Daniel TilsonLet’s forget Democratic and Republican dogma for a bit. Or at least overlook it.
Let’s ignore Left vs. Right labeling systems used by media pundits and campaign consultants to generate storylines and get grudge match juices flowing.
Let’s put the blame game that dominates the political arena aside for a while.
If nothing else, consider it an exercise in stress reduction and blood pressure lowering.
We have a big election coming up soon. Our governor, entire House and half our Senate will be elected. Together, they and 20 other senators not facing reelection will spend two years making decisions impacting everything from our household income, taxes and insurance payments, to our families’ health, safety, education and future.
But it’s a given these days we don’t have much confidence in these people we choose to chart and travel public policy paths on our behalf — whether it’s in Tallahassee or Washington, D.C.
Most voters say they trust their own elected officials — the ones they voted for anyway. But when it comes to the collective legislative bodies representing them, not so much.
Let’s agree to disagree about whose officials are “the problem.” Let’s also agree that when they come together and act collectively, with all the corporate money, lobbyists, media coverage and partisan pressure swirling around them, they mostly betray middle-class interests and do what’s best for big corporations, wealthy campaign donors and, of course, their own careers.
Just look at two public policy initiatives being held hostage by some of our chosen elected officials.
The Affordable Care Act righted many of the health insurance industry wrongs that plagued us for so long. It has insured about a million Floridians whose costly Emergency Room care we had all been paying for in higher taxes, fees and premiums.
Forget the partisan politics. That’s a win-win.
But elected officials with questionable motives got lots of people to embrace misinformation and oppose a law that helps their families, friends and neighbors.
The Florida House was emboldened to block a key part of the law, refusing more than $50 billion in federal funding to expand Medicaid and insure a million more Floridians. Politics over pragmatism.
Studies showed expansion would create 60,000 new jobs, billions in economic growth and taxpayer savings and, oh yeah, save three to six lives lost every day due to lack of health insurance.
But lots of good people have made unknowingly bad, self-defeating choices as voters, leaving us with a Florida House acting against our best interests – like refusing to raise the minimum wage, another potential public policy win-win.
Working poor people on public assistance — paid for by our tax dollars — would be transformed into self-sufficient consumers, engines of economic growth in their local communities and statewide.
But that flock of elected officials with questionable motives deride the idea. They parrot fear-mongering by big corporate campaign contributors, who threaten job cuts and price hikes.
Those threats have been disproven. Raising the minimum wage in Florida would be a boon to working poor families, middle-class taxpayers and the state economy.
The only real threat is a dip in the enormous profit margins of companies such as Disney and Darden Restaurants, which drive those margins higher on the backs of impoverished workers and middle-class taxpayers.
It’s clear we’ve chosen too many elected officials with questionable motives and allegiances, who represent special interests rather than ours.
This November 4, we have a choice to change that.
We have to choose to vote, and vote for candidates whose genuine, active support for both Medicaid expansion and a minimum wage increase prove they’re ready to put the pragmatic over the political.
Daniel Tilson has a Boca Raton-based communications firm called Full Cup Media, specializing in online video and written content for non-profits, political candidates and organizations, and small businesses. Column courtesy of Context Florida.
