Here's a quick recipe for a possible offensive, courtesy my man Wes Connley: start keeping it real. Start talking about the real impacts in SSI reform. It means a society no longer makes it it's business to take care of its most vulnerable people. That's the Market's job now. You know that 40 year old mentally disabled kid who's mother is pushing 70? Yeah, he's moving back in with grandma, because we can't keep livable group homes and assisted-living facilities together to service adults who are on disability. It means no more help to get your child with downs syndrome through school, and no special programs for him if you even make the effort. The Market will find a solution.
Then if that's not pushing it far enough, start asking: should privatize the military? How about we downsize and outsource our national security apparatus? Lets let the market handle all that. And why not? That's what we're fucking effectively doing with our current energy policy.
The continued stability of this nation rests on the weakening foundation of cheap oil, but that's not what the future portents, and everyone knows it. Yet this nation has done nothing to address the growing danger -- that we may find ourselves economically undermined by this mismatch. Such a collapse would be on the order of a great depression. It's not happening now, but it very well may unless something changes soon. There's a good chance we may be undone by the very market forces we're supposed to have faith in. In other words, it's about time we did something like the Apollo Project, for our own national security. For real.
Look, the invisible hand is no benevolent spirit, and the market's justice is the law of the jungle. It's the war of all against all. Trusting it for everything is essentially arguing for a kind of anarchy, or some sort of leviathan. Now, you and I might understand that there are healthy and virtuous concepts buried in both those beliefs, but to the average American audience, these are politically (if understood at all) merely terms of derision, like "bitch" or "asshole."
Now, there are those on the right who understand the absolute value of freedom, or at least its real virtue, too; but to be honest, the great portion of Americans are people who are comfortable with institutions, In fact, we're in fact desirous. We want to trust in our institutions, to trust in one another. There's nothing wrong with this, it's just a little public/civic spirit. Granted, most folks deserve a higher level of performance than they're currently getting out of their institutions and communities, but this by no means they don't still want to have them. People want good government, they want it to be something they're proud of, that they take pride in. We can bring that back.
