What have we won?

Happy New Years to all. Looking back at the past year, we re-elected the president, held the senate and the court upheld the Affordable Health Care Act. There has been a lot of bragging rights imposed on the Republican Party and justifiably so. That was just one game and there is still the pennant to be won. The reality is the debt must be addressed, health care cost is going over the roof and automation plus globalization are draining jobs. Education is more expensive and the job market only wants the top of the graduates. This leaves many young people with large debt and low paying jobs. Our population is over three hundred million, without the industry to provide jobs and the prospect of job expansion is not good. I don’t have an exact number but it seems forty percent or more of the population is subsidized in some form or another. Those on the right feel that the answer is to end support for these people and let them make it as best they can. The right is not thy brother’s keeper. When I say to people on the right, what do you propose to do with these people; there are a number of responses. The first is they are just lazy and if we quit feeding them they will go to work. The second response is, it is not my problem and I shouldn’t have to support them. The rest is a mix of they are illegals or other equally stupid responses. We do have a big problem and the old Republican theory of take care of the money and everything else will take care of itself, just won’t fly. We as progressives must take the lead and realize we are not the same country we were fifty years ago and new methods of providing for and governing this country must be implemented. The hardest part people may have to adjust to is a constitution written before electricity or the automobile and it may have to be adjusted for the age of global economies, instant communication and a great many other things our founding fathers never even dreamed of. So here is to the future and may we have the will and courage to be progressive and not try to retreat into the past.