Art, Pragmatics, and a Big Garden

Today's favorite moments included . . .

. . . exploring Descanso Gardens with my kids and some friends this morning.  It was cute to see Joy help Daniel cross a stream.

. . . kissing Anna's hair.

. . . Joy creating a picture to show me that she loves me.

. . . seeing Daniel's big smile.

And another thing . . .

. . . I had an interesting thought about Mitt Romney this evening. On NPR today they noted that Romney insists he will reverse the trend of outsourcing manufacturing to China, yet in the past he has invested in firms with factories there. Other reporters have noted that Romney vows to create jobs, yet as a CEO he often cut them. As I reflected on all this tonight, it occurred to me that Romney is probably more of a pragmatist than a hypocrite, doing what needs to be done to achieve his goal in a given situation.

As an investor, he wanted to maximize returns so he invested in companies that knew how to keep costs down (by manufacturing in China). As a CEO, he wanted to make his company as profitable as possible, and sometimes that meant streamlining by cutting some jobs. As leader of this country his goals would change, it makes sense that his tactics would, too.

Manufacturing in China and cutting jobs may be good for a company, but since they are bad for our country I can easily see him working to reverse those trends as president. In each case, he would be playing the game by the rules as he understands them, which isn’t so different from Obama decrying super PACs, yet accepting their money and help because he will lose the election if he doesn’t play the game by those unsavory rules.

The trouble with electing a pragmatist, though, is that right now the game of presidential candidacy requires him to say whatever a majority of people want to hear so we will elect him. Consequently, I’m not sure what goals he actually intends to pursue as CEO of America. I think he’ll do a very capable job of achieving them, but that’s small comfort when I have no clue what they really are, or how they line up with my values.