General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: The imminent backlash of the Democratic Left. [View all]Blanks
(4,835 posts)And while I support programs that take care of the less fortunate, I don't believe that we should necessarily revert to the liberal programs of the past. Some programs didn't work that well (CETA for example).
The conservatives took over under Reagan and have been in control of the White House and congress off and on since. If we really want to control the government (as we did almost exclusively between 1932 and 1981) we need to modify the programs to adjust with the times.
For example: kids don't go to school in the summer. It's based on an obsolete model where children were needed to help with the harvest. Hanging on to the existing model (which really only works for the employees of the education system) doesn't make sense.
We need to have programs so that elderly people are taken care of, and taken off the roads. Just because someone believes that the solution to their problems is to give them more money - that doesn't necessarily mean that's the best solution. If people need food, we should give them food, if people need shelter etc.
When social security was created there was a very high worker to retiree ratio. Soon (baby boomers are retiring) we will have a much higher retiree to worker ratio and the system is going to need to be modified. I recognize (as someone in my 50's) that we are going to piss off a lot of young people if they're going to be expected to carry us financially. We are going to have to come up with new programs and new solutions.
If we continue to believe that we are going to solve new problems with old solutions - that's the conservative approach. I believe one of the reasons we lost control of the government is because we weren't adjusting programs with the times. That's how Reagan was able to get his foot in the door, his anti-government message resonated with people.
FDR came up with new programs to address the issues of the time. That's what we need to do now, instead of coming up with old solutions to solve current problems.