I used this analogy when I was chatting with a client the other day and she said it was a good frame and that I should share it. I hope you agree
By most accounts there are 194 countries in the world. Now let's say for a moment that the earth is a neighborhood, it could be a small town or a little sub-division, but either way a neighborhood. Really not such a big stretch is it? I
Be patient and follow me over the bump.
Now let's talk about this neighborhood, or any neighborhood for that matter. A couple weeks back I was out with Bodhi Dog, walking our neighborhood, I noticed that there are all kinds of houses. There were small ones, and big ones, ones that are relatively new and others that have been taken emaculate care of. Then of course there are the fixer uppers and the tear downs. Seeing this wide variety made me think of the neighborhood of the world.
HUH? Has Seattlite lost it here? No...I was just thinking about how the Repbulicans are so enamored of Ronald Reagan, (One only had to witness the "love fest" at his namesake library to "get" thier love for him) They loved him for his tax cutting schemes, for his drive to privatize the country, for his tolerance for the people they liked and his intolerance for the people he did'nt and they loved the way he would invoke a time when they believed the House of America was like a neighborhood on a 1950's TV show.
And I thought...
"You know it kind of was. Thanks to FDR, Truman, The New Deal, The Great Society and liberal politics in general."
We progressives inherited a home after the Republicans of the 1920's and 30's had run it into the ground. Bankrupt, barely on life support. A stock market run amok, scandals, bank forclosures, old people struggling, lives torn apart. The rich were doing pretty good but the middle class nearly disappeared and the poor were drowning.
What did we do? We evil Liberals? We did the only thing sane people do when they inherit a house in bad condition. We figured out whether it was a fixer upper or a tear down. FDR felt that it was a fixer upper and we started investing in infrastructure...yeah rethuglicans, thats taxes. We fixed the leaky roof, painted it, replaced a few floor boards, oh yeah and we paid for the renovations because they were living in the house together. We made our house THE BEST ONE ON THE STREET...again. It was lovely!
Oh it still had some very serious problems, you know like making our brothers and sisters of color live in the ramshakle guest house, (shame) but we even were willing to tackle them. In fact because we had made the house so great we liberals were emboldened to go further, be better.
Then came Ronald Reagan and the Republican revoltion. (yeah revoltion) They said, hey its a nice house but we can do better, we can live in the house for FREE!!! No rent (taxes) No problem. It's like magic economics.
Many liberals asked "So what do we do when the roof starts to leak?" and they replied "we can sell it to the roofing company and they can put advertising on it." Then we said "well what about the yard? How will that work?" and they said "check it out...we'll sell the yard to a big business and they will charge a small toll to walk across it to get to the house"
Of course it all sounded rediculous, but most voters could only hear the "FREE!!!! LIVING!!!!" part and we embarked on nearly three decades of neglect. The private businesses we sold bits and pieces of the house off to have resold and resold or moved the yard to another country because they can get the work there done cheaper.
Now we are not "THE BEST HOUSE IN THE WORLD" the only question at this point is are we a fixer upper? or a tear down?