Democrats should focus on our crumbling infrastructure — the other one
by Tom Toles
Everybody’s got advice for newly empowered Democrats. And just as victory has a thousand fathers, it also has 10,000 new know-it-all advisers. Usually this advice is some form of: “This is the exact time to do the thing I have always been telling you to do.”
Still, as situations go, the United States is in a far better one than we were a week ago. My own suggestion would be pretty simple. Be the adults. Don’t deal with President Trump EVER on his terms. And maybe not ever at all. Anything you achieve in cooperation with him will be turned against you. And an even more likely outcome is that you won’t achieve anything and he will turn THAT against you. Deals (or dealing) with the devil always turn out the predictable way.
Which brings me to the infrastructure question. What Trump will agree to in an infrastructure plan will be built with newly mined brimstone. Build a highway with Trump? Bridges to nowhere on the road to perdition.
We have been reading about our “crumbling” infrastructure for decades. Infrastructure is never described in any way other than “crumbling.” Personally, I’d rather endure two more years of crumbles than give Trump a deficit-funded pot of money out of which to leverage his 2020 campaign. That kind of deal is funded by borrowing from the future. The future is already badly over-leveraged.
But there is one infrastructure that critically does need rebuilding. The civic apparatus of government, of society, of democracy. Civic infrastructure is just the opposite of borrowing from the future. It truly is an investment now that will pay off for the future. And there are shovel-ready projects everywhere.
So, what are some of those projects?
Accountability. Focus any investigations on areas of public corruption, not gotcha foibles.
Democracy. Focus your efforts against distortions of the democratic process, from gerrymandering to the dominance of big money in campaigns to the revolving door in jobs.
Truth. Don’t just build your foundation on truth, don’t deal with people who have built their governing foundation on lies. Does this include the entire Republican Party? I’ll let you answer that.
Environment. Nothing that you build will stand up in an ever-eroding climate. Stop looking away and finally just put a price on carbon dioxide.
The economy. We’ve had about all we can stand of an unbridled market’s idea of civic justice. Rampant inequality does many things to a society and a government, and all of them are bad.
What does the public really want? Dignity, honesty, health, something recognizable as equality and a future that doesn’t look like an endless landscape of cynicism.
There’s your real crumbling infrastructure.
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OCU
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