Mislabeling

Nonsense in politics skews meanings. Here are some that pop to mind:

Black Lives Matter: this is a true statement. Black lives do matter. All people matter, of course, but the timing of the BLM movement is a to bring attention to Black Americans, not to others. Blacks have suffered enormous discrimination and marginalization for hundreds of years. That’s the issue under the microscope at the moment. Why do police kill more black suspects disproportionately than whites? Answer that question. Either black lives matter or they don’t. Our culture has not affirmed support for Black Americans. We need to do this.

Time for other colors and labels after we have solved this problem. Meanwhile, avoid falling into the trap of troublemakers who claim ‘all lives matter.’ They seek to divide and roil, not calm and solve.

Defund Police: this label means to rearrange funding priorities, so police are still funded but other social services gain more funds to solve social problems that have led to horrendous police oversteps. Reducing funds to police is a signal that they have mishandled their jobs in many ways. And that other solutions need to be tried other than calling in the guns and hot heads.

Re-imagining Police would be a better label. How can we control violence while reducing its causes at the same time? That is the paradigm we should be focused on creating. Not all police are bad, but some are; the good ones need to cull the bad from their midst. Civilians cannot do that job as well as the rank and file police officers who work with the bad every day.

Left and Right: these labels also seek to divide and unsettle the body politic. I’m a middle roader who prefers to borrow ideas from both liberal and conservative camps. This affords me more options to understand issues and possibly spot solutions that are amenable to more people. Of course, that requires the art of compromise, another label that offends some people.

The Right is attached to conservative politics. The Left is attached to liberal politics. Neither is fully correct or in error. Both contain truths that matter. Finding a happy balance is a challenge. If you are interested in solving problems, you will find the truth that matters. If you wish to upset the discussion, then you will seek words of division; solutions will be hidden, obfuscated, which is the point of the troublemakers.

Socialist: this is a cheap shot and divisive label. Truth of the matter is America is a blend of socialism and democracy. We vote openly and competitively for people and ideas. That’s what makes us a democracy. The programs adopted to benefit those in need or for the common good of the people, are often socialist in design – that is, resources are taken from all to provide benefits to many in need.

Social Security and Medicare are examples of that, but in our democracy, we pay premiums for these that are collected in a way reminiscent of taxation. Not the same as taxes, but almost. Medicaid is a socialist program, but worthy of our support. So is public education, public universities, state-supported research, and many more programs.

Focusing only on the socialist label is misleading and intentionally disruptive.

Time we gave divisiveness a rest and got down to finding solutions to our common problems. You know, that means we would be working toward “a more perfect union.” Where have we heard that phrase before?

December 7, 2020