First, a brief story.
Deaniac on the Beach at Ventura.
When I was in Ventura last week, I got cut off from Kos. The library in Ventura didn't have funds to fix its computers until the following week (tomorrow, apparently). So, I went old school and took my pad and paper to the beach.
Let me tell you why we can win ... and why we can lose.
We're all California Beach Bums. There are a lot of homeless in San BuenaVentura. It's jarring, because the place puts itself forward as an escape from reality. So, you pay attention to the homeless as you sit and read on the beach. Two of them were sitting by my bench one morning, and one of them approached a garbage truck and asked to throw away his bottle (he had been drinking). The garbageman refused and drove off his truck. Now, technically, the garbageman was correct. You can't throw away personal garbage. The beach cans are for refuse from the local shops. But, the guy was annoyed and understandably so. His retort took me aback, though.
"We're paying your taxes and for what? This kind of service?"
Then, as a good Progressive, I was shocked that I was shocked. Did I doubt that this guy paid taxes? Was I afraid that he was parroting talk tadio diatribes that had no positive political outcome for me? No positive political outcome for him? After all, Rush would just as soon stamp this fellow as "part of the problem" and "a victim of too much government" and here he was playing the role of the angry white male. Didn't he understand that such talk was unravelling his safety net?
Then, I realized two additional things. First of all, he was an angry white guy. Secondly, he probably knew all too well that they were unravelling his net, but he didn't understand which services were important or which were his entitlement or how they worked or who to take it out on. None of really do. And then, I realized the key point. It was I that was the shill of the right wing.
Sure, this guy didn't pay property tax, but then neither do I (at least, not to the government).
He might or might not pay income tax or payroll tax, but I get certain exemptions too. He might have a night job. He might take odd jobs. He might sell some of his scavenged loot in his stroller. And he certainly paid sales taxes on that bottle.
But, I had assumed he had no right to regard himself as taxed and no interest as an anti-government guy. But he was taxed, much more severely than I, and government had still screwed him. For all I know, he was a vet, and they had used him and thrown him onto Ventura Beach like a plastic soda cup lid.
I realized that everyone was that beach bum. Every American. We just want to be social, but we don't trust each other. We see others passing by, with healthier kids or nicer stuff and we think "those bastards just keep the beach nice for those people and not for me."
We retaliate by being boorish to each other, to the kid in the stroller, engendering more distrust. Or we try to be nice, but we're too alien to each other already. We're convinced that those worse than us pay nothing and those better than us don't pay enough. But we can't tell who pays what or even differentiate between them. To the man on the beach, I might be earning 200K. To the teens laughing at him, his ideas are only worth as much as his clothes. But he won't have to pay off as great a national debt as they will, so who's poorer? Who is the fool? Why don't his ideas about government have merit? Because he's drinking? Because he's a boor? Same as the President.
But we're all that guy. Because I don't make 200K. And catching Martha Stewart or Howard Stern doesn't stick it to the man, either. It punishes, but it just as easily lets bigger fish off the hook. With rare exception, the wealthiest 1% are unknown to the other 99%. The public face of wealth is often not the plutocrat, and most who are known are actually working to pay more and not less of their communal responsibilities (like Soros or Buffett).
We could spend days on the beach and not see one bankroller of the Dominionist or Corporatist agenda. They're fairly hidden.
But they make us think we see them. The woman going to the Gibson film. The guy on the sailboat on the horizon. But we're more wrong than right to point the finger at them. The plutocrats shout "class warfare" and we fight like squirrels over bread scraps. Don't think it's working? Naderism. The idea that government is so far gone that only inciting the masses through near dictatorship will rouse them. Guess what? The super wealthy don't win unless we have dictatorship, because right now we can still assert ourselves at the ballot box. And 99 obvious people can always beat one hidden person. But we have to compromise and work in our common interest. We have to stop seeing each other as freeloaders. Don't think we do? How can a man who wants to cut payroll tax and only raise taxes on those earning 200K or more be seen as a tax and spend liberal? How can you or I or the guy on the beach think that the cleanup crew is there for our mess? So few of us know what we are entitled to. Am I entitled to an internet connection? Are you entitled to lower taxes? We are entitled to clean water. The ocean at Ventura isn't clean.
So I spoke to the guy and his girlfriend. They're in their fifties. They look older. They thought I was a teenager, even though I'm 31. So, obviously, I'm doing better. I have health and youth. People will be a little more likely to talk to me. But my health coverage is by no means assured, and my free speech is beginning to fray.
We all have cheap addictions. Alcohol. Oil. It's hard to quit that lifestyle. Seems too expensive to change. But a good government is interested in the sustainability of all its citizens' lives, not just in totems on a beach. In Ventura, the gas station is across from the liquor store. Maybe it wouldn't be so bad if both were a little less subsidized and a little more expensive.
That guy was just like any other guy. He had a talky partner who told him to stop being so talky himself. They heard I was from New York, and they had a lot of admiration for the mayors. "Cleaned up the city." No sense of irony that Giuliani's attitude was exactly the reason that they couldn't loiter as freely in NYC. Because no one sees themselves as the "other." No matter what odious things government plans to do, we think it will flow to someone else. And when it comes on us, we're shocked. Someone else will be locked up, someone else should pay. Same with taxes. We believe they are someone else's problem. We have too many taxes already. Same with stuff. We need more things at lower prices. Never mind that buying massively discounted goods is as useless to our economy as the scavenged items in the guy's cart. Worse, because he's not subsidizing that system. We have to get up off the beach and think about these relationships ... the consequences of our actions ... the ties of power and society and responsibility ... but why listen to Ptolemy? He's just another guy on the beach.
College policies of Bush, Kerry, and Nader:
Bush - None. I kid you not. I looked all over his site for 30 minutes. As far as he's concerned, policies stop at the end of 12th grade.
Of course, we know that he intends to dismantle Title IX, to help out "endangered" men's sports.
Kerry - Restore Title IX protections to Clinton era enforcement and norms. Give a tax credit for the first 4000 dollars of college tuition paid each year. That credit would be turned into earned income for the poorest taxpayers who send their kids to college. Students attending public colleges who sign up for an expanded Americorps (2 year committment post-graduation) would attend that public college for free. Paid for by raising taxes on those earning more than 200K a year. Fully fund the committments to colleges and universities that Bush's mandates set up. Bush does not plan on doing this. Included in the changes to NCLB that Kerry proposes is expanding AP courses (college-level for 12th graders) to all public high schools. I took them, and they were pivotal to my progress. Bright students everywhere should have AP. He also proposes making college counseling a requirement of receiving federal funds. This will raise the graduation rate from our 4 year colleges, which now stands at 54% of matriculation.
Nader - No college policy. I kid you not. Again, nothing after 12th grade. No Title IX position, which nowadays is equivalent to being against it ... because Bush has unravelled it.
I'll return to K-12 next time, to give Bush and Nader a fair shake. So, next time, taxes and education one last time.
Just remember, Nader or Bush, because who cares about college? Certainly not Princeton, Yale or Harvard graduates.