Effective Government

Survival depends on effective government

Less government is not always better

We often hear “big government” vs. “small government” comparisons between candidates for public office. Unfortunately, this has created a false dichotomy used to label and demonize “liberal,” “lefty,” “socialist,” “tax and spend” Democrats and curry support for “taxpayer friendly,” “we’ll all get rich” Republicans. It is a fool’s choice.

The issue is more properly framed by asking is the government “effectively” doing what government is supposed to do?

Ever since humans developed language and survival skills, they have banded together to provide for common defense, provision of food and supplies, nurturing the sick and infirm and raising their offspring. Clans and tribes gave way to feudal monarchies that, in turn, morphed into democratic governments. All of these forms of human governments have, to greater or lesser degrees, provided these basic necessities for survival.

With increased economic wealth and power and much larger populations, governments have grown into massive organizations, but they are still charged with carrying out these same basic functions.

In every era throughout human history, cabals of the rich and those who would be rich have stood up and proclaimed, “We need more wealth.” This is usually coupled with claims that the current organization that ensures the collective survival is “too big” and “too expensive.” If only government were smaller, everyone would get to keep more of the wealth they all coveted. Many get sucked in by the slick snake oil sales pitch, believing in trickle down economic myths and tax scams that benefit only the very few at the top of the food chain. Every era of excesses brought on by these headlong cash chasing folks has ended in flames of recession or depression.

It is time to break the cycle before it goes bust once more.

Governments that ensure survival and growth of their large populations will always be large. They will only be truly effective if they satisfy the basic needs of the clan. With the passage of time and increases in knowledge about the interconnectedness of the human endeavor with the natural world these basic needs have become much more complex to ensure. Now we add in concerns about the environment, patterns of disease and increased violence, income inequality and fairness, the need for wild spaces and wild animals, food security, universal healthcare, quality public education, religious freedom, racial and ethnic diversity and a whole host of other concerns.

Those that see these concerns as nothing more than a drain on their personal pocketbooks, fight back by adding claims that the new concerns are not the business of government at all because they impinge on personal liberty. “Why should we have to pay for what we don’t like and don’t use,” but others need and cannot afford, becomes justification for opposition until the flood or fire comes and help does not. They trot out claims that all these concerns will be addressed when we all have an additional $2,000 in tax savings and can contribute to a local charity.

In our world, populated in the billions with dwindling food and water supplies, an increasingly angry climate and nuclear warheads on missiles that can reach everywhere on the planet, we cannot ever go back to those simpler times when the sailboat and steam engine were the main drivers of economic growth and political power. Personal freedom and individual responsibility are not enough to carry us all through. “What’s mine is mine and what’s yours is negotiable,” is no longer a workable strategy for resolving conflicts. Larger government only works if it effectively addresses these concerns.

It is time for a return to an approach to our collective problems based upon basic assumptions that everyone can contribute to the solutions and should have a voice in the decision-making. None of the concerns that we demand our government address are solely Democratic or Republican concerns. They are valid human concerns that will have an impact on the collective survival of the human tribe and need a collective response.

In our time of turmoil, we each have a voice in choosing how our collective government will ensure the survival of the clan. Will we contribute more and choose people who will manage those resources effectively for the common good? Or will we contribute less, keep more for ourselves and choose those who will lookout for the wealthy and themselves?

Your vote is your voice.

Waring Fincke is a retired attorney who serves as a court appointed guardian for the elderly and disabled with a Sheboygan county non-profit agency.

The Crossroads

Is America Great Again?

Not even close.

We are one year into Making America Great Again and seven years into the Wisconsin Taxpayer Revolt. We know what this looks like and have reached the crossroads. Is this what we want to become?

Do we want to be a society where everybody is out for himself or herself, looking to amass as much wealth as they can at the expense of those less able or fortunate?

Do we want to live on planet with less clean air and water with a dwindling food supply and a climate that grows ever harsher to human existence?

Do we want to live in a society where the elderly, disabled and different are deemed disposable and expendable?

Do we want to live in communities where women are second or third class citizens whose job it is to pleasure men and have their babies?

Do we want to live in a society where those at the top of the chain are automatically deemed more valuable than those in subordinate positions?

Do we want to end our commitment to universal quality public education?

Do we want to return to a system that only allows white male property owners to decide who gets to govern the country?

Do we want a country that is not respected or supported by the international community?

