POLITICAL DRAGONS ARE DANGEROUS BUSINESS

One must admire Rep. Jesse White’s tenacity.  He is like an energized hobbit, nipping at the heels of the Commonwealth’s dragons. Unfortunately, the dragons pay him little attention or respect.

I agree with Mr. White’s recent commentary that the last minute selective ban on drilling in the South Newark Basin (the Philadelphia bedroom counties) was political chicanery of the highest order.  However, his own attempts to selectively carve out Washington County from the court mandated, constitutional and long overdue tax reassessment process was also pure political theater.  One might question how a small county elected official could author and introduce an unconstitutional selective ban regarding county assessments on the one hand and fight vehemently against a selective drilling ban on the other, but hey…a constituent vote is a vote, even if you are 0 for 2 on the legislation.

The bottom line is political power or rather the lack thereof in the local shire.  Pennsylvania’s political dragons, located along the eastern corridor, are not big on social media and spend most of their time, resting in their lairs.  When the time comes for action, usually in the wee hours of the morning, a short flight over the capital and a snort of flame gets the job done. Clearly the dragons do not want Harrisburg addressing county reassessment problems in the hinterlands of Washington County.  More clearly, these ancient power brokers do not want oil rigs obstructing the view from their mountaintops.

The Court (judicial) wizards, while often slow to act, have traditionally been an effective balance against the dragons.  They understand the fundamental justice of equality in taxation and fair play when the dragons must run for office.  Sometimes a dragon or two actually end up in the dungeon.  Mr. White would do well to align himself behind the shield of law offered by the Court wizards.

 Political dragons have long memories.  The hobbits of the world should beware.  If you are not going to slay a sleeping dragon, make sure you do not become the next meal.  Otherwise, bide your time, move your way up the food chain and hope for a bigger sword.  It might help to be legally and ethically consistent along the way.  Sometimes the good in doing the right thing good does win out over the evil of political expendiency.

YOUNG PROFESSIONALS UNITE !

Our country has an insidious and growing upward mobility problem not garnishing a great deal of attention.  Generational inequality is affecting our young professionals and is making their lives a mess.  The group is too busy working to complain a lot.  Because they are our best and brightest achievers, they do not receive a great deal of sympathy.  I am not discussing the unemployed in their 20s, which is a different issue.  My focus is the well educated professionals in their early 30s, who are reaching their career goals after years of academic rigor.

 While many of these young professional and business graduates have earned a degree and landed a job, the American dream of starting a family and buying a home is often elusive if not out of reach.  The recession has insured that starting salaries and yearly raises are low by historical standards.  Student loans are eating up a larger share of income.  Low mortgage rates are offset by onerous borrowing requirements.  Moreover, child care costs are a large impediment to working and having children.

When my contemporaries were “starting out” in the 70’s, tuition and student loans were low and the first marriage, home and child were no brainers.  The culture told us that as baby boomers, we were entitled to become masters of the universe.  The cooperative economic stars aligned to make it so.  The fact that at the end of our management tenure we drove the bus over a cliff, with billions of surplus assets on board, has not stopped us from insisting on our “just” rewards.

 The economists report that in today’s America, as many as 100 million Americans live in households that are earning less than their parents did at a similar age. In 1980, a year at college or professional school cost in the range of 12 per cent of median family income.  Today the cost is 26 per cent. Pell grants cover an increasingly smaller portion of the cost.

Apart from education, our political and economic systems have dedicated a majority of public resources to those receiving AARP magazines.  There are a lot of us baby boomers, we vote and no politician is about to challenge us.  What is clear is that there are fewer and fewer resources to address systemic non elderly needs.

I believe there are three paths to attack this intergenerational inequality our young people (professional and otherwise) are facing.  First, they need to organize.  “Occupy Wall Street” does not speak to the problem.  Help Us “Un-Occupy Your Basement and Give You Grandchildren” does.  Forming AAYP (American Association of Young People) with a magazine, 30 million members and a few lobbyists would help.

Second, we baby boomers must give up our selfish view on entitlements.  If we want our social contract to be passed to the next generation, we must recognize we will not live forever, even with double hip and knee replacements.  The universe no longer revolves around us.  We need to support rational cuts to retirement benefits, higher taxes on unearned income and reasonable health care end of life policies.  It is time to give back and get out of the way.

