Chris Jepson: Pocketing the remains

We’re given circus issues while they pick our pockets.

I consider myself essentially a liberal, because liberalism offers the best framework for achieving a better society. I could bog down at this point in the discussion over definitions of terms, over what constitutes “best” or “better.” In 1790, the U.S. population was 3,929,214. In 2010, it was 308,745,538. Simply moving west over the next hill is no longer a viable public policy option when dealing with a sizable impoverished citizenry.

With more than 300 million citizens, a substantial number of that total will require government assistance (permanently or temporarily). It’s a fact. We can deal with that fact rationally, intelligently, or we can become sidetracked by highly charged “emotional” issues that – at the end of the day – distract us from what is really going on in America.

The American Left has taken its eye off the ball, arguably for very legitimate reasons of social justice (see: civil rights, gay rights, feminist rights, and minority rights – of any persuasion). Understandably, as a black man living in Jim Crow America, your desire for justice and equality are paramount from your perspective. The same goes for the gay man living a spirit-crushing lie his entire life. Or, for women who want their legitimate place in the sun.

The energy of the Left for decades prior to the 1960s was focused on economic issues. Presidents Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt transformed the role of government. Labor conditions improved. The quality of life of America’s middleclass improved and a social network system was put in place to address quality-of-life standards for our more vulnerable citizens (elderly, sick). Almost immediately (in response to F. Roosevelt) the American Right began to organize and influence public policy to secure an America free of “onerous regulations and confiscatory taxes.”

We’ve arrived in an America today where it is more difficult for upward mobility than in much of Europe. Our tax laws treat income secured by labor differently (higher) than income gained through investment. Much of our tax code is a labyrinth of obfuscation drafted by business lobbyists to benefit their corporate handlers. More of the nation’s wealth (40 percent) is controlled by fewer Americans (0.0001 percent) than anytime since the Gilded Age of Mark Twain. America is not a better place because the rich got richer and the nation got the shaft. The Republicans, the Right, would have us forever focusing on the “justice” issues – gladly so – while they pick our pockets in Washington and Tallahassee.

I cannot argue (and wouldn’t) that women shouldn’t be up in arms over the injustice(s) of men (with the encouragement of historically deficient, Kool-Aid-addled women who truck in such circles) and their attempts to control a woman’s body. (Such hubris boils my blood and I’m never going to consider an abortion.) I get it that black America sees the death of Trayvon Martin as a legitimate issue of justice.

Do not lose sight however of what is going on. Justice (civil rights) is important. Economic justice (how the pie is “equitably” split) is of equal importance. An economically unfair America is an unjust America.

Read Richard Rorty’s “Achieving Our Country.”

We must not be distracted by the circus Republicans adeptly manipulate while they pocket the wealth of America.

We can be much better as a people, as a nation. Imagine it. Work for it.

Jepson is a 27-year resident of Central Florida. He’s fiscally conservative, socially liberal, likes art and embraces diversity of opinion. Reach him at [email protected]