The Republicans need solutions, not slogans
Published 02-27-2020
Life comes at you fast during the primaries, and the Democrat presidential field is no exception. Between last week’s debate, Super Tuesday looming and candidates looking to garner attention by any means necessary, well, it makes for interesting television at least.
With an actual “democratic socialist” leading the nomination contest, and five other candidates pushing policy that even Obama has cautioned might be a little too radical for the electorate, I am more concerned with what we can expect from leftist politics in the foreseeable future.
The activist base of the left is young, and in a lot of debt. Massive debt. So much debt that they aren’t getting married, having kids, and generally growing up. Do I have a lot of sympathy for the person with a garbage degree suitable only for writing books getting on the college lecture circuit, or those who overpaid to Ivy League Universities for degrees in fields that can not support artificially inflated tuitions? Not overmuch.
I have sympathy for those who were told “learn to code” and “the jobs of the future are in tech” who proceeded to do exactly that, and then entered a job market where large corporations work together with the government to import foreign workers for less pay. The results of this are twofold, workers who are tied to a job through their visa, and wages kept artificially low.
People are getting hammered with health care costs. Deductibles and monthly premiums continue to increase, becoming a larger share of budgets that aren’t increasing at the same rate. And more often than not, everyone looks to Washington for a solution.
While offering a Medicare For All plan or free public college and cancelling of student debt sounds good, the devil is always in the details.
Increasingly, history - or at least historical fact - isn’t taught in quite the same way. Gone by the wayside are the true horrors of democratic socialism and authoritarian communism. Make no mistake, they go hand in hand. One just comes at the end of a ballot box, the other at a rifle. Everyone knows Nazi’s are bad. How about Lenin and Stalin?
We all know how Bernie Sanders feels about Castro.
We have done a disservice to society, allowing anyone to think that a utopia of good can be created by a bunch of central planners dictating every aspect of our lives. And the rich people will pay for it all.
Well, wonderful. What happens when there’s no wealth left to confiscate? And why have so many people fled these veritable utopias?
Republicans needs better answers than “We’re not socialists,” because that particular insult doesn’t carry the same connotation as it used to.
The choices aren’t binary, even though politicians and pundits try to make it seem that way. Just a simple law to make portions of student debt dischargeable in bankruptcy, or making the loans regular interest loans rather than compound loans could go a long way in releasing some of the pressure building. Republicans need some of that outside the box thinking, and politicians willing to sign on.
Obama’s move to federalize student loans was quite intentional, just as the design of Obamacare was. Both intended to demolish the current structure of the system to bring about government control and single payer. Both created pressures on the system that were foreseen and warned about. Well, I told you so’s don’t generally persuade votes, solutions do.
And right now, Bernie and the Dems have been talking solutions.
Even solutions that don’t have a snowball’s chance today... eventually the left will have Congress and the White House again.
Trump has repeatedly looked to Congress, and the Republicans. It’s time they stepped up. We need more than bumper sticker slogans for real world problems.