Follow the People on Path to Recovery

The winter of our discontent arrived with great expectations. In Richmond and across the nation, Americans are filled with fear and hope. Great mounds of money have evaporated for reasons many of us only vaguely understand. Those highly educated and deeply experienced in matters of finance seem to be winging it, nearly as confused as the rest of us.

Familiar leaders -- worn by long years of conflict -- are exiting the stage, replaced by new men we have chosen freely and are prepared to support. Our success, to a reasonable degree, will be abetted by their own. Their failure, should it come, would create added difficulties for many of us.

So at home, Mayor Dwight Jones inherits old and complex problems and a budget even more challenging than those that faced his predecessor. But he begins with the sincere well wishes of a city and a region. There's a bull market for goodwill in Central Virginia right now. The new mayor has a chance to learn how to ride it. His early statements and appointments suggest that he understands this opportunity, which could be long or short, depending almost entirely on Mayor Jones. And, of course, on events.

For the people, it's time to be patient -- at least for a little while.

Enjoy the quiet and watch closely.

A hundred miles north, President-elect Obama faces similar circumstances, though exaggerated exponentially by the magnitude of the national stage and the emotional weight of his own historic ascension on Jan. 20. Problems at home and abroad are intense -- as is the joy at the country's latest accomplishment, the election of our first African-American president.

We are proud of ourselves -- and worried about ourselves -- and ready to give our new president a chance to begin fixing things. He enjoys the admiration of most Americans, the adulation of nearly all the media, and the expectation that he will need time to rescue our economy, improve our health care system, and establish new and effective methods for keeping America safe from its enemies.

Now is not the time to attack his plans, which remain amorphous. Not yet. President-elect Obama has won the opportunity to propose, to promote, to lead in the direction he has promised. We have a duty to listen, to analyze, to offer support when we are able. He has earned, for now, the benefit of the doubt.

The loyal opposition, in Virginia's capital and the nation's, must understand the public's prejudice these days for progress -- and for civility among its leaders, despite the appalling examples to the contrary found among the rabble online and on cable television. Those voices of anger and personal attack are loud but relatively few. It is time for leaders to ignore them.

Before long, there will be ample opportunity for principled opposition to the policies of the newly elected. But their supporters -- and many who did not vote for them -- want to give a fair chance to these fresh leaders. Hear them out.

The worst of times -- though we will not know for a while if these days truly deserve that description -- are also the best of times for innovation, not only in policy but also in tone. The financial crisis, which has spawned money troubles that may or may not end in economic crisis, have subsumed many of the ideological skirmishes of recent years. Popular assumptions have been discredited. Dogma of the left and the right has been fractured. So we face a chance to build better solutions.

The public, as is so often the case, seems ahead of the politicians now as it returns to fundamentals taught by parents and grandparents, by pastors and rabbis, about the ephemeral benefits of treasure accumulated on Earth. There is indeed more to life than huge houses, expensive cars, and really big TVs.

Practical lessons are recalled as well. Too much debt is deadly. Saving money is good. Investing in things you don't understand is always dangerous. Among the people, the restoration of common sense is well along its way. The mustard seeds of revival are being sowed all across the land.

The replanting of prudence may, ironically, intensify our economic travails in the near term. But it is a gift to the leaders assuming power this month. Their great tests will come when we learn if they are able to direct this renewed American spirit in the directions that have always ultimately prevailed in our nation. Our history is one of unrelenting progress and widening justice. The breaks are inevitably temporary.

One piece of simple advice for a new mayor and a new president: Clear away the bramble from the storm that has momentarily clogged our path -- so that a free and industrious people can work their way once again.
Contact Bob Rayner at (804) 649-6073 or .