Third, our political leaders must adopt modern civilized positions on the cost of education and child care.  The world’s most advanced democratic societies provide both at little or no cost.  After all, our young people are not asking for it all like we did.  They simply want our boomer generation to tidy up its mess and to give back what our parents gave to keep the American dream alive.

THE VOTER ID LAW IS A CONSERVATIVE HYPOCRACY

The Pennsylvania voter’s ID controversy is getting more ironic by the day.  The conservative establishment who thought up this affront to our most basic of liberties must now explain the economic burden of this unfunded new legislation.  Not only is the cost born by county taxpayers, it is significant.

An action filed in Allegheny County, not by representatives of the elderly, poor, or minorities, was brought by the fiscal watchdog, the County Controller. It turns out that the unfunded mandate for the state’s new voter ID law will cost Pennsylvania’s local governments about $11 million to implement. New procedures must be drawn up, poll workers must be trained, and those impossible to comprehend provisional ballots brought out of the dusty closets.

Only the most jaded of conservatives could justify this additional financial burden on the counties, when education and social services are being slashed to the bone.  No sane elected official can possibly believe that protecting our citizens from phantom voter fraud is more pressing than education, mental health or the environment.  I am waiting to see how the Corbett gang and its followers will philosophically explain deregulating our air, water, and ground resources to save money on the one hand while regulating our poorest citizen’s right to vote and mandating local government to spend tax payer dollars on the other.

POLITICAL THOUGHTS

Does Governor Corbett really believe that no one will notice (or care) when he places his ineffective crony on the Allegheny Court of Common Pleas, a position that court administrators agree should be left open to save public dollars, at the same time that he is cutting education and social services to the bone?

Donald Trump will use his “birther” expertise during the Miss Pennsylvania controversy and determine she was born in New Jersey.

When the majority of Americans come to understand that social democracy looks like

Roosevelt’s “New Deal” and Johnson’s “Great Society” and not a communist five year plan, the political discourse will gain a more rational footing.

Governor Walker’s victory in Wisconsin was more a vote against the misuse of recall elections than an affirmation for tea party positions.

Why do the newscasters on Fox News remind me of the Orie sisters?  Is there an ongoing natural evolution of obnoxious blond conservative women, perhaps nurtured by too much Rush Limbaugh during their impressionable youth?

Over the months leading up to the election independent voters will come to understand that Barack Obama has been a mainstream President with positions a little bit right of John Kerry and a little bit left of Bill Clinton.

Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton have been great assets to the President and the American People.  Try and name two republican primary contenders who could offer the same support to a President Romney.

John Edwards will remain a stain on the Democratic Party until a women is nominated by the party for the presidency, hopefully in 2016.  Nothing else will wash away the horror of this narcissistic cad who fooled so many people for so long and let his libido almost destroy the election process.

If one or two Washington County Commissioners are elected to higher office in November, the deliberations of the Board of Judges to name their replacements will be the local political story of the year, maybe of the decade.

 THE MUSIC ROOM

My wife’s younger sister lives in a typical suburban home in Murrysville, PA, with her Husband and two teenage sons.   What is not typical in this middle class home is the “music room”.  Several years ago, the family added a large addition to the existing house.  For most growing families it would have been the opportunity to spread out with a family room, large screen TV, lounging furniture and maybe a pool table.  In this house, the new room is captivated by a large piano and musical instruments of various shapes and sizes.  Music lessons are given, new pieces are rehearsed and impromptu jams are known to break out.

What I have come to realize is that the music room defines this family.  Options and priorities were discussed and music won.  The eldest son is tall, athletic and outgoing.   He is the perfect candidate for various high school varsity sports.  Instead, he is an accomplished cellist and has won awards throughout his high school years.  I have heard him play at Heinz Hall with the Pittsburgh Youth Orchestra and most recently solo, with his Mother accompanying on piano, prior to the spring school band program.  His younger brother holds out promise of being an exemplary musician on the saxophone.

While the mother teaches piano, there is no evidence that any member of the family will have a symphonic career.  The high school graduate would like to be a pharmacist. The father, an accomplished musician in his own right, is a manager in a utility company.  This is simply a family that values lives well lived, enriched by music.

Two thoughts strike me about the music room.  First, in the Victorian era, music rooms were common, as were libraries.  These rooms were places to enrich the soul and sooth the spirit, apart from the drudgery of day to day labor.  In the absence of organized sports, around the clock social media, fixed media and the internet, the music room was a welcome respite.

