The coming election will decide if the country we know will survive. Within Obama’s State of the Union were policies that can help Democrats win in 2012. High Speed rail and upgrading American infrastructure are Keynesian economic policies that will work for the campaign and if victorious, bring jobs on a truly massive scale.
Listening to the President’s State of the Union speech it reminded me just what an effective campaigner the President is. That charisma and speaking ability is our best asset going into the 2012 campaign. The question is will it be enough? Judging by the results of the 2010 election we may need more than the President’s likeability. For the progressive movement, there is a great deal of work needed to pull out Democratic victories. We must consider what a Republican victory for the White House would mean. Our government would change drastically with the Republican controlling all three branches of government. Unlike most of the people reading this, I’m a direct casualty of this recession. A recession that was caused directly by the greed of people on Wall St. and those that supported them. I lost my job, home, basically my whole way of life. Now I’m collecting early Social Security because I had no other option. So you see the Republican taking over scares the living shit out of me.
The thing that has always bothered me the most about the American political scene is our ideas and policies are better than the Republican. Why doesn’t that resonate with the American people? Whenever I talk with a conservative, I make logical arguments and they reply that’s my liberal elitism coming out. I reply; what about the substance of my arguments? Their minds lock down and they give some Foxian rhetoric that would only make sense to a viewer of Glen Beck or Mr. Beck himself. The right wing propaganda machine is a mighty tool. If we don’t make simple, easy to understand policies, we may be facing a real tragedy for the world and us. As a student of economics I’m sure this recession will double dip like no other if all we do now is try to curb spending and balance the budget. Employment is at the heart of our economic woes and will continue to be if we don’t start on some political viable strategies the President made in his speech. The two most important are high-speed rail and needed infrastructure upgrades. These two things are both needed and will put millions of people to work. How do we fund these projects? The Office of Management and Budget and Congress's Joint Committee on Taxation has stated the total allotment through direct subsidies and tax breaks to corporations are over a 100 billion annually . I realize that’s a drop in the bucket for either of these projects but over ten years if I’m not mistaken that is a trillion dollars. More importantly, the first stage, planning, could start next year if the funding were there. I realize this is impossible if the Republican still controls the House. The idea is to make sure they don’t.
These policies are for the campaign but if the they are successful they make sound Keynesian logic as a way to enable the government to help us get out of this black hole of unemployment. What I like about these two policies are they pit corporate greed against beneficial programs that are needed and would improve the daily life of the American public. High-speed rail could bring back the American steel industry just as the railroad construction helped create it in the 19th century. Obviously these are only my ideas for the campaign, and just a couple of them but we need, as progressives, to continue to fight the ideological battles that will influence voters and hopefully avoid the catastrophic effects of a Republican victory in 2012.