Subject: [big campaign] New Huff Post from Creamer -- Standing Up for Government
From: [email-masked]
To: [email-masked], [email-masked]
Date: Tue, 20 Oct 2009 08:56:35 EDT
List-Id: <bigcampaign.googlegroups.com>

Time for Progressive to Stand Up Proudly for  Government 

From the beginning of the “Reagan Revolution” in 1980 until the election  
of Barack Obama, Progressives were in a defensive crouch.  The ideas and 
values of the right wing  were predominant.  During the  Clinton years,  at 
least there were two ideological teams on the field, but even then  
Progressives fought on the defense – especially when it came to the role of  
government.  Remember it was Bill  Clinton who felt compelled to open a State of the 
Union with the words: “The era of Big Government is  over.” 
Today’s health care debate epitomizes the sharp difference between the  
progressive understanding of the role of government, and the right wing views  
underlying of the failed policies that culminated in the Bush  years 
This year Progressives, lead by President Obama, have stopped apologizing  
for our view the proper role of government, and begun to assert that Reagan 
was  fundamentally wrong when he said government was the problem.  Instead, 
as Congressman Barney Frank says,  government is the name we give to the 
things we choose to do together.  
The right wing argues that government can never do things as well as the  “
private sector.”  
Government is not always the solution, any more than it is always the  
problem.  But in many cases,  Progressives know that it is more efficient, more 
effective and more consistent  with the values of a democratic society for 
all of us to do something together –  through our government. 
Progressive leaders need to finish getting out of that defensive crouch,  
stand up straight, and assert our view of government forcefully and without  
apology.  
After all, we have the high political ground.  For example, today’s 
Washington Post-ABC poll shows continued  strong public support for a public health 
insurance option (57% support, 40%  oppose). The public option has 
consistently shown to be the most popular element  of health reform.   
The same poll shows that 55% of voters feel that the health care plan  
would create either the right amount (34%) or not enough (21%) “government  
involvement in the nation’s health-care system”.  The charge that health care 
reform will  result in a “government take-over” of health care has failed to 
 resonate. 
In fact one of the major concerns voters raise about health care reform  is 
the fear – especially among seniors – that it would weaken the very 
popular  government-run Medicare system.  It’s actually pretty remarkable that one 
of the most potent criticisms  Republicans have raised about health care 
reform is this completely incorrect  charge that it would weaken the 
government run Medicare program that the Right  opposed as socialized medicine for 
years. 
Progressives know that Government action is necessary to assure the  public 
health, provide public education, and maintain the public infrastructure  
for our common life – from streets, parks, and airports, to mass  
transportation.  Government is the  expression of our common life – our life as a 
community; and in democratic  societies, it is much more accountable to average 
citizens than any other major  decision-making structure, including large 
corporations. 
Most Americans  agree with us that government – not the “private sector,” 
is best equipped to  provide public security, fire protection, public 
education, highways, public  transportation and a common defense against enemies.  
Most also agree that we are much better  off providing everyone with Social 
Security and health insurance for retirement  through Medicare.  And most 
agree  that government has the obligation to make sure that all Americans 
have health  insurance.  
After 9/11, when it was obvious that America needed to massively  
strengthen its airport security, there was uniform agreement that security  screeners 
should become officers of the government rather than the private  security 
contractors who had done the screening before the 9/11 attacks.  The choice 
seemed obvious.  Where you want serious attention to  security and public 
accountability everyone agreed that the screening personnel  should be 
officers of our government.  
In fact, the demonization of government -- and the Right’s success over  
the last three decades at diverting resources from the public sector into the  
hands of Wall Street and multi-national corporations -- have lead directly 
to  our most intractable problems.  It  has shortchanged our investment in 
the education of our next generation, created  a health care system that 
costs twice as much per person as any other on earth  but leaves us 37th in 
health care outcomes.  It has starved our investment in  infrastructure and 
energy efficiency. 
The anti-government forces prevented serious regulation of Wall Street  
that lead directly to the frenzy of reckless risk-taking that precipitated the  
current economic collapse, and cost millions their jobs.  
By starving the public sector they contributed directly to the  
concentration of income in the top 1 percent of the population, and outsized  growth of 
