The greening of America

Al Gore, John McCain, Hillary Clinton, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Barack Obama, Chuck Hagel, Mike Bloomberg, Sam Nunn, General Electric, Coca-Cola, Dupont, Johnson & Johnson, Nike, Intel, Shell Oil, Wall Street firms, venture capitalists galore, the CIA, the Nobel Peace Prize Committee and the armies of the progressive Internet are all part of the greening of America that will transform our politics and business in ways that will astonish and amaze those who are left behind.

The greening of America involves a mindset of politics, business, culture, entertainment, technology and patriotism that will liberate and energize an American spirit that will be Prometheus unbound from a status quo that American voters, consumers, investors and business have already left behind.

Global warming is merely one example, as change advances with lenders, borrowers and government realizing that a wave of Grapes of Wrath foreclosures hurts everyone. Some unions have begun serious talks with business to address the healthcare crisis.

Mike Bloomberg dines with Chuck Hagel and breakfasts with Barack Obama, while Arnold Schwarzenegger calls for a post-partisan politics as the president and Congress compete for who will first reach 80 percent unpopularity.

Global warming is a powerful catalyst for the greening of America because it is the first mega-post-partisan issue that brings together extraordinarily diverse viewpoints, involves gigantic profit-making opportunities from a sweeping business transformation, and dovetails with larger trends that are already advancing. Consider this:

Movie star Brad Pitt builds green homes in New Orleans while national security leaders warn of danger from climate change, Al Gore joins a premier venture capital firm while Arnold Schwarzenegger takes landmark action in California. Global conglomerates support major legislation, grassroots progressives mobilize and the entire NBC family broadcasts a week of spectacular television with features from the polar icecaps and analysts discussing new energy stocks.

The Ozone Man is now an analyst for the CIA, a marketing strategist for Dupont, the program director for NBC and possibly the next leader of the free world.

This is the first of several columns that will discuss the greening of America  that will define the post-Bush age.

The next historic political realignment, comparable to the FDR coalition of the left and the Reagan coalition of the right, will be led by political leaders who recognize that the new post-partisan majority dwarfs the polarization deadlocking both parties today.

The next great fortunes of American business, comparable to the enormous wealth that was generated by building the transcontinental railroad and then the Internet age, will be made by those who seize the enormous profits generated by the seismic transition to a post-oil, post-pollution economy.

The next era of American global leadership, comparable to the rebuilding of democracy and prosperity in Europe after the Second World War, will begin with America rejoining the community of nations in a global campaign against climate change and culminate with the generation-long surge of American exports that will lift consumers and nations with new, clean, safe energy.

The greening of America will be driven by the liberation from the dark, divisive,negative, fear-ridden and backward status quo that is overwhelmingly rejected by a large majority of American voters, the heart and soul of Main Street, and the smartest minds on Wall Street.

The greening of America will be driven by the time-honored truth that the land of the free and home of the brave is more than the sum of the parts. We are more than a garrison state of warring factions told by small-minded leaders that we should be angry at each other, afraid of our future and alienated from the better angels of the American nature.

The greening of America has support today, in ways large and small, from average citizens determined to achieve change, from investors and entrepreneurs preparing to make great fortunes with products that will change the world, from the actors who rebuild homes, from political leaders calling for post-partisan politics, and from every company and individual named in this column.

As the greening of America unfolds people will be astonished at the burst of optimism and ingenuity that will define the future, which is now.

Budowsky was an aide to former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen and Bill Alexander, then-chief deputy whip of the House. He serves on the Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit, can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net and read on The Hill Pundits Blog.