Politics & Power Quote by Ron Kind

Ron Kind’s line reads like a pep talk, but it’s really a policy argument wearing a patriotic hoodie. By calling innovation and creativity the “single most important factor,” he’s not just praising American ingenuity; he’s ranking it above military strength, natural resources, even political stability. That’s a deliberate provocation in a country that often defaults to hard power and GDP as the scoreboard. The subtext: in the 21st century, the United States can’t out-muscle its rivals forever, so it has to out-think them.

The phrase “maintaining our ability” is doing quiet work. It assumes this capacity is fragile, something that can be lost through neglect or bad governance. That’s a warning shot aimed at complacency and at policies that throttle experimentation: underfunded schools, weak research investment, anti-immigration impulses, and a risk-averse culture that punishes failure. “Innovative and creative society” also broadens the target beyond Silicon Valley. It implies a national ecosystem: public universities, basic science grants, arts and design, entrepreneurship, and the social conditions that let people take risks.

Contextually, this is the language of post-Cold War competitiveness politics, where globalization turns “success” into a race for high-value ideas rather than low-cost labor. Kind’s intent is persuasive: if you want American prosperity and influence, you don’t just defend industries; you defend the conditions that produce new ones. The genius of the framing is that it converts abstract spending debates into an identity claim: to cut the seedcorn is to stop being America.