Do we really want one-party rule in the halls of government?

2018 must be the year we turn away from these goals of Republican governance and return our society back to one based upon mutual respect and taking care of each other.

We need a tax code which requires everyone to pay their fair share to support basic human needs for food security, adequate universal healthcare, a secure infrastructure that supports business ventures and safe commerce, a stable defense for a peaceful world.

We need to protect Social Security and Medicare to make sure that seniors and the disabled do not go back to impoverished lives and dying in back bedrooms. We need to protect retirements for those who can no longer work.

We need to protect the world we live on by doing what science demands to clean our air and water and minimize the disruption of climate change. We need to maximize the use of renewable energy sources to stop the use of fossil fuels.

We need to value those who work by providing safe working environments, family supporting wages and benefits, collective bargaining rights and reasonable working conditions. Family and medical leave policies must recognize the importance strong families play in productive work.

We need strong public schools that support and educate every child to the best of their individual abilities so they can become productive and intelligent members of our communities. We need to recognize that professional and well-supported teachers are critical to the success of their students and compensate our educators accordingly.

We need to finally recognize and promote the equality of women in the workplace and the rest of society by guaranteeing equal pay for equal work and equal access to opportunity. We need an end to sexual harassment and assault everywhere.

We need to end income inequality and value each member of the community for the contribution they can make. The value of one’s opinions should not depend upon the amount they have in the bank. Everyone should be eligible to and encouraged to vote in fair elections. Election districts must be drawn to encourage competitive elections, not to favor incumbent politicians.

We need to expand protections for America’s natural wild areas and make them accessible for all to see and enjoy. Our National and State Parks are the envy of the world and need to be expanded.

We need a return to respectable diplomacy that respects other countries and their cultures and does not seek to impose American values by might.

2018 is the year we can restore the democracy to end the one party rule that favors the few over the many, but only if you vote. Those who stay home elect tyrants and dictators.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney who serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Blue Tides Rising

Voters Speaking Up.

Cooperation and Compromise are Key

With each GOP governing blunder that comes to light, we see Democrats stepping forward to run and win in special elections across the land. The political pendulum often rebounds in off year elections as voters see first hand that one-party rule does not work so well. Between now and next November, we will see a much more pronounced pushback primarily due to the continuously outrageous conduct of our president and his cohorts.

Congressional republicans were unable to pass any significant healthcare reforms because they refused to work with Democrats to earn enough votes to secure passage of even modest changes. Tax reform, now being used as a stealth weapon to repeal Obamacare, appears headed down that same road. Republicans in the Senate can only lose two votes on their tax reform proposal and the inclusion of Obamacare repeal will most certainly cost them the support of more than two of their moderate members. Rebellion from the right and left flanks will further stall any meaningful legislative activity before the mid-term elections next fall.

Elections across the country for state legislative seats and local municipal positions are already showing clear signs of voter discontent about GOP inabilities to get anything done on the important issues like infrastructure repair, clean elections, tax inequality and government giveaways to the wealthy who need them the least.

Here in Wisconsin we are beginning to see voter push back against the backroom secret deals like Foxconn that will punish middle class taxpayers for most of the rest of their working lives. Couple the bad Foxconn deal with the bumbling leaders in the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation who cannot enforce any of their own lax rules and we will have an economic disaster that will take decades to fix. Wisconsin still lags far behind in job growth and business development even with massive corporate tax reductions and the lifting of regulatory burdens.

Wisconsin voters are also standing up for their local public schools. Over 70% of the public school referenda passed in the last cycle. These communities have had enough of GOP control from Madison telling them they cannot raise local taxes to support their schools. They are demanding return of local control to their elected school boards so they can provide the resources their educators need to prepare the next generation.

People are rejecting those who would impose outmoded religious beliefs upon their constituents through unconstitutional bathroom bills and gay discrimination laws by electing openly transgendered citizens who care more about fixing roads than which bathroom people use.  They are turning against those who would use their positions of power to sexually harass and assault those less powerful. Respect for women and protection of children are gaining political currency once more. Misogyny is on the way out.

As President Trump and his family continue to loot the treasury, his campaign staffers face federal indictments and industry insiders take control of the regulatory agencies that once kept them in check, voters are telling elected officials who support the Washington rulers that they made the wrong choice.

