I’m beginning to see the error of my ways in criticizing progressive Democrats and their very appealing political platform. I’m going to board the train to progress and do it with all the zeal of a reformed smoker or drinker. You know, the person who smoked two packs a day and now wrinkles her nose when someone lights up and follows with a long and dreary lecture on the evils of tobacco.
My keen observation is that progressivism doesn’t go far enough, that it’s too tepid and compromising.
Let’s start with the new darling of the ultra-left, the young J-Lo, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. She’s extremely attractive and charismatic, and she’s got good ideas.
For example, she recently proposed paying off all the student loan debt at a cost of a TRILLION dollars. That’s trillion with a “T.”
It smacks of elitism. Why bail out only the well-educated who are mostly middle and upper-middle class? There’s a trillion dollars in credit card debt out there, too. People have multiple Mastercards and Visas maxed out to the limit, and as students do with their loans, they’re making minimum payments every month on debts they’ll never pay off.
The credit card debtors run the gamut of social classes. Promise them that in January of2021, when the new Democratic president is inaugurated, their cards will be paid in full. Then watch the tremendous boost to the economy as they go on spending sprees. In a year they’ll be right back where they started.
There I go again, being cynical.
Free tuition is nice, but too limiting. You have to add room and board, books, airfare to fly home on holidays, fraternity and sorority fees, and funding for spring break. Every student deserves to go south to the beach in March, regardless of economic class.
Bernie Sanders is promoting Medicare for All, but that’s as big a hoax as climate change. Medicare only pays 80%. Who’s going to pay the20% that is out of the reach of many people? We need universal health care that pays for everything, including prescription medicines.
Bernie wants the government to pay for dental work. Is he talking about X-rays, cleaning, and fillings,or is he advocating what would really appeal to Americans—orthodontics(straightening teeth), periodontics (gums), caps (everyone should look like a movie star), and dental implants?
He also wants free optical care, but is it simply eyeglasses? That won’t cut it. Include contact lenses and lasik surgery if you really want to make an impression.
Bernie mentioned auditory care as well. Forget free hearing aids. Give the folks cochlear implants, even though his speeches can be heard on the other side of the river, as Larry David once observed.
Progressives should promise five weeks of paid vacation and four-day, 28 hour work weeks. Set the minimum wage at $25 per hour, and mandate that all jobs be unionized. Make terminations and layoffs next to impossible.
The ultimate progressive platform promise should be directed at senior citizens. A couple of years ago my wife and I were in Inveraray, a small town in Scotland on Loch Fyne. There’s a castle there that was used in a Christmas episode of “Downton Abbey,” and Maggie Smith and the cast and crew spent a week filming on location.
We were in the town center when two tour buses pulled in. The people who got off the bus were older than dirt, but they were in good shape and got around without canes or walkers.
The young lady who was the cashier at the Castle said they were German tourists, and that Germany pays for three weeks of vacation every year for its retirees. That’s progressive. If Angela Merkel can do that, why not our new Democratic president?
Just think how that would improve race relations. Send white retirees from Middle America on a safari to the Serengeti and make them learn a wee bit of Swahili while they’re at it. Don’t you just love alliteration?
My wife and I are contemplating a trip like that next year, but we’d have to pay for it ourselves.
If we knew Alexandria and Bernie would promise to do this after their election, we’d wait until 2021.
If you want to call yourself a progressive, don’t pussyfoot around.
by 
