My Simple Plan to Fix Everything Forever

Obama will weigh in with his tonight, so, despite the fact that I don't plan for this to be an activist blog, it's only fair that I put forward my own plan, if only for comparative purposes. What is being compared? General outlook and political philosophy. Note that, in this, Obama and the Progressive movement he is part of isn't so different from their Republican opponents. Because most of the latter would not follow a plan like this either.

But first: Some in the press, when they are made to talk about "liberal media bias", say that doesn't exist, that if there is a bias, it is a bias to "do something". No guesses needed as to who they think the doer should be (it isn't the independent platoons of civil society). It's the government, and, more specifically, the Federal Government.

A vision shared by Progressives everywhere. One rebuttal to this is Frederick Douglass' (not my plan, mind):

I have had but one answer from the beginning. Do nothing with us! Your doing with us has already played the mischief with us. Do nothing with us!

When it comes to health care, or banking, or education, aspects of this certainly apply: Quite frequently it was the previous round of "reforms" that led to the "need" for yet another (health insurance/coverage being just one prime example; see also "Campaign Finance Reform"), in the usual pattern wherein our wise rulers create a problem, and then appoint themselves to fix it, a pattern which has gone on for a century and more now, leading by gradual stages to a situation where "accountability" now means a people accountable to its government, rather than the other way around.

But I am, by nature, a moderate person, ever open to compromise and consensus. So here is my Simple Plan to Fix Everything Forever.

Congress, and the Federal Government more generally, has one region in the country that it constitutionally administers, that it is constitutionally responsible. That is the District of Columbia.

If these Solons really can fix anything, they should be able to demonstrate that they can do it in the District of Columbia.

If they can fix Health Care, and provide it to all with a full range of options, that insures everyone, providing quality private and public insurance to all citizens while also controlling cost but not limiting quality of care, as they claim they will, then let them demonstrate they can do it in DC first. Given that the "reforms" they plan to enact are not intended to be fully implemented till after the next Presidential election (my, what a coincidence. I'm sure it has nothing to do with electoral considerations. Obama said he wouldn't do anything based on mere politics, after all), there is certainly time for a demonstration project.

If they can fix Primary and Secondary Education, let them prove it in DC first. Noting that DC's public schools are not underfunded. They have among the highest per student spending in the nation. But if they can fix it with money alone, let them fix it with money alone in DC first. If they can fix it by some other method or combination of methods, let them prove it in DC first.

And so on down the list of "public policy" proposals. Let them demonstrate that they succeed in DC, before imposing upon everyone.

If your reaction is "well, the residents of the District of Columbia don't deserve to be experimented on in such a fashion", that applies to all of us, not just the decent people of DC.

And, if they cannot do for the District of Columbia, then we shall follow Frederick Douglass' proposal.