America is a house divided.We have red states vs. blue states. We have pro-choicers vs. pro-lifers, tax cutters vs. deficit hawks, dirty tricks, meanness, cheating, arrogance, outright hatred - all signs of impending disaster. The so-called "mainstream" media, while claiming to despair over the widening gap dividing Americans, actually revels in the constant news created by the incessant conflict. America has become so polarized that few people have any hope at all of reconciliation.
So what do we do about it?
We could play the blame game, but that would merely result in each side blaming the other. Neither side will admit that it did anything wrong, and that the other side "started it". That won't help, so let's skip it.
We could just shrug our collective shoulders and try to ignore it. This might make us feel better in the short run. Like cancer, however, ignoring the problem only allows it to get worse. Not a good idea.
We could try to fix the problem!
Seriously, there must be some way to bring the nation together. Creating an external enemy, like, say, Saddam Hussein, didn't work. Nor does any attempt to find "common ground" on an issue, even one as simple and basically American as tax cuts.
Perhaps the answer lies in taking a problem we all agree exists, and pushing for a solution that everybody hates. Find a solution that would work but that, for purely partisan political reasons, both sides despise. Push that solution through. In the end, everybody can come together to claim they were willing to compromise, but nobody need fear that the other side can claim victory. After all, if both sides were against it from the start, neither side can claim victory.
And if we look around, lo and behold! There is a problem to which the best solution is one everybody hates.
Social Security.
The problem, we all agree, is that sometime before most of us are dead the Social Security Trust Fund will run out of money. The solution, based on the simple fact that we are living a lot longer than we used to, is the one everybody rules out - raise the age at which people can receive full benefits. In fact, the solution can be made palatable by balancing it with a cut in Social Security and Medicare taxes.
Cutting these taxes, which hit the middle class hardest, could be a permanent stimulus for the economy in two ways. First, by providing a real middle class tax cut, the very people most likely to spend that extra money, and stimulate the economy, would get the cuts. Second, this would also be a tax cut for employers, and by lowering the cost of labor it could create jobs.
So why don't we all just get together and do exactly what everybody hates? We'll solve a major problem, while at the same time begin the process of bringing America together.
Seriously, why don't we?
Copyright 2004, Dan Jacoby
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