When I think of the things that worry me as a parent, the Federal deficit and high taxes are not among them. Having good teachers and good schools are the top priorities. Secondary to that is public safety, having a safe neighborhood where my children can play. Tertiary is public welfare concerns: safe roads, electrical grid, health care etc. And I don't think I am that unusual in thinking like that.
And yet the focus of domestic political discourse, when it is not hijacked by the stupid issue of the moment (9/11 'mosque', gay marriage, etc.) is a reversal of those concerns. Politicians are so focused on these budgetary concerns that they have lost sight of what government actually does for us, the people whom these politicians represent.
In fact there's an odd disconnect in our current political discourse. If the issue is social or moral it is perfectly OK and in fact expected that politicians will bow to the 'majority'. Witness what should be a non-starting issue in the 9/11 'mosque'. That should be a simple cut & dried local political issue with nothing to do with national polls and/or freedom of religion etc. And yet supposedly 70% of Americans oppose the building of this center. As a result the talking heads in the media are outraged when political leaders support the building (or at least don't oppose it). But if the issue has to do with finances or taxes, all of a sudden the minority rights are getting trampled right and left. As the same politicians who demand that Congress and the President listen to the will of the people regarding the mosque are all of a sudden overwhelmingly concerned for the rights of the poor oppressed minority rich people who might see their tax cuts go away.
Here are a few links that sum up what is really happening to our country, and the impact it will have for the children:
General commentary
Certainly not a happy picture. And a classic case of my digression above. It is apparently 'OK' for Republicans to complain about paying 10-20 billion dollars in aid for states to pay teachers and public safety officials, but when it comes to handing out a trillion dollars to failing banks, or keeping tax cuts worth billions more for the richest 1% of Americans there are no complaints.
Harsh criticism of the real impact of downplaying Education
This is less fiscal or budget politics and more an example of the results of our cultural 'dumbing down'. The more we refuse spending for education, and the more we trash those who attempt to provide intelligent, well reasoned responses instead of dumbed down sound bites the worse off our culture and society gets. And this stems from the fact that we are more concerned about the budget than actually educating our children. Current discourse complains that families have to balance their budget why can't the government. Aside from the fact that this is factually incorrect the flip side is wouldn't the average parent do anything they could for their kids? Scrimp and save and run up their debts so they could get the best education and health care possible. If a family can be expected to do that for their kids why don't we expect our government to do the same for the country as a whole?
Our true misplaced cultural and national priorities
Over the course of a 5 day work and school week (Monday thru Friday) my children will average about a 50/50 split of time with parents/teachers. And we are probably unusual/lucky that we don't have to do as much after school care as other families. And yet the people who occupy half of our children's lives are actually in the lowest paid careers for people who earn collegiate degrees. Bottom line I think it is borderline criminal that the people who spend almost as much time with our children as we do, the ones we count on to educate them, are amongst the hardest working but lowest paid professions in America.
So this fall when a candidate starts to rail about a zoning issue in New York City, or who can marry who take the time to ask yourself and them: "what are you doing to help me and my children improve out lives?" What has been done to replace the potholes in the streets? Improve and upgrade our electrical grid so we don't get random outages? Why don't we have the best broadband in the world? Why am I afraid to drive on major bridges because they are so old and could collapse? Why are schools getting closed and school years being shortened when everyone wants to complain about why our kids are falling behind other countries in education? None of the above are things that can be handled by private corporations efficiently, they fall in the realm of the government. And the Conservative movement has effectively taught the media that the only role government should fill is starting and prolong unnecessary wars, filling the coffers of the defense, financial and oil industries. It's all smoke and mirrors to obscure the fact that the rich are getting richer and the rest of us are losing ground.
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