The modern GOP does not implement domestic policies. It destroys them. Their strategies are focused on tearing down an existing support system, or preventing the construction of one. Their eventual dystopia is the abandonment society.
In the abandonment society, we turn our backs on our brothers and sisters. We leave them to fend for themselves with whatever resources they can scrape up. We, ourselves, are likewise abandoned to scrabble as best we can.
In today's open letter to the president, I give you a concrete example of using the "abandonment society" frame to fight any of the myriad evils that come from such destructive, devil-take-the-hindmost thinking.
George,
Why are you abandoning the American people?
Your recent attack on Social Security, and the coming health care proposals from your compatriot Newt Gingrich, are furthering the abandonment society. What good can come of abandoning our moral responsibilities as you propose?
- It is immoral to deny any American critical health care because he or she is too poor.
- It is irresponsible to force everyone to gamble our futures in a financial casino for which few of us are prepared.
- It is bad business to erode economic productivity by disabling our workers with untreated, preventable health conditions.
- It is inefficient for a modern economy to have each individual spend hundreds of hours educating himself or herself in matters of finance, health care, real estate, tax law, pharmaceuticals, and nutrition just so we can be prepared to waste yet more valuable time in a daily fight to meet our minimal needs.
People cooperate in teams, governments, group insurance, and companies to increase efficiency and to reach goals that are simply not achievable individually. We can solve problems such as poverty, homelessness, health care, and hunger by learning from our experience with cooperative teamwork.
Look at successful models, such as group insurance, for solutions to domestic problems. We could, for example, have a "national quality of life insurance": Everyone pays a certain percentage, adjustable according to the real-world cost, and in exchange receives a lifetime guarantee against starvation, preventable and treatable illnesses, and loss of shelter.
Solutions like these are both responsible and moral. As Jesus said, "as you do unto the least of these, so you do unto me." Let's create a truly Christian domestic policy by heeding the words of Christ.
Proponents of the abandonment society will tell you to walk away from individuals, to leave each ordinary American to fight all of our own battles with whatever resources, time, and education we can scrape up. To make it sound palatable, they will call this selfish abdication of responsibility the "ownership society." And what do the least of us "own" in such a "society"? A personal burden of debt, disease, despair, and death.
Resist the evil whispers of the abandonment society, George. Listen to your most revered political philosopher, Jesus Christ. Create policies that responsibly care for your fellow Americans, regardless of their station in life.