Joe Sestak, former three star admiral and two term Democrat congressman, has written a fact filled and thoughtful analysis of virtually all of the challenges facing our nation and its government, and then provided an unfortunate title that inaccurately implies this was a promotional piece for his current Senate campaign.
By ignoring the first part of the title “Walking in Your Shoes to Restore the American Dream” and putting off reading Chapter One until the end of the book, one encounters Sestak’s engrossing views and recommendations covering virtually the entire gamut of pressing governmental subjects. Most candidates seek to straddle issues; Sestak says what he thinks.
Reflecting the wide range of the subjects discussed, the chapters are entitled:
Rugged Individualism, the Common Enterprise, and Accountable Leadership
Thinking Big for Small Business
The Rebirth of American Manufacturing
Investing in Our Infrastructure
Raising Wages Not Just the Minimum Wage
A workforce that Keeps Pace with the New Economy
A Health Security Strategy, Untapped Assets in the American Workforce
Serving Those Who Served, Standing with our Seniors
Continued Global Leadership for Security and Prosperity
Since his narrow loss of a senate seat to Republican Pat Toomey in 2010, Sestak has spent the years studying, reflecting, writing columns, as a talk show panelist, and as an adjunct professor at Carnegie Mellon University, Dickinson College, Cheyney University, the United States Army War College, and Penn State University Dickinson School of Law and School of International Affairs.
If he were not a candidate and were the book’s title shortened to “Restoring the American Dream”, Sestak’s work would likely have been widely and positively reviewed, studied by academics and analysts, read by the media, and by citizens concerned with national and world affairs. It might well have even made some best seller lists.
Unfortunately because “Walking in your shoes” is the questionable slogan of the Sestak political campaign, by both confounding and politicizing the title, Sestak detracts from a perception of objectivity.
It is a sign of Sestak integrity that he seldom refers to his military career, and then only to cite incidents that help him to make a point. There is a collage of small photo’s on the cover, but not a single picture of Sestak in uniform in the book.
So what is it that causes Sestak, a man of extraordinary leadership qualities and superior intellect, to make “Walking in your shoes” the motto of his election campaign and to repeatedly flatter ordinary Americans as “rugged individualists” throughout his book? (The term soon seems as trite as the references by Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and other politicians to “hard working tax payers.”)
Our sense is that he is by nature a loner who thinks he must be perceived as ‘one of the gang’ to be elected . He probably isn’t, and few great leaders are. There are enough mediocre politicians who would make good next door neighbors.
We think that Sestak has a better chance of achieving his goal if he stops presenting himself as the ‘guy next door’ and acts more like his natural himself, every inch an admiral and prospective senator. He should not seem to plead as he he did at the tail end of his 2010 campaign;rather he should lead!
Here are few excerpts from his book, chosen in the order they appear:
“According to the 2013 World Economic Forums’s Global Competitiveness Report, the U. S. ranks 25th in overall quality of infrastructure behind countries such as South Korea, Japan, Canada, Germany, France, and Singapore.” Pg. 50
“Of all communities, those in rural areas of our country are especially in need of greater internet access. In fact, while nearly 100 percent of urbanites have internet access in some form or another, over one-fifth of people in rural areas can barely access the web. That’s a big deal for places like my home state, Pennsylvania, which haw the third-highest rural population in the country at just over 2.7 million.” Pg. 61
“The Institute for Research on Labor and Employment, on the other hand, examined research covering a 20-year period that considered several hundred pairs of adjacent counties sharing similar demographics on different sides of state borders, but with different minimum wage levels. It found no difference in unemployment when one side had a higher minimum wage.” … In fact, it costs taxpayers $1.2 billion each year in public assistance to subsidize McDonald’s’ minimum wage workers.” Pgs. 69 /70
“Currently, federal law prohibits Medicare from negotiating directly with pharmaceutical companies for cheaper drug prices. …The Congressional Budget Office estimates that negotiating rebates would produce savings of $123 billion from 2015 to 2012.” Pg. 104
“But sadly, when these men and women return from combat, our leaders have often failed at providing our veterans with the care and transitional support they need.” Pg. 131
“After a three-year effort, Phoenix became the first city in the country to end chronic veteran homelessness….The housing first strategy recognizes… that someone is more likely to be able to kick an addiction if they first have a safe and stable place to stay.” Pg. 135
“For a long time I have been convinced that America would benefit greatly from all youth participating in national service programs, and it is something that I have advocated since I entered public life almost a decade ago… With 6y00,000 applications to AmeriCorp’s’ 80,000 positions and 150,000 applications requests for Peace Corps 4,000 positions, [General Stan] McChrystal said this disparity ‘represents democratic energy wasted and a generation of patriotism needlessly squandered.’” Pgs. 170 / 171
“A smart national security strategy capable f addressing the wide array of challenges that I described above will consist of five major categories:
1. Enhance diplomatic engagement…
2. Advance economic partnerships…
3. Maintain a strong, flexible military…
4. Be able to weigh well the costs and benefits if the decion arises of ‘when and why’ to use military force
5. Prioritize our resources and efforts…” Pg. 182
“At a time when challenges are increasingly global and transnational in nature, and at a time when our nation, like so many nations, is facing budgetary constraints, we need the help of our friends to preserve peace and stability in the world so that we can grow and prosper along with it.” Pg. 183
“But today, the strike capabilities of ten aircraft carriers and their enhanced technological airwings are about equal to 90 aircraft carriers fifteen years ago. So, knowing this, should we continue to be obsessed with size and numbers?” Pg. 189
After reading the book and reflecting on the paucity of candidates on the Democrat national political scene, many may wonder if Sestak is a candidate for a high enough office.
