Tom Kawczynski - Off the Record

Answering questions is easy. Solving problems is hard. In many successful campaigns, the candidate who wins is the one who frames the issues such that their answers appear as the obvious and popular solutions to the problems. The issue can be terrorism, jobs, taxes, health care, or whatever, but they pick somewhere they can win, and basically say “I understand and he doesn't.” And they often win.

But how many problems do we leave unsolved because they are too hard? I am not the sort of person who can look away from big issues because they are hard to resolve, or because they don't fit easily into my ideology, or because they might cost me votes. But, they are hard for a reason, and sometimes, there are no clear answers.

I've been looking hard at poverty. Sometimes, we tell ourselves as a society that this is a personal and moral issue. It is the deficiency of people who refuse to work, who choose an alternative life, and we cede any jurisdiction over that with the easily defensible position that any individual can succeed. We know this to be true, and celebrate the success stories that are there, but what of those who do not?

I wish things were so simple. They aren't. We live in a society where there is more wealth than ever before, but where the disparities continue to grow greater. Forget the stereotype image of a leech milking the system for one moment, and instead think of the person who only has limited education trying to make a living on under ten dollars per hour. This is a person willing to work, let's say, who suffered through a substandard education system, might have had only one parent, and I wonder what their future holds. Not too good.

Take a poor urban neighborhood. Housing is depressed, where many people live in places surrounded by all sorts of crime, violence, and drug abuse. Families are haphazard in their existence. Schools are known more for their security than their academics. Decent jobs are hard to find because private capital has gone where the money is: the suburbs. Compare that with the background of someone you might know, who went to a decent school, who had a two parent family, and the opportunity to go to college and compete. Is it surprising the results are so different?

I understand there are those who would say it is not their responsibility what happens to others. I get that. And it is true that not one of us as individuals caused this. But each of us pays every day the costs of these failures. We pay in the programs that subsidize poverty by the Federal Government and that offer no real solutions. We pay in the crime and violence that exists, or the many people jailed at government expense. We pay in the cost of our society, where we find ourselves with a truth that is sickening: Is an American Dream where someone who works hard and wants better for their children now impossible for some? Is it?

You could argue that it is a cultural matter. I agree with that. I think that exists now and will continue to exist. If we sit back, say nothing, and simply say people in these situations bring this on themselves, they will continue to think that. They will continue voting for the people willing to talk to them, who argue that a big nanny state is needed, because at least they care. We need to offer a better alternative.

You all know how much I believe in limited government, specifically because I know government is a corrupting agent that accumulates power to itself. Few have done more to promote the idea that we should rollback our state apparatus. But when the government itself has created what are basically ghettos, holes where private capital will not go, where communities have become lost, I think we must find a way to help them reclaim themselves or our society will not survive. If that means local government has to become involved, I think it should. As much as we all deserve to be treated and judged as individuals, America needs to get past old divisions and unite under a cultural and governmental understanding based on responsibility, liberty, and community.

People are real. Suffering is real. And hope seems illusory. Obama won because he spoke to that. As much as anyone, I've painted a caricature of that, but the support that elected him (and that I think is now abandoning him in many ways) did so because they have real problems and real hopes. His call was that government would solve these. It cannot and will not. But maybe, those of us out there who care and who respect individuals, we can find a way to help people who are lost find respect for themselves.

Part of it means taking a hard look at our own beliefs. We celebrate capitalism, and the choices of a free market. What does it mean when we lose jobs here because other countries pay slave wages for their labor? Are the cheap goods worth this price? We don't want a set wage, but we know people work jobs at a rate at which no one could possibly live without subsidy? Do we accept that? Employers will have employees work 40+ hours per week but still list them as part-time for their bottom line. Is that something we should support? How much leeway do we give business over the worker, money over labor, power over those who have to follow?

I don't have the answer. I think about it for hours. I am long since past being an ideologue because I've seen too much. Empathy will do this to you. But, I think that any time that any person, institution, or entity has too much power over anyone else, that is when tyranny results. Whether it is government mandating programs that the people don't want, or whether it is businesses manipulating employees with no other choice, the fundamental question is one of justice and fairness.

And so I leave with this question that I hope everyone thinks about: What sort of society do we want to be? What future do you envision?  For myself, I tend to think that if it is one worth building, it will have to be one where everyone has a real chance to succeed, where work has d and purpose, and where we use our liberty as individuals to show our responsibility to one another.