Most of the questions people will ask in a campaign revolve around their immediate relief. I have noticed as they continually stir up stress among us about paycuts, layoffs and the like how so many of my coworkers are worried because their outcomes match their incomes now and how as their wages drop prices will rise. They have real concerns. They worry about their jobs, their homes, their budgets, their futures, and they are looking for someone who offers them a solution. The trouble is that all of the politicians are trying to invent a magic pill that takes effect well enough or long enough to get them elected rather than a long term plan to alleviate and minimize the impact or frequency of similar perturbations in the future. That allows them to kick the ball just far enough ahead of them that they are secure because you continue to need them.
People want answers. They also really want the truth. Sure, some of them can’t really handle it, or at least they don’t want to face it, but if you know the long term plan and outlook, you can make better decisions. So, I will give you the truth, even if it doesn’t work out so well for me, because I’m not telling you the truth because it helps me as much as I’m giving you the truth so that what you do actually responds to what the problems really are.
I do not think there are any short-term solutions to the current crisis. When you finally manifest signs of a cold, you have actually been sick for quite some time. Just as the virus invades you far before you show symptoms, the causes that created the economic, political, and moral problems we see today started years ago, perhaps before I was born. Any politician who tells you that the worst is over or who offers an easy fix is as disingenuous as any snake oil salesman of yore. Those who endure a hurricane know that the eye of the storm is only deceptively calm, and that the gale will return in full force after a brief respite and bring more ruin. Things may get worse before they can get better, assuming that we finally have the guts to do what should have been done in the first place. If you are a week away from foreclosure or a layoff or bankruptcy, there is nothing the government can do that it should do to stop that. What I propose is not to place a band aid on a serious flesh wound and tell you that you’re going to be ok. I am not going to stand around you while you slowly die and lie to you. Removal of this cancer requires a serious kind of surgery, and the healing must start with a cut.
The choice is yours. Are you willing to trade short term security for long term prosperity or is what you need today so dear that you will gamble with the future? Are you willing to trade a little of what you have so that your children can live a better life, or is your interest better than theirs? This really will hurt me too, but I urge you to have eyes to see, to imagine, and to perceive the possibilities. America is the greatest country ever on the face of the earth, and we can have so much more prosperity and happiness and peace than we have now if we do what we ought. Let Obama, Reid, and the like sell placebos if they like while we do what has been demonstrated to work for one and all in every generation of time. Let us now apply liberty.
No comments:
Post a Comment