Bentley University News

Did Occupy Wall Street provide the campaign’s subtext?

During the recent campaign Occupy Wall Street seemed to have disappeared completely. In fact, Occupy lurked just below the surface. Mitt Romney’s infamous remark that 47 percent of Americans are irresponsible mooches was an unhappy echo of Occupy’s 99 percent. When the GOP nominee later insisted that he cared about 100 percent of Americans, he nullified Occupy’s distinction between the 1 percent and the rest — just as his tax plan promised across-the-board cuts for all Americans, including the top 1 percent.

The public conversation about the role of women in the workplace was recently reinvigorated by the appointment of (pregnant) Marissa Mayer as Yahoo's new CEO and the controversial article by Anne-Marie Slaughter. This conversation has been waxing and waning throughout my career … and my mother’s career … and even my grandmother’s career.

Behind the scenes, in health-care organizations all across the country, thousands of physicians and allied health care providers are struggling with “compassion fatigue.”

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced recently that a billion people are now signed on to the ubiquitous social networking site. If you’re a college student today, you’re probably one of them. Facebook is where students check out their roommates, classmates, and potential dates long before they meet in person. And if they’re not on Facebook? What are they hiding?

Watching my students use social media tools has led to several observations:

There are several unknowns when it comes to environmental policy in 2013.

Even if President Obama wins re-election, it's unclear whether he will be able, or willing, to move on the environment in his second term; it's also unclear how far the Republicans will go to stymie robust environmental regulation.

But, whatever the outcome of the November election, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will be front and center, because it is the bellwether governmental agency for the environment and sustainability in this country.

This has been an eventful summer for all of us who care about the world. In June, we marked the 20^th anniversary of the 1992 United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro. In July, we recorded the hottest-ever month in the United States. In August and September, we listened to the two presidential candidates as they squared off on climate change in their respective convention speeches. And later in September, we learned that the drastic melting of the Arctic sea ice had set a new record, with ice covering just 24 percent of the surface of the Arctic Ocean.

Authenticity is very much in the autumn air these days — especially with the presidential debates unfolding in front of tens of millions of people.

At a recent business dinner with a client who is a senior partner at a well-known accounting firm, for example, the topic was, not surprisingly, the presidential election. “They’re both liars,” said the executive of the two candidates. “You just can’t trust politicians today. They’ll say whatever they need to say to get elected.”

The 2012 elections for President and Congress are awash in cash. By early October, President Obama had raised nearly $600 million and was poised to break the record $750 million he set in 2008 for spending by a presidential candidate. GOP challenger former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney had raised nearly $400 million. Both candidates also have received significant support from the national political parties and other outside groups. By Election Day, nearly $2 billion will be spent on the presidential race and another $4 billion will be spent on the congressional races.

Obama — Imagining a Second Term

The far left and the far right agree about one thing — four more years of President Barack Obama would be a nightmare. But for many of us, four more years would offer exactly what Obama promised the first time — hope. We hope that if he earns a second term, Obama, not beholden, will do exactly what he planned to do before the inherited economic mess interceded. We hope he will do what Bill Clinton, who squandered his second term in scandal, could never do — and that means achieve “big” things.

Anyone experiencing the current political climate might easily conclude that our system of governing is either severely dysfunctional, even broken.