A Time for Courage

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By reviving a sense of common citizenship and civic good, by exalting the notions of public purpose and mutual obligation, America could grope toward a cease-fire in its divisive culture wars. Rather than being rhetorical weapons used to divide the country, such words as values and family could become unifying themes in a quest for common ground. Only then will America begin to cope with poverty, race, welfare, discrimination, abortion and even the deficit.

< Clinton has the credentials to lead such a unifying crusade. Unlike George Bush or Ross Perot, he has an intuitive feel for America's changing patterns. He is comfortable with women as equal partners in the workplace, in government and in marriages like his own. As an exemplar of the new South, he has dealt with blacks and gays, as well as good ole boys and businessmen, on a daily basis with mutual respect. And unlike any other prominent Democrat since Jimmy Carter, he is not tone deaf to the religious chords that can help bind American society. Not only does he know how to clap on the back-beat of gospel hymns, he also draws unabashed strength from his Baptist upbringing.

With all that is at stake and with all the hope that America has invested in him, Clinton can scarcely afford to prove unequal to his task. Another failed one-term presidency would reinforce not only the notion that government cannot cope, but also the clawing anxiety that the country and its economy may be heading toward an inexorable decline. It would deal a further blow to the two- party system, opening the door to a stronger Perot or Perot-like candidacy in 1996.

So Clinton has not just an opportunity but an awesome obligation: to make Americans believe once again that they are masters of an ever improving destiny. When John Kennedy, leaving Boston for Washington just after his election, listed the questions by which history would judge his Administration, he began with, "First, were we truly men of courage?" Bill Clinton, who put the same sort of question to his country, now has the chance to answer it himself.