Steve Frey
“All politics is local.” Former U.S. Speaker of the House Tip O’Neill minted this phrase which expresses the belief that a politician’s success is directly tied to his ability to understand and influence the issues of his constituents. This is very true, especially in today’s world.
You elect a president, and he eliminates guidelines preventing coal companies from dumping waste into streams, which makes water in your home town undrinkable. A president and legislature enact a health care program that eliminates discrimination against people with pre-existing conditions, and your neighbor can get treatment for cancer that saves her life. Elections do matter, and the effects are local.
We have now entered a new presidential election season, and you are going to hear more about the radical right and the socialist left. Let’s focus on those socialists.
A lot of Republicans will call Democrats radical socialists in the next year and a half. Republicans are going to try to paint all Democrats with that same extreme brush and, to be sure, Democrats will have a brush for Republicans, too.
But let’s get local.
The truth is that you’re probably a bit of a socialist yourself. You may not realize it, but so were many of our past representatives, including many Republicans.
Remember Dwight Eisenhower, the Republican president who helped build the interstate road system? He brought the Autobahn concept to America, seeing advantages for the quick movement of military equipment and increased interstate commerce. A socialist scheme?
The government got involved in rural electric production in the Tennessee Valley, and today Radford has its own electric company that has helped fill city budget gaps. Socialism?
Many of our parents and grandparents use that socialistic Medicare program. We care about the elderly, so most support Medicare and social security, two social programs designed to help seniors live out their lives with dignity and some level of comfort.
Conservatives want children to have a good education. Most don’t want to eliminate the state-supported school system and have only the people who can afford tutors learn as in the distant past. They support state-supported colleges like Virginia Tech and Radford University, too.
Most Republicans do appreciate founding father Ben Franklin’s crazy socialist idea of a lending library, so poor people don’t have to purchase all their books or can get on a computer or see a movie.
Conservatives support fire departments and police departments to provide mutual protection. They even believe in socialistic farm subsidies.
Unemployment insurance, the food and drug administration (thanks to Teddy Roosevelt), snow plowing, recreation centers, state parks—these are all government endeavors to make our lives better and could be considered socialistic. Should they all be privatized or eliminated?
Of course, any time a new program is suggested, it is exaggerated as a socialist plot and the end of capitalism. Then people see that companies continue to buy and sell, stock prices rise and fall, and mergers and acquisitions continue unabated.
No, America is not going to become a socialist country, but the government (we, the people and no, not socialists—just people who care about others) may find ways to make sure citizens can afford food or pay for medicine with a social security check or affordable health care.
You see, not everyone can work into their 80s or 90s; not everyone earns a living wage; not everyone can afford health care; and sometimes, life’s circumstances intervene.
There are inequities, also, when three people in the United States have more wealth than 50 percent of the population combined and still get millions in tax cuts; when corporations make billions in profit but pay no taxes; when pharmaceutical monopolies price medicine so that people can’t afford it and die (thanks, again, to Teddy R. for busting up monopolies in the past); when unions are destroyed, and the middle class virtually disappears.
Namecalling will continue, unfortunately. Some will call others the “radical left” or the “radical right” or socialists or Nazis and much worse. But others will say we are better than that.
As Americans, we are called to work together. We may disagree, but that doesn’t mean we are enemies. Americans have always debated issues and, in the end, accepted the will of the majority and respected the beliefs of the minority. That is what separates our democratic republic from other countries throughout the world.
One fact is indisputable: Many government (again, we the people) services use so-called socialistic principles so that everyone can live a decent life. That happens, of course, within our free enterprise, capitalist system.
So when you hear someone say that the New Green Deal is just socialists trying to eliminate airplanes and hamburgers, realize that it is a political exaggeration to scare people. Do your own research and don’t rely on big money-influenced politicians or television pundits.
Our representatives have got to find ways to work together and move forward.
We do, too. Political issues are local. So is our ability to reject namecalling and divisiveness. A great commandment is to love one another—that begins in our own communities and with our personal communication.
We can make our political interactions courteous; we can reject namecalling; we can set an example for others.
We, the people, make that choice.
Steve Frey is a writer and CEO of Ascendant Educational Services based in Radford.
