Successes Two Year Colleges · Cleaner Air · Food Stamps · Assimilation · Entrepreneurs · China, India · Young Soldiers · Charity · AIDS · Foreign Investors Challenges Traffic · Consumerism · Drug Abuse · Dead Zones · Income Inequality · Mental Illness · Latin America · Housing · State Pensions · Anti-Americanism

By Carl M. Cannon, National Journal
© National Journal Group Inc.
Friday, Jan. 19, 2007

Calling the Potomac River "a national disgrace," President Johnson vowed in a 1965 message to Congress that it would be swimmable in 10 years. This goal was ambitious. The waterway was a cesspool. Police divers took typhoid vaccinations before entering it. Raw sewage was visible from the banks; algae scum covered the river; largemouth bass could not breathe or spawn. A city ordinance called for a $300 fine if your dog went in and then shook infected droplets on anyone.

Thirteen years later, environmental activists organized a celebratory "swim-in," although police canceled it for fear of drownings. Today, the river teems with wildlife, college and high school crews row by the monuments, and the sloughs near Reagan National Airport boast some of the best urban bass fishing in America.

The Potomac's slow but steady recovery is emblematic of widespread advances in the nation's air and water quality since President Nixon signed the Clean Air and Clean Water acts. Political institutions in Washington, including the media, generally focus on bad news, but as the 43rd president of the United States prepares for the annual exercise known as the State of the Union address, reflection on what went right in America can provide perspective. In the stories that follow (see links on the right), National Journal writers, reporting in their areas of expertise, detail progress that has received scant attention. Lacking a political edge, these are unlikely topics for a prime-time presidential address -- although they certainly relate to the state of our union.

In medicine, extending the lives of people who have contracted the AIDS virus from an average of 10 years a decade ago to 24 years today is an impressive testament to American ingenuity. In education, community colleges provide a rarely discussed underpinning of the country's international competitiveness, enrolling 11.6 million students, 22 percent of them in California alone. The food stamp program, once vilified by conservatives, is a case study in effective government aid. In the private sector, American charitable giving has increased to the point where -- contrary to the stereotype -- it should be a source of national pride.

U.S. entrepreneurship remains the envy of the world, and immigrants, as they have throughout our history, are at the forefront of innovation and small businesses. The fires of intolerance rage around the globe, but in our country, religious diversity is a source of national strength.

Deep challenges remain, however, some of them seemingly too intractable to tackle head-on -- or too broad to fit into the agenda of either political party. They seldom show up in national political campaigns, or even State of the Union addresses. When they do, the focus is on tiny steps that satisfy a party's political base, such as equalizing the sentences for using crack and powder cocaine, and not on the broad failure of the long war on drugs.

Sometimes, the solution hides the problem: Longer life spans for people living with AIDS result in more HIV infections. Sometimes, partial success reminds us of what remains to be done: Swimming is still prohibited in the Potomac because when it rains, raw sewage flows into the river. Rich Americans are more distanced from poor ones than ever. Runaway housing prices prevent working-class professionals from living near their jobs. Resulting traffic jams waste billions of person-hours a year. Corporations have foisted their bankrupt pension programs off on the federal government -- but what about the underfunded (and sometimes overgenerous) pension promises of state and local governments? Who will pay those bills? These issues are little discussed and probably won't be on stage on Tuesday.

Some of these successes were launched from the presidential pulpit; others reflect the consensus of generations making incremental policy decisions. Stay tuned to see when the challenges of the future spark action in the present.

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