Wall Street and the rest of the financial sector. 
Right wing activist Grover  Norquist, the leader of the Republican efforts 
to slash taxes for the wealthy,  expressed their view in its purest form 
when he said he believes that government  needs to be “shrunk to the size that 
it can be drowned in the bathtub.” In his  view, government is the enemy of 
moral purpose, which resides solely in the  ability of individuals to pursue 
their own individual self-interest.  In a utopian right wing world, there 
are  very few things that we should choose to do together. 
From the progressive point  of view, government is critically necessary 
because it uses the common wealth  for the common good – to make individual 
freedom possible – and to allow each  individual to realize his or her own 
individual goals and aspirations.   In the progressive view, as George  Lakoff 
says, “the common wealth builds the infrastructure for freedom.”  
The progressive view of the role of government is not a radical new  
departure.  It dominated American  domestic politics from 1932 until the mid 1970’
s.  That dominant view translated directly  into policies that created a 
huge leap in economic growth.  Real income grew among every sector of  the 
American population and the level of income inequality shrank  precipitously. 
The right wing counter-revolution against government never spread to most  
other developed countries in the world.  The progressive view of the role of 
government is widely shared  throughout Europe and Asia not just by the  
center-left – but by many who would describe themselves as  center-right. 
Today the right wing view that “government is the problem” is shared by a  
shrinking minority of the American population, and it is embodied in the  
ideology of a rapidly declining Republican Party that is out of touch with 
the  needs and beliefs of ordinary Americans – not to speak of the views of 
people in  the rest of the world. Only 20% of Americans now self identify as 
Republicans  according to today’s Washington Post-ABC Poll – the lowest in a 
quarter  century. 
But the most important thing for us to remember is that the  
anti-government ideology is not simply a set of ideas that emerged whole cloth  from 
scholars at the CATO Institute or the mind of Rush Limbaugh. It is not  simply an 
alternative view of what’s good for the “public interest.”  It is the 
creation of those who use it to  justify their own private gain.  
It is used to justify the empirically unsupportable notion that private  
insurance companies are better at providing health insurance than publicly  
organized insurance programs like Medicare, or the public health insurance  
programs that provide better health care outcomes in other industrial 
countries  at much lower prices.   Would  anyone seriously argue that we should 
leave fire protection to the private  sector  We all agree that it is both  more 
efficient and more humane to make fire protection the responsibility of  
government. The same goes for health insurance – a fact that has been 
recognized  throughout the rest of the world.     
Of course, health insurance companies don’t embrace anti-government  
rhetoric because of some deep-seated ideological commitment.  They do it so they 
can continue to make  huge profits and pay multi-million dollar executive 
salaries.  
Wall Street bankers don’t battle “governmental intrusion” for ideological  
reasons, they do it so they can continue to be free to make billions in 
bonuses  – even if they periodically bring the economy down in the  process. 
The Republicans don’t promote huge tax cuts for the rich out of a  
high-minded belief that the private sector is more effective at investing  hundreds 
of millions of dollars than the government.  They do it because their 
wealthy backers  want the money. 
Opposition to policies that would create millions of new clean energy  jobs 
does not flow from the oil companies’ principled opposition against an  “
intruding government.”  They want  to be free to make as much money as they 
can, no matter what the consequences  for our children or our planet. 
The movement for more “outsourcing” of governmental functions from public  
employees to private companies like Haliburton and Blackwater has nothing 
to do  with genuine concern for “effective” government.  It has everything 
to do with siphoning  off taxpayer dollars into the hands of big 
corporations. 
The anti-government forces have always wanted to prevent us from doing  
things together through a democratically accountable government, so they can do 
 things privately to enhance their own wealth and power – often at the 
expense of  everyone else.  
This year Progressives – led by the President – have the opportunity to  
reassert the importance of the public sector by winning health insurance 
reform,  financial regulatory reform, and a new energy policy.  Together, let’s 
get it done.  
Robert Creamer is  a long-time political organizer and strategist, and 
author of the book: “Stand  Up Straight: How Progressives Can Win,” available 
on _amazon.com_ 
(http://www.amazon.com/Listen-Your-Mother-Straight-Progressives/dp/0979585295/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1206567141&sr=8-1) . 

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