week at his Little Rock consulting firm.
Americans living 100 years from now, he said, should be able to rejoice "in the beauty of this country, the clean air, the beautiful water, the forests, the open range land."
And that’s not the end of it.
"When there are no safaris left for the African veldt, people are going to come here to see thousands of buffalo on the open prairie — maybe." Voters should be able to look at their government and see a system of checks and balances still intact. And they should participate as members of "an informed, educated, democratically engaged citizenry."
Within a shorter time frame — the next 30 years — Clark wants an America that eliminates gaps in its health-care system and frees senior citizens from worries about retirement security, an America that has "the best business environment in the world," an education system that gives every boy and girl the chance "to live up to their potential."
As for near term, he talks of tax cuts for the middle class, more federal money for schools, reducing the U.S. presence in Iraq. America should continue to be a place where a woman has a constitutionally protected right to an abortion, he said.
If there is a quality that permeates a Clark interview, it is an ability to touch a lot of bases. |
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