Tom Finneran: US Congress–What’s Wrong With These Guys?
Friday, August 02, 2013
Politicians are increasingly forgetting that they are Americans first and politicians second.
Washington has never seemed so broken or so distant from the sensibilities of ordinary Americans. Clichés, talking points, and similar inanities abound while the nation’s crucial interests–-budgets, immigration, education, the economy, entitlements, energy, infrastructure, foreign affairs, debt, deficits, and revenue–-are either ignored or turned upside down in the service of campaigns and party politics.
Don’t get me wrong, I know, like, and respect the members of our Congressional delegation. They are a savvy group of individuals and while it might be fashionable in some quarters to bemoan the lack of a single solitary Republican in the delegation, that is not my gripe. Besides, close readers of this column know that I critique my own party, the increasingly silly and shrill Democratic party, as peculiarly culpable in the creation of the mess that is modern America.
Follow the leader
Of the many things that I will never understand, one is the meek acquiescence and acceptance of talking points as supplied by the political parties. Those talking points, and the policy positions which they strain to justify, are treated as if they were tablets from Moses with no deviation allowed to the party faithful.
This is national lunacy. People can and should think for themselves. No self-respecting member of Congress, whether Democrat or Republican, should accept as gospel the thinking of others as a substitute for their own judgment and experience. And if the party tries to impose its thinking on the occasional independent thinking of a member, the member should tell the party to take a hike. America should not have its own versions of the Politburo where a ruthless orthodoxy of thought is imposed upon our representatives. And American voters should grow up by both recognizing and rewarding an independence of thought rather than a slavish and shameless acceptance of party doctrines. We are not a nation of sheep. At least we’re not supposed to be.
Cautious or cowardly?
Two examples of the problem come to mind, one Republican and the other Democratic, each demonstrating the lunacy of lockstep thinking, leading in turn to outcomes which harm the nation’s interests.
Early on in the 2011/2012 Republican presidential debates and primaries, long before the field had winnowed down to a final four or five, there were perhaps a dozen or so candidates on the stage–think Huntsman, Pawlenty, Cain, et. al., in addition to Romney, Gingrich, and Santorum–fielding a variety of questions. One of the questions addressed the issue of our recurring budget deficits and the growing national debt in the following way: “If the deficit and debt issue could be resolved by a combination of 90% spending cuts and 10% revenue increases, would you support such a measure?” To a person, like pre-programmed puppets, each of the candidates indicated their strong opposition to the idea. My God, talk about a surrender to orthodoxy and a pathetic example of leadership. When a fiscally conservative and responsible outcome is proposed to a fiscally hemorrhaging America, and a party’s candidates fearfully wimp out of a 90% win for their side, something is drastically amiss. A 90/10 win is huge. As is the leadership gap in candidates who buckle in fear of breaking ranks and being labeled as tax and spenders by a fringe that refuses to win one for America. That fringe should tell their children that they mortgaged the future of the nation because a 90 wasn’t good enough for them. I’m a Boston Latin School kid and believe me, a 90 on a serious test question is to be cherished. As is leadership when it occasionally, now very rarely, appears…
Let's be real
On the Democratic side, the triumph of a debased appeal to a deformed Social Security system is appalling. A program instituted in the 1930s, when life expectancies were substantially shorter than they are today, is now abjectly bankrupt. There is no sugar coating that can cover up the scary truth regarding Social Security but nonetheless, the Democratic party and its candidates stick with the cotton candy version of spun facts. Some 10,000 Americans per day—Americans of the baby boom generation, and not coincidentally, the most pampered and selfish generation in American history—become eligible for Social Security benefits. An increasingly large number of them will live well into their 80s and 90s, defying the actuarial tables of yore upon which the program was built.
Reasonable people, upon reviewing the realities of certain happy facts (i.e. the increasing longevity and quality of life for elderly Americans) suggest that the age of eligibility for Social Security benefits might be nudged up by ONE MONTH per year for the next twelve or twenty four years, resulting in an overall change of a year or two before one becomes eligible for Social Security benefits. Such a modest change would save the program for many years to come. Yet, the Democratic party’s response is to characterize the idea as a vicious assault on the vulnerable elderly. In such insult to elderly Americans’ intelligence, the Democratic party should be hit over the head with a hammer. Here too is a frightening vacancy in leadership, driven by a frightening lust for cheap political points in disingenuous campaigns.
Thus other questions emerge from the first question of “what is wrong with these guys?” Does anyone care about America’s future? When did we embrace our own leisure at the expense of our children’s lives? Have we no shame? Stay tuned…
Related Articles
- Tom Finneran: Happy Birthday, America
- Tom Finneran: Remembering LBJ
- Tom Finneran: What $18 Billion in Stimulus Money Could Do For MA
- Tom Finneran: “That’s Gross”
- Tom Finneran: How Much Is That College In The Window?
- Tom Finneran: Six Things A Community Has To Have
- Tom Finneran: White America, Black America
- Tom Finneran: After Boston—An Immigration Proposal
- Tom Finneran: Just Say No (To A Special US Prosecutor)
- Tom Finneran: Sometimes You Just Have To Talk About Sports
- Tom Finneran: An Easter Buffet, Sweet & Sour
- Tom Finneran: Money For Nothing—Bombers’ Families On Welfare
- Tom Finneran: The Gipper and Barack, Like Father, Like Son
- Tom Finneran: And Jesus Wept
- Tom Finneran: Of God, And Gods, In The OR
- Tom Finneran: The Good News On Race In America
- Tom Finneran: At What Age is This Appropriate?
- Tom Finneran: On The Pope and The Prodigal Son
- Tom Finneran: The Oscars
- Tom Finneran: Broke! Dumb! Doomed?
- Tom Finneran: Putin By A TKO
- Tom Finneran: The Real Memorial Day
- Tom Finneran: Hall of Famer Tom Menino
- Tom Finneran: Race—The Great American Debate
- Tom Finneran: Thoughts on the Blizzard
Follow us on Pinterest Google + Facebook Twitter See It Read It