A democracy “bump” in the road

The idea of the “bump” is one of the “have-nots” using democracy to vote themselves money and benefits from the “haves”. And while this idea has many historical sources, one can choose to ignore all the history to come back to the basic question. Can we in America “kill the goose that lays the golden egg?” An obvious recent example is one of proposed full medical payments applied to the “middle class” (S-CHIP). That this idea is both so noble and socialistic and so full of financial and lawyer abuses is obvious to most. That its funding requires more borrowing and passing costs on to our children and grandchildren is also obvious. And this history of “all abuses” has legs if one only looks at TennCare in Tennessee. Thank goodness this State has a Governor who runs the State like a business, to include trying to make TennCare work (he was handed the program and its probems). Amplify this S-CHIP idea by others like retirement and medical payments for old and poor people, and the obvious question is begged. Are we voters going to respond to the most base and pandering politicians in both primaries and the main elections, and vote ourselves into financial ruin? And we do have alternatives. One practiced today is to ignore all the forecasts for financial ruin, that is “no services” for Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security, and let future American voters and tax payers sort it out. And some Americans think the status quo will go on forever, that is we cannot financially ruin our Country.

First is the idea presently being practiced about ignoring the Social Security and Medicare and Medicaid solvency problems, all which have windows of problems, one very close to today. Passing the problem on to future generations will create generational warfare, something to be avoided at all costs if we want to avoid another revolution or civil war. Yet we in America already have hints of generational warfare as Presidential candidate Obama attracts so many young people who vote; yet as an older voter, I don’t want to have to lose and go through idealism and lack of experience another time (i.e. failed 1960’s ideas, or Jimmy Carter), especially if it means some of my progeny will unnecessarily die early, be cold, or suffer financially. While I think there is a better way, the hint and whiff of generational warfare is there. And introducing “fear” is not part of any decent political method in most Americans’ bag of tricks. We have bigger fish to fry.

Second is the idea of “as California goes, so goes the rest of the Country”. This prospect is also scary. The days of crossing into California at Needles and singing “California, Here I Come” are long gone. One wonders if the present California citizens and their elected politicians will vote themselves into being inconsequential and unable to fund it all, albeit with the best of intentions. Having lived there, and moved away, there are better “quality of life” places in America than California today. It has not always been this way, and the present Governor is doing his best to guide all this. Will California make it over the “bump” in the democracy road, or become something different from what it is today? Does the idea of “as California goes” still apply?

The question is Churchillian? The answer is about most human evolution, especially “new world” evolution. Will we vote for our future, to include our kids’ future. Or will we vote for ourselves today and benefits to us today and in the near future. Will we be able to balance, as voters, what we want and what we can pay for? Do we think we can become dependents of government, and worry about the negative impacts? Most think we “new world” Americans are different from the “old world” past, and will vote for our kids future, to include making it over the democracy “bump”. But who knows, in the end. The common bond of humanity is also powerful.