Chapter 4 - Narrowing the Policy Field

In this series, political commentator John Scully argues the Left has lost its way, focusing on banning plastic straws instead of building an American where all people can work & lead dignified lives.

The social contract between labor and capital is failing. Simply put, the rich get richer at the expense of everyone else. Work no longer provides for the basic needs of working people and their families. The Left has spun off into a fragmented wilderness of innumerable policy demands, forgetting that work is the basis of a healthy society. To lead the country out of the wilderness, the Left must turn its energy to making work pay for life’s basics – food, home, health, financial security and protection from the coming AI upheaval. Success will not come without a change of attitude toward empathy and caring for all working people no matter their cultural, religious or political background. Read Chapter 1, Chapter 2, Chapter 3 and Chapter 5.

The Cost of Creating a Healthy Social Contract in the USA

Creating a healthy social contract in America will cost trillions of dollars, and implementation will require intense effort and focus over many years. Policy and electoral success depend on the willingness of all citizens to evaluate their special policy desires in light of the orders-of-magnitude larger effort need to make WORK as fruitful as capital in our society.

Category 1

I see two general categories of policy that are not directly related to WORK. The first category consists of major policy goals implementation of which are of organic importance to the republic. Electoral success will require continued effort to achieve these goals. But they must always be framed not as a single overriding, stridently advocated issue, but as a partner issue in the main effort of establishing a health social contract. Among these issues are:

1. A woman’s right to her own body.

2. Defense of democracy.

3. Separation of church and state.

4. Climate change.

Category 2

The second category consists of policy goals that are overwhelmingly outweighed by the need reestablish the social contract through work. They tend to be supported by smaller numbers of voters who take positions offensive to moderate voters. The phrase “80 Percenters” applies to these issues. That is, 80% of the electorate, or substantial majorities, are opposed to or uncomfortable with the proposed policies. Pursuit of these policies drives moderates away from fundamental policy issues and towards the right side of politics. The effort, money and enthusiasm put into these policy goals need to be directed to the main goal. Among these issues are:

1. Reparations. Of course, slavery was an abomination, and any citizen of good conscience would want to go back into the past to change it. But, there is no practical way after 160 years of determining what individuals should get what amount of money. Giving money to all citizens with African heritage in a blanket manner no matter their family history would be grossly unfair. And what about the Native Americans and people of Mexican origin along the border (think Texas) who have not been treated very well. Descendants of Japanese internees in WWII? Even worse, reparations would siphon off the very large amount of money required to establish a healthy social contract in society at large including all peoples.

2. Intense, passionate and proliferating issues of gender, gender terminology, bathroom access and etc. To many of us, these issues feel tangential, exaggerated, strident.

3. Recycling Plastic. 5% of plastic waste is recycled in the United States. What is the cost of achieving this tiny percentage?

4. Gun control. In economic terms, and in terms of lives lost or ruined, this has limited impact compared the basic task of creating a health social contract. Gun violence is a plague on the country. However, even sensible gun control is seen by tens of millions of our citizens as a direct threat to their way of life, and so it has become a major cause of our divided politics. See Chapter 3. Empathy.

5. Petty “improvements”. Because they cannot achieve fundamental policy change, the “left” is constantly trying to make changes that demonstrate an accomplishment but which basically simply annoy and alienate the rest of us. Banning plastic bags is an example. Posting signs warning drivers of damage to guard rails ahead is another. Do you need to spend public money to remind me that I really shouldn’t drive into that damaged barrier? Placing five stop signs in our local McDonald’s parking area is another. Do you really think I cannot see who is moving around at 5 MPH in that lot?? Do you really need to require cashiers to see the driver’s license of an 82 year-old beer buyer? Do you really need to tell me I cannot leave my dog alone in the car at any time of the year?? In all the above, you rob me and the citizen at large of common-sense agency.

Because they want to prove they can do “something” without addressing the basic enormous work of balancing the social contract, progressive busybodies pass too many petty laws that achieve two things: achieving very little of consequence and annoying people like me.

(Note: The subject of an over-regulated society that progressively neuters the common sense and personal agency of its citizens deserves another chapter in this series.)

1. Far left extremist positions. On 12/7/23 the NY Times published an article on the Glossary of the Columbia School of Social Work. I independently researched that glossary which is now unavailable on the internet. (See below ) It demonstrated that, without qualification, the next generation of social workers were (are??) being taught that capitalism is bad, inequality is bad, and that all the problems their future clients are facing are caused by white people. This is bullshit!! If this kind of thinking has penetrated the university world, the current MAGA correction may, in fact, be needed.

Let’s concentrate on rebalancing the social contract of a healthy, capitalist society.

Photo by Karl Oss Von Eeja, Pixabay.com.