Tom Finneran: There’s Much To Like About Jim McGovern
Friday, August 09, 2013
Tom Finneran responds in defense of Congressman Jim McGovern to a critical piece by GoLocal Mindsetter Arthur Schaper.
Yet the tilt and tone of Arthur’s column is high-handedly negative. Let me respond, not in kind, but in fairness.
First, the disclaimers:
1) I have not seen or spoken with Congressman McGovern in more than three years, probably closer to five or six years; I have not discussed Arthur’s column or my response with anybody in the Congressman’s office;
2) Probably to the Congressman’s complete agreement, if not to his absolute delight, his politics and my politics are very rarely aligned; I am a social, cultural, and fiscal conservative and Jim McGovern is, more often than not, on the other side of the political spectrum.
Yet, as noted, fairness dictates a response.
A blessing, not a curse
Arthur’s column opens with a snide critique of Congressman McGovern opening up a third district office as if that is a negative. At a time when all of us bemoan the gulf between Washington D.C. and the nation’s taxpayers, it seems to be a very strange criticism. To the veteran who needs help, to the senior citizen whose Social Security checks have been lost, to the business leaders who need transportation projects coordinated, or to the scientists who need guidance on patent protection for their innovations, a district office is a godsend. Would Arthur prefer that those folks trundle like beaten sheep down to D.C? A district office brings both the Congressman and our too distant government closer to the people who pay the bills and who seek legitimate support. Arthur’s criticism should be a “hallelujah”.
On the contrary
Arthur’s column offers some grudging praise of Congressman McGovern’s Wounded Warrior Service Dog Act which is designed to train a host of service canines for wounded veterans. He then veers off into editorial commentary about ending the war in Afghanistan, apparently unaware that Jim McGovern’s voice has probably been the loudest, longest, most consistent voice of opposition to our recent wars. Might Arthur offer a more accurate and informed critique of others, both in Congress and in the White House, who ludicrously claimed to be “conservatives” yet unhesitatingly embraced two wars which have killed and crippled thousands of young Americans and which will surely bankrupt our children’s futures?
Perhaps it’s irrelevant, but I supported both wars by the way. I tend to defer to our Presidents when they make these agonizing decisions, on the assumption that they have more and better information than I will ever have. Thus the Congressman and I are in disagreement on the main matter. Nonetheless, his opposition to the war is both honorable and consistent.
In fact, if my memory serves me correctly, the Congressman filed a put-your-money-where-your-mouth-is proposal to pay for these wars through a modest surcharge on our federal taxes. That’s the most honorable position of all for those like me who supported the hard necessity of these wars––be man enough to pay for them rather than sticking our kids with the bill. Far too many folks, including lots of Congressmen, have no skin in the game—no sons or daughters fighting overseas and no willingness to pay for the efforts of others. Let’s call it patriotism on the credit card.
The hand that feeds
Finally, Arthur takes a dig at the Congressman for his efforts to address hunger in America. As a Christian (specifically as a Catholic), I find it hard to criticize anyone who tries to live by the Gospels. I have no tolerance for SNAP and EBT abuses. Go for the jugular on those who cheat the rest of us out of our hard-earned dollars. But in going for that jugular, don’t confuse the Congressman’s efforts to have us think about living on $4.50 a day with an endorsement of client and vendor fraud. I happen to know that Congressman McGovern has done the “$4.50 a day” exercise consistently for several years now. And there’s something to admire about public officials who talk the talk and walk the walk year in and year out, not as campaign gimmicks, but as part of a belief system and an awareness that even in America, there but for the grace of God go I.
Arthur’s closing lines are cleverly constructed about “government taking from the makers and making more takers” and “getting the government out of our lives”. Instinctively I’m drawn to similar sentiments, best expressed simply as “leave me alone”. But as a private enterprise, free market, conservative capitalist, I’ll share a story and a problem brought to me by one of the biggest anti-government complainers I know:
This gentleman worked for a very well-known and successful American company for more than twenty-five years. The company had a pension plan into which all the employees, including my chronic complainer friend, made regular contributory payments. Lo and behold, the company ran into problems as new technologies began to surpass their products. And the company management, you know, those vaunted private sector businessmen we always read about as saviors of the world, began to manipulate the pension funds, bleeding them dry. My friend and hundreds of his co-workers were cheated out of their money. With little or no recognition of the irony, my friend turned to the government he hated and distrusted and demanded that they do something to right such a disgraceful wrong.
Without a “government in our lives”, where does my anti-government friend go for relief? Can he, on his own, catch up to the clever corporate accountants and attorneys who cheated him out of his retirement? Good luck with that. If you could ever find them at all, you’d probably find them hiding, away from justice, in a place that keeps government out of their lives. Savor the irony.
Yes Arthur, we should fear government and watch it like a hawk. We are agreed on that. And from that vigilance you might come to agree that there’s a lot to like about Jim McGovern.
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