Second, Federal Title IX has just celebrated 40 years of making sex discrimination in school athletics illegal.  This provision has made incredible progress in women’s sports throughout our country.  Women’s programs are often indistinguishable from men’s programs.   Some would argue that Title IX has touched much more than sports, by changing the role of women in society.

Perhaps we need a mirror Title IX program for equality in the creative arts.  The provision would outlaw discrimination against our young musicians, painters, writers, dancers and sculptures.  The finite resources available for activities would go toward sports and the arts, share and share alike.  We might see more music rooms spring up in suburban America and that would be a good thing.

AN AFTERNOON AT THE BARBECUE JOINT

            When the phone call came from the local Obama campaign office, I had already grabbed my calendar.  Another organizational meeting, I thought.  But the caller had a cryptic bit of news.  The next day Washington would be visited by an unnamed “administration official”.  Would my wife and I like to attend the meet and greet?

            On Thursday we were at the iconic Hog Fathers restaurant, along with a handful of older Obama volunteers and a contingent of the young people who help staff the Pittsburgh office.  We quickly learned that Vice President Biden was the attraction, his motorcade returning to the Airport from West Virginia and Ohio.  As is typical for these affairs, the VP would be late.  We were instructed to be discreet, have some barbecue and meet new friends.

            An hour later the pack of Chevy Suburbans rolled in.  A smiling Biden stepped out and greeted the owner.  The media in attendance was corralled behind the counter and the Vice President began what he came to do.  This was no photo op.  He wanted to talk issues and find out what was on the minds of South Western Pennsylvania voters.  While the secret service bought lunch for the ride to the Airport, Biden let each of us have our say.

            I brought up the Air Force Reserve Station at the Airport.  “Do not close it” I told him. “It will give us enough votes to make a difference”.  He listened and understood the dilemma.  There are national economic and strategic concerns he informed me.  Others spoke of education, health care and the upcoming election.

            With the exception of the Mayor, no elected officials were in attendance.  I am sure some egos got bruised.  The individuals who were invited had been with the Obama campaign 5 years ago when the politicians were not.  I guarantee that we will now work even harder to paint our small part of the country Obama/Biden blue on election night.

THE EQUALITY GLASS IS HALF FULL (the vintage is struggling, young & brown)

When I look beyond the 24/7 political noise, it is the best of times to be a social democrat in the United States of America.  In my lifetime there will be more positive gains in both civil rights and economic equality than at any time in our history.  As our country becomes younger and more diverse, further social change in both areas is inevitable.  

Moreover, it is no coincidence that the deprived generation coming out of the great depression readily adopted our first large wave of FDR social democracy.  Our younger generations most affected by the 2008 great recession will likewise adopt a second wave of personal and economic equality, with a flourish we should all see coming.  The equality glass is half full and the vintage is struggling, young and brown.

  Regarding civil rights, I proudly display in my office the Vernon Jordan quote: “After Years of disturbing the unjust peace- all men are finally created equal”, below a photograph of Barack Obama.  Within a few years, our changing social structure will guarantee that this quote also applies to our first female president and to a national affirmation on gay marriage.  Our founding fathers will finally be able to smile, roll over in their graves and sleep peacefully through eternity.

Regarding economic equality, it has become clear to me that modern western democracies will evolve toward universal economic opportunities and wealth leveling (both nationally and globally), in order to fulfill their potential.  Further, our next generation of leaders will adopt growth not austerity strategies during economic downturns and retain tax surpluses when the economy is vibrant, saving for the next inevitable rainy day.  In other words, the next generation will learn from our mistakes.

I have come to realize that within decades, Fox news and older Americans with deeply held prejudices will have no choir to preach to.  The moral majority is becoming the moral minority and the outcome of the cultural wars is becoming a foregone conclusion.  Like other flash points that have tried to hold up the equality train, the present brand of angry, homophobic social conservatism is losing its grip and will soon be an interesting footnote in American History.

Lastly, I have come to understand that this new landscape has little to do with the work of aging progressives like myself, or the constant political chatter.  Maybe my generation helped set the stage 30 or more years ago.  Sure, it would be nice if we could help win the next election.  But whatever the near term outcome, recession, youth and demographics will prevail in the long run.  My job is really to get out of the way and not muck it up before they take over and fulfill the destiny of this great country.