Sorry, but I have to express some ideas that have been tumbling around in my head. My brother (who just last year moved out of Colorado Springs to Denver) emailed me about an article in the Denver Post about our local budget woes. As someone who lives here and is cognizant of what is going on little of what is in the article was news. But the way it was phrased was, the shock that we have allowed things to get this bad in our city. And as I told him the reason is simple: the Conservatives won the Propaganda War.
That's what it has boiled down to, and it has been going on for so long now that people don't even blink when a supposedly Ultra-Liberal President talks about cutting taxes and reducing the budget. When even the seemingly most liberal of politicians preaches fiscal conservatism that tells me the war has been lost.
Here is the accepted creed in modern political thought, across pretty much the entire political spectrum: Taxes are bad, no matter who has to pay them. And: Government is either Abusive, Corrupt or grossly inefficient (or all 3 in many cases). Those are accepted schools of thought, and only the most liberal among us question them.
And in Colorado Springs, my home, those schools of thought are coming home to roost. Because if you combine all of the above the only reasonable approach is to cut taxes, never agree to raise them, and eventually 'starve the beast' that is government. So you get this: parks with dead turf, no facilities, and no trash cans. No streetlights at night. Reduced police and fire protection. No Community centers for after school and summer programs, or Senior Programs.
My question is this: have any of these people ever played Sim City
? Don't they realize what happens when you take all of those services away? People leave, city structures fall apart, fires burn too long, crime increases. On the Federal level the President has just proposed a massive budget, and the silly season has begun. Every Republican and Democrat in name only congressman or woman has begun heaping scorn on the budget, attacking it on every level. And yet, almost none of these talking heads is willing to address the fact that this budget includes the largest Defense budget since World War 2. And none of them will be the ones to step forward and volunteer that a Federal Program in their back yard be the first to go. It will all be big talk, hedged by NIMBY politicking.
I do have a solution, it actually is multiple parts.
First, institute a massive nation wide Public service show on Civics, show people what government really does for them, show them all of the things that are done by government organizations every day, in every part of their lives, remind people what it would be like without those services. We are already unwittingly getting one of those here in Colorado Springs. And have this emphasize the fact that governments are not corporations, they do not have to make a profit, they do not even have to pay for themselves.
Second, bring back the Term Limit movement. We need to put an end to career politicians in Congress. Congress should not be a career, and way to get rich. Force the people to accept change in their politics so fresh faces and approaches appear every couple of years, no matter what. Before the Lobbyists and corporate spending PAC's have a chance to really get their hooks into these people.
Update:
Here's a different take on the same basic idea I am complaining about: http://www.salon.com/news/us_economy/index.html?story=/opinion/feature/2010/02/01/lind_deficit_hawks
Update 2:
We even made the National news: http://abcnews.go.com/WNT/video/colorado-springs-extreme-budget-cut-9722834
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