Being a Liberal, and therefore on the
left side of the aisle in terms of politics, there are people who automatically
assume I am a fan of Communism. Nothing could be further from the truth.
The problem with Communism, in my
opinion, is that it is all about the revolution – why you should have one, how
it should be organized, and who to blame for it being necessary. It has shown
very little application in following up on creating a working government after
the revolution. In fact, it has a record of putting some truly awful people in
charge, who proceed to take dictatorial powers almost immediately. There is no
working plan to create checks and balances, no plan to install accountability,
no system of effective governance at all. It is a beautiful-sounding ideology
that can be used to describe society and culture from a particular viewpoint,
but sucks as a system of government.
There are some nations, most notably in
northern Europe, that have taken the concepts of socialism and applied them to
their existing democratic governments over time. No revolution required, which
means no massive reworking of infrastructure. Keeping the checks and balances
while making the system more people-friendly. It works for them, and they seem
to be thriving even in this disastrous economy.
It is a mash-up of ideologies, a mixing
of high-minded concepts with practical solutions, that seems to be the winning
scenario. Free-Market Capitalism is proving to be as much of a disaster as
straight Communism, and for much the same reasons. Any pure ideology is going
to be antagonistic to compromise, which is essential to getting things done in
politics.
I don’t want a revolution. I just want a
government that is more people-friendly. I don’t care if the rich get richer, I
just don’t see why the richest nation on Earth should have any poverty at all.
If we have so much wealth, why are there still poor people? When we give poor
people money, they spend it on the essentials of life, which means they are contributing
to economic growth. A thriving economy will have more jobs, and nobody likes to
live on welfare forever. Educational opportunities also should be available for
everyone, in order to further enrich the economy. We also need to take care of
our sick and injured so they can be productive again instead of languishing in
debt or filing for bankruptcy.
All of this can be done with no changes
to the Constitution at all. Everything still in place – all the checks and
balances, all the infrastructure, all the legal protections of citizens remains
intact. Some laws would be changed, but mostly it is just a matter of enforcing
what is already there. Separation of money from politics needs stronger
enforcement to reduce corruption, and taxation rates need to stop coddling the
wealthy. Medicare can be expanded to become a single-payer system, which is not
that big of a step from where it is now. The student loan system can be
replaced with a system of grants without changing the qualifications. Reducing
the size of our military can be done easily as soon as we stop trying to be the
world’s police force. Do we still need so many bases in Germany? Are nuclear
missile submarines still necessary? If you want to trim the budget, that’s
where you should start, not cutting food stamps and welfare checks from single
mothers.
None of this requires a revolution. It
just requires a change of attitude. We need to stop being so “every man for
himself” and start being more “he ain’t heavy, he’s my brother.”
Labels: democracy, philosphy, politics
