House Progressives
Leadership does not Understand Public opinion
It took FDR
4years to get the Social Security Act of 1935 out of the Congress. The disaster
in 1929 was not responded to properly until 1935. Overcoming the resistance to
change took tremendous effort and persistence.
When we
tried to bar supertankers from the waters of Puget sound the only convincing
argument was that it took 20 miles to turn a ship away from the rocks. The San Juan islands Often had far less than
that between islands and thus if a ship lost steering it would be on the rocks,
spilling millions of gallons of oil on beaches, birds and seafood feeding grounds
in spite of a sober and able bridge crew.
I was once a coalpasser on an oreboat that ran aground in Lake St. Clair on a clear
day in the channel between Lake Huron and Lake Erie. A cotter key broke and jammed the steering
engine. The crew were unable avert the disaster. It took 3 days to unload the boat so It could
be refloated. The momentum of the ship carried it into the mud.
Lest you
think such examples are far fetched we have all been witness to the grounding of
the world’s most sophisticated container ship in the Suez Canal as recently as
this year. A ship, 4 football fields long , was driven a ground in the Canal despite
the best technology and human brains.
The wind blew the ship sideways and the momentum carried into the mud.
In more ways
than one the President of the USA is at the helm of a supertanker of more than
300 million humans as he tries to mold public opinion to accept a plan for
controlling an unmanageable epidemic inspite of the Medical advice in the
world. At the same time he is trying to
guide economy between the rocks of stagnation and collapse on one hand and inflation
on the other hand. If that was not
enough he is trying to change the social safety net to pick up those who have fallen
through the cracks in our society. Children, overpriced pharmaceuticals, and
lack of health insurance are just a few of his problems.
Getting
public opinion to accept all this change at one time is a gargantuan
challenge. Progressive leadership seems to have no idea
or concern about the momentum of the ship of state to an ugly grounding in 2022
for the Democrats. They seem to believe that the Public opinion will shift
dramatically if they get some minor change perfectly in July as they adjourn for the August recess.
By their
insistence on getting the last turn of the wheel of the ship of state they are certain to run us aground. Even FDR knew when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em
and when to get away from the table. He wanted National Health Insurance but it
was too much to get done and he left it on the table for next time.
They are
losing momentum every day they don’t take the good instead of trying for the
perfect. When the ship runs aground the Progressives will get the credit.
