Teenage Angst

I want to start off with a joke that I find particularly appropriate, especially in light of what has been happening in Wisconsin and now in Michigan: A union worker, a member of the Tea Party and a CEO are sitting at a table. On the table is a tray with a dozen cookies. The CEO reaches over, grabs 11 of the cookies and says to the Tea Partier, “Watch out for that guy; he wants a piece of your cookie.”

I think that as a nation-state, we are going through our teenage years and dealing with the growing pains of finding an identity in a globalized world. As a relatively young country, we are not quite sure how we should treat one another and how to function cooperatively/efficiently. At the same time we curse socialized medicine, we drive on socialized roads, attend socialized schools, feel protected by a socialized police and fire force, turn on socialized electricity, drink from a socialized water supply, eat foods regulated by a socialized agency and retire on social security. There is nothing in our lives that is untouched by our government in some way but we still struggle with our relationship. To me, framing the debate of “What should we do next?” as a matter of “More v. Less” is not taking into account the fact that we still have yet to work out who we are and how we should treat one another. The argument surrounding social programs is laced with ideologies – cultural, economic, legal, educational, religious, familial, political. These ideologies all function to answer the questions facing a country trying to find its identity, stated as concisely as “Who are we?” My definition of ‘American’ – and what civil liberties/rights/equity this title and privilege entails – is a lot larger than those people/ideologies that oppose social programs.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who is Republican and we got on this topic of more v. less government by way of the Tea Party. The intentions of the Tea Party have been exhaustively discussed on this forum so I won’t go into that but rather I would like to look at the Republican model of government. First, the Republican platform is not against big government – that is a myth. I recognize that there are factions within the Republican Party or near to the Republican Party, including the Tea Party and Libertarians. I would, however, opine – as evidenced by a long track record – that Republicans, as my friend put it, “prefer a big government that intervenes on their behalf, rather than for the poor and working class of this country” (her emphasis added). Are the poor and working class not a part of this country? Has our nation not been built on the backs of these people?

We are a nation that champions capitalism, an economic AND ideological model that requires a cheap labor force. At the same moment we cut social programs that support the working class, we go to Wal-Mart to buy the goods that these people made. In Michigan, Governor Snyder too has championed the ideologies of capitalism and less government but has put together a budget proposal consisting of eerily similar contradictions. In FY2011-2012, Snyder proposes a tax hike for seniors, those in the lower income tax bracket and those who wish to make a tax-deductable contribution to universities to the tune of $1.7 billion. Snyder, in the same year, has proposed a measure that would give $1.8 billion to corporations/businesses in the form of tax breaks. Under the pretext of an economic recession and the need for more businesses in Michigan, Snyder, I feel/fear, exemplifies what I have outlined above. Our budget choices reflect our priorities and our priorities reflect ideologies and, ultimately, answers the question of "Who are we?" I don't want to be Snyder's Michigan.

Dr. Haynes posted in another forum that “a great nation, a great democracy or semi-democracy has a strong, vocal middle class. It is the middle class who will want to take care of the less fortunate and it is the middle class who will assure that the social elites do not take too much power from the citizenry. In every country, it is the middle class who makes the nation function best.” He goes on to say, “we need to find the middle as a nation and debate and resolve our mission, vision, values and direction. Then we can get to an agreement on size of government, scope of government and how we pay for it.” As a country going through growing pains, I believe this middle class has the most authority to speak to power and the most compassion to reach out to those in need. We need the middle – no more, no less.