Where Do We Go From Here?

When it comes to a topic like this, I would normally spend a paragraph or two nattering on about how complicated the world is . . . but unfortunately, we don't really have the luxury of beating around the bush. Here goes: if implementing a particular conservative policy is going to be painful, disconcerting to contemplate, and/or typically considered political suicide, we're probably going to have to do it. Sorry to say that: we had a chance to fix our financial situation easily, and the country pretty much flubbed it. So now we get stuck with fixing things messily, nastily, and with a lot of now-unavoidable pain.

At this point those on the Left are eagerly waiting for me to type out the magic words "so now we have to raise taxes." Alas for them, that's not the right answer--more accurately, it's only the right answer if you accept the Left's core assumption that all the things the government is doing right now are things the government should be doing right now. The Left has run a largely successful campaign for the last eighty years to convince the American people of that core assumption . . . and one reason that the Left keeps getting crankier and crankier is because it's becoming more and more obvious that we can't sustain our current level of spending and services.

So, cut spending, right?

Sure: but understand what you're advocating.  You're advocating the gutting--or outright destruction--of programs that people are attached to. It's not enough to kill earmarks (which we should) or defund NPR (which we should) or even eliminate farm subsidies (which we should, as well as all those protectionist tariffs that we've imposed). We're going to, as Ace of Ace of Spades HQ noted, “ . . . have to cut a lot of things that people actually . . . well, kind of like.” A lot of people are spluttering right now at the deficit commission leadership's first version of a proposed 200 billion in spending cuts; but the details almost don't matter.  No matter what the cuts are, somebody's going to hate them--and not all of those people will be Democrats.

Now I don't want to be gloomy; merely serious-minded. You can cut spending, as we're learning in states like (of all places) New Jersey. You simply need to be prepared: you’ll be screamed at by everybody--including the voting public--for doing so, and you must accept that it may result in the abrupt end of your political career. But honestly, there are worse things than losing elections. The country's experiencing some of those things right now, in fact.

As to what non-politicians can do? Three things come to mind:

1. Be serious-minded.  Let the Left gibber and shriek.  You are an adult.
2. Be aware.  Generations of Americans fought and died to give you the opportunity to be a sober, civic-minded citizen of the Republic.  Don't waste it by abandoning the job, now that the easy part is done.
3. Be engaged with the system, not contemptuous of it. It is fashionable, among certain segments of the political spectrum, to show cynicism towards the legislative process. It is also fashionable among those segments to demonstrate a certain detachment from said process. Let me be blunt: if you are feeling this detachment and cynicism, then YOU ARE A FAILURE as a citizen; it is your obligation to stay engaged, and you have not done so.  And the universe does not care about what excuse you might make to justify your failure. Again, you are an adult.

 So act like one. We have no time for the luxury of drama.