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August 11, 2007

Greed is... self-destructive

Minnesota Public Radio's Tim Bedore lives three miles from the I-35 West bridge in Minneapolis which catestrophically failed last week. His daughter was on a school bus which crossed the bridge just a few weeks ago and he wants to know "what the hell happened to our infrastructure."

The constant ridiculing of tax-and-spenders and the "It's your money. You earned it, you should keep it" drum beat of talk radio. The union-busting, outsourcing, we-can-do-America-on-the-cheap philosophy that has infected corporate America, school boards, state legislatures . . . all of us.

People say this is not the time for finger pointing. Is it a coincidence the very people who say that are the ones who screwed things up? If you ever intend to use a bridge in the future, this is precisely the time to ask, "Has conservatism screwed up America?"

It's a valid question. But there's an even more relevant question Tim wants answered.

How much of your $200, $300 tax cut would you give back to know that bridge you cross every day has been checked out, and the money necessary to keep it safe has been spent?

I don't know about any of you but I cross a major bridge twice a day going to and from work. And this bridge is, like the crumbled one in Minneapolis, part of an Interstate highway system. And I gotta tell you that my gut doesn't begin to unclench until I've at least gotten back over terra firma.

It is heartening to me to know that Oregon Governor Ted Kulongoski has been ahead of the curve, proactively making this precise type of infrastructure repair and upkeep a major issue here in Oregon. As Kari says at Blue Oregon, credit where credit is due. But everyone seems to agree that Minnesota had one of the most proactive bridge inspection regimes in the nation, and that didn't prevent the catastrophe in Minneapolis. It seems to me that a big part of the reason is exactly what Tim Bedore points to - it's not just at the national level that conservatives have waged their "greed is good" war. They've done it every bit as much at the state level. And progressives have been typically inept at... being progressive. Which is why we see Oregon Democrats launching and supporting a patently regressive tax scheme. They know that the conservative's "greed is good" philosophy is deeply entrenched to the point that regular citizens don't seem to think twice about cutting off their own noses just to spite their faces.

Our priorities are totally screwed up and it seems that precious few have the cajones to speak honestly to the costs.

Kudos to Tim Bedore for calling a spade what it in fact is - a spade.

When will a viable alternative to the GOP stand up and offer America a way out of this morass?

Posted by Kevin at August 11, 2007 11:29 AM