Category: Howard Sosbee’s posts

Will Republicans ever feel the shame they have earned by their eight years of obstruction and nongovernment in their effort to destroy the Obama administration? Think how much different our country would be if Republicans had produced a jobs bill for Obama to sign. Think of the good paying jobs involved in repairing all the roads and bridges, modernizing the airports, buffing up the power grid, renewing our blighted cities, and on and on. All of these good works were kept at bay for one reason, one simple but totally irresponsible reason: to keep Obama from ever getting any credit. They can gloat, brag, rub their hands in glee now that they have total control, but what they should be experiencing instead is a deep and hurtful feeling of shame.

[Note to the editor: this is not intended for the “as you see it” section. This is an essay for the Opinion page. Hopefully, we can get something started.]
There was some uncertainty about the future of Bernie Sanders’ “Revolution” if Hillary Clinton had been elected. Would there be competing objectives? Who will take on the leadership? Should we even try to keep the Revolution alive? Trump’s surprise election certainly wiped out any doubts. The goals are clear now. The country is at grave risk of a right wing tsunami of repressive legislation that will set the country back 100 years, and further widen the split created by the election of Ronald Reagan in 1980. Just about every malady now bedeviling America can be traced back to the frenzy of deregulation following Reagan’s emasculating of all the regulating agencies of the Federal government. Now, with conservatives (that is regressives) in control, things can only get worse for ordinary Americans (the 99%) and they will stay worseP unless a countervailing movement can arise to resist the worst of the coming right wing depredations. Such a movement might take the form of . . .
. . . the MOVEMENT TO UNDO
This would be an organization devoted to shining the light of public awareness on congressional actions that are detrimental to the country as a whole or unnecessarily harmful to any specific portion of the population. The massively-financed campaign by the Koch brothers through ALEC to gain control of legislatures and advance their regressive agenda is a good example of what should be exposed. Here are some of the things we can expect:
Women’s health: Roe v. Wade is a high priority target. Obamacare: Trump’s “do it on day one” target is repeal of the Affordable Care Act. Who knows what, if anything there will be to replace it. Gerrymandering: The 2020 census opens up the opportunity for widespread mischief. However, the election of 2018 presents an opportunity to elect some neutral (that is non-Republican) members to Congress. Voter suppression: High on the list of several states. Privatization: Wherever there are juicy corporate profits to be made, Republicans will try to privatize the operation.
These are just a few of the issues we can expect to be launched during the first couple of years. We can hope that a strong and active “Movement to Undo” might be an inhibiting factor. And, hopefully, the election of 2018 will put more muscle back into the Democrat party.

Attention all writers of Letters to the Editor: Don’t bother saying “I told you so.” No one wants to hear it.

The crowd lined up to get into the Bernie Sanders rally (his only one in Santa Cruz) was huge, several blocks long. A TV reporter went up and down the line asking people why they were supporting Sanders. One grizzled old World War II veteran answered with words to the effect that Hillary Clinton simply cannot win a general election, and Sanders is our only hope against a heavily-financed Republican juggernaut. That interview never made it to the screen, but it’s just as well. No one wanted to hear such a negative prediction so early in the campaign. And right now, the last thing ANYONE wants to hear is “I told you so”.

Conventional wisdom (and Donald Trump) blame NAFTA and other bad trade deals for the massive closing of factories and laying off of workers, as corporations moved their operations overseas. But there is another factor far more responsible for the unemployment and neighborhood destruction of the 80s and 90s. That factor is corporate downsizing. Downsizing was forced on the economy by the tidal wave of mergers and acquisitions resulting from Ronald Reagan’s emasculation of all the regulatory agencies that had been doing such a good job of keeping corporate greed in check. He literally shut down all the regulators. All this downsizing could not have taken place otherwise. Financial tycoons and corporate raiders, like a pack of hyenas, attacked the American industrial structure en masse, buying up smaller companies then the selling off their assets to pay back the loans they took out to finance the acquisition. A few of the latter-day robber barons walked away with millions in their pockets and newfound positions of power. In their wake: shuttered factories, blighted cities, and millions of ruined families. Yet how many people know this massive restructuring of the American economy was the direct result of the Reagan revolution?

Here is a direct quote from Tom Decker’s letter in the November 4 issue: “If we are truly honest with ourselves, deep down we all know that virtually all government programs are vastly wasteful and very expensive while rarely, if ever, delivering the goods and services of the quality, efficiency, and effectiveness promised.” The attitude expressed in that paragraph is a sad commentary on what should be our feeling toward our unique democracy. Our public servants do the best they can to provide for the general public what individual citizens cannot do for themselves. This includes everything from massive public works (such as the Interstate Highway System, Hoover Dam, TVA, etc.”) right down to the local pothole patrol. Unfortunately, it takes money. And anyone can disparage any project, no matter how beneficial, as someone else’s “pet project.” Thankfully, people like Tom Decker are in the minority.

Whatever happened to NEVER TRUMP ! ? Was it that long ago the Republican elite were scrambling to organize a solid wall against Donald Trump’s candidacy? Now, one would think he had been their darling all along. What changed? It certainly was not Donald Trump.

There is a disease abroad in the land, and it has a name: Reaganism. Those who have it are in complete and total denial. It is contagious, generally infecting anyone born into the Republican tribe. It is based on an ideology that has proven to be discouragingly destructive to the country as a whole; yet, because it has become so profitable to those at the top of the food chain, it will likely remain an albatross across the neck of American politics for generations to come. The antidote is for people of goodwill to inform themselves of Republican political activities and call out those designed to suppress the vote in any way. Ai’m not going to 1 o’clocked whenever Republicans do anything to restrict a woman’s right to choose, do more than call them out. Get involved in direct action.

If you never read another book in your entire life, you must read “ The Man Who Sold America, Ronald Reagan and the betrayal of Main Street America”. For Democrats, it will confirm what you always suspected: that the anti-government, anti-tax, anti-social actions of the Reagan administration trashed practically every advance America had accomplished in the golden years of post World War II. For Republicans, the effect will be much different. You will wonder: How in the world could so many thinking adults be so blind and insensitive to the destructive effects on so many of our less- advantaged citizens? These were direct effects of the Reagan budgets from day one. He did what you wanted him to do. Now, all of us, except the one percent course, are suffering the consequences, while many of the rest of us prepare to vote for a madman.

Kudos to Bruce Sawhill’s (October 16, 2016) reasoned and factually- supported proposal to get off the dime and start using the rail corridor’s tremendous potential for moving people around the county. Now, imagine a fleet of small shuttle buses running back and forth on all the streets that intersect the tracks; picking up passengers throughout the neighborhoods and taking them to the rail line; with other shuttles taking passengers off the rail to their final destination: school, work, shopping, dining, entertaining, you name it. That rail corridor can be the backbone of a public transit system second to none. Instead of very large buses running at infrequent intervals, on serpentine, difficult-to- follow routes, there would be a fleet of small buses running at frequent intervals back and forth on simple routes. Practically everyone living in this county could catch a shuttle bus a short walk from home and transfer to a line that could take them anywhere else in the county they want to go. What’s more, the whole system can be put into effect without requiring any taxpayer money. Sawhill is right. We should quit dancing around the subject, and give people of Santa Cruz County the transportation system they deserve. Heaven knows it has been debated enough.