President Obama and Changing Minds

According to President Barack Obama, the country that focuses on harnessing the power of renewable energy will lead the 21st century. His energy policy claims to recognize the “relationship between energy, the environment, and our economy and leverages American ingenuity to put people back to work, fight global warming, increase our energy independence and keep us safe.” (Organizing for America) The Obama Administration will work to chart a new energy future with renewable energy in order to end dependence on foreign oil, address global warming, and create jobs for Americans that will not be shipped overseas. They will focus on a goal of generating 25% of our energy from renewable sources by 2025, and will continue to invest in solar, wind, biofuels, and geothermal power. They will also work to fight climate change by investing in energy efficiency and conservation. (Organizing for America)

Howard Gardner offers some suggestions for political leaders that might help President Obama achieve these goals in Changing Minds. Gardner states that leaders must “make particular use of two tools: the stories that they tell and the lives they lead. In terms of our levers of change, the ‘resonance’ that exists- or doesn’t- between those stories and those lives proves of telltale importance.” (69) Gardner gives the example of Margaret Thatcher, and discusses the story she put forth that changed history. Her “message contained the essential elements of any good narrative: a protagonist- the British nation (if not British society!); a goal- the restoration of stature, the proper international role for Britain; and obstacles- the misguided consensual policies of recent years, the willingness to cede leadership to other countries, the power of the unions, the fractiousness of the Commonwealth nations, the absence of a directed National Will.” (72) The vehicle for combating these obstacles was Thatcher, and the policies she provided. President Obama must follow suit and create a narrative with the United States as the protagonist, clean, renewable energy as the goal, and the energy and environmental policies of recent years as the obstacle. President Obama must acquire the support of the people with this story, and only then will he be able to create change. His story of renewable energy should strike a chord with the American public, and he could show the world that he is fully in favor of clean, renewable energy by changing the way he lives his life.

Post by Alexandra West

Organizing for America - http://www.barackobama.com/issues/newenergy/index.php

Gardner, Howard. Changing Minds. Massachusetts: HBS Press, 2006.