Washington DC politicians are busy debating Medicare, Debt Ceiling, long term Deficit reduction and major Republican initiatives such as freedom of choice on which light bulb to buy and delaying the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell.
In the debate on Medicare the radical Republicans say that the system will be bust in about ten years so let’s radically alter it -- let’s voucherize it. And, while we’re at it let’s privatize Social Security so all those who would retire after 2037 can put their money into the stock market. Democrats demand retention of Medicare and Social Security as they are.
But what is happening today in our nations capitol, is not a debate about whether particular programs will be retained without change or even only moderately altered. What is going on today is a debate about whether we retain America as Is.
Radical right wing conservatives would have us undo the America that has been built since the administration of Theodore Roosevelt (1901-08) and return our country to a mythological golden era before the Civil War (1861-65). To these radicals the antebellum period was a time when slaves were happy on the plantation, and immigrants were few and lived pleasantly in the wooden slum tenements of Chicago, New York and Philadelphia. There were few problems in America then, no labor unions, few government employees because there were few government, federal or state, programs to administer. The rich sent their children to the private schools they could afford and others went to “poor schools” -- at least for the early grades if they were lucky. There was no income tax or estate tax; and little pollution that people knew of because they were unknowingly doing the polluting of the waters and the land.
America as it was is the dream of the radical right conservatives. To believe the myth that Americans were better off before the Civil War, including those held in slavery, one has to have a very poor knowledge of our country’s history and an inability to grasp the meaning of the progress we have made since the nineteenth century. They believe that in those halcyon days the country was isolated from the evils of Europe and Asia by two impregnable oceans and so the problems of the world were not ours. And yet we fought two wars before the Civil War - one against England and one in some ways fomented by the collapse of the Spanish empire. We also engaged in an undeclared war in Tripoli. But we were not the military or economic leader of the world so it is true that we did not involve ourselves in every world problem. Like an uncle or a cousin we didn’t put ourselves in the middle of every family problem in our extended family.
Of course the radical right forgets that before the Civil War women and blacks couldn’t vote. And without the 14th amendment the public debt of the United States and the individual states wasn’t constitutionally secure but that didn’t matter because there was very little public debt since there wasn’t much in the way of government expenditures.
America as it Is (and always will be!) That’s what progressives are fighting for. To keep public education available to all our children to the levels they have the ability to reach. To insure the retirement years of our senior citizens so they can live in some degree of comfort, with adequate quality health care and not be a financial burden on their children. To clean our air and our waters and our lands and leave them as a legacy to the generations to come. To remain a beacon of democracy and freedom in the world and assist those people throughout the globe struggling to be free.
We are that America, despite the rants of a minority of our citizens yearning for a mythical past. And, despite their antics and their pledges we will always be that America. For while right wing conservatives write pledges that commit candidates to undoing America and going backwards -- progressives remain committed to one Pledge. A pledge of support for “One nation” (not 50 small states) “under God” (the God of Christians, Jews, Muslims, and any who recognize some spiritual power - not just the God of the loudest denomination) “indivisible” (not a multiplicity of factions and interests) “with Liberty” (unfettered constitutional rights not just 2nd and 10th amendment rights) “and Justice” (regardless of personal wealth or social status) “for ALL”.( every American not just a favored few).
18 July 2011
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