It is not about one’s political party; it is about the country and what America stands for around the world. With Trump supporting Putin and dictators in the Philippines and Saudi Arabia, American voters are demanding a return to measured diplomacy with our enemies and unwavering support for our friends. We cannot have a president who threatens nuclear war with North Korea in early morning tweets and cuddles up to Chinese leaders in hopes they will reign in North Korean nuclear ambitions. An America floundering about on the world stage with little apparent purpose does little to calm a jittery world already reeling from our withdrawal from climate change accords and trade pacts that stabilize international markets.

Average Americans who cannot reach out to their elected officials in any meaningful way to express their displeasure can only turn to the ballot box. In almost every one of those opportunities, we see rejection of the current status quo. Red seats are turning blue across the land. As the GOP digs in its heels and clings to it’s “my way or the highway, take no prisoners” approach to governing, the blue tide will continue to rise.

Look for leaders who will listen and ask, “what do you think?” These are the ones who can and will work across the ideas that appear to divide us to find solutions to the common problems we all face. These are the leaders and elected officials of our future, if we are to have one.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.

Trump Fails to Protect Mother Earth

On Thursday, President Trump glibly announced that the United States would withdraw from the Paris climate change agreement negotiated by former President Obama in 2015.

Trump made the announcement to fulfill a campaign promise, but failed to mention that we would be following the withdrawal protocol in the accord that will take three to four years to complete. That means we can change course by voting for the environment in 2018 and, more importantly, 2020 before the damage becomes too permanent.

The reactions from all but those in fossil fuel industry pockets were universally horrible. The clear winners were climate change deniers like Scott Pruitt, Trump’s head of the US EPA and shadow president Steve Bannon, whose primary goal is to dismantle the government.

Trump’s decision relies upon severely discredited theories on the impact of climate change, a deeply flawed belief that the way to economic prosperity is found by using more coal and oil and ignores the clear scientific consensus on the environmental and public health consequences of failing to reduce carbon emissions.

Pandering to a small base of his supporters, Trump ignored at his peril the majority of American voters who support the Paris Accord. A November poll by George Mason and Yale universities shows 70% of registered voters say we should stay in the Paris Accord and only 13% contend we should leave.

Foreign leaders around the planet condemned the decision. Trump ignored our global allies pleas to remain in the international effort to save the planet. Unwittingly, he turned over leadership on climate change to the Chinese who have used their economic engine to ramp up production of renewable energy technologies and are poised to take over solar panel production, which just happens to be one of the fastest growing sectors of the American economy. China’s leaders are already stepping into the global leadership vacuum Trump’s decisions are creating and exerting all the leverage their economic engine can produce to extend their influence. Trump even ignored the letter from a noted scientist who also happens to be Pope Francis urging his continued support to reduce the effects of climate change.

American businesses understand the climate change science and the economic opportunities it provides. In January, 630 business leaders and investors like DuPont, Hewlett Packard, Pacific Gas and Electric signed an open letter to then president-elect Trump urging him to reject climate denier theories, to continue investment in a low-carbon economy and to not withdraw from the Paris Accord. As Trump was finalizing his decision, other prominent business leaders such as Apple’s Tim Cook, Tesla’s Elon Musk and GE Chief Jeff Imelt, all urged him to stay in the effort to fight climate change. Musk and Disney leader Robert Iger resigned from Trump’s business advisory council in protest over the decision. US farmers, already reeling from increasingly bad weather due to climate change, stand to lose even more from Trump’s decision to change policy.

More enlightened state and local leaders also stepped into the breach, vowing to continue the Paris Accord guidelines to reduce carbon emissions. Mayors from New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Boston all vowed to continue their environmental protection efforts. Over 60 mayors wrote an open letter to Trump urging him to stay in the Paris agreement. Former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has joined with other mayors, state governors and business leaders and plans to donate $15 million to the United Nations Climate Secretariat to continue its work on reducing global climate emissions in anticipation of Trump’s cutbacks to UN funding. California Governor Jerry Brown has already committed to continuing to use renewable energy sources and to reduce carbon emissions.

Not unexpectedly, climate scientists and environmental groups that have been sounding the alarm over greenhouse gas emissions, rising seas, vanishing glaciers and polar ice caps, rising temperatures, increasingly violent weather patters from hurricanes to tornadoes and other environmental catastrophes for decades also joined the condemnation of Trump’s decision.

Besides gearing up to defeat the climate change deniers in the White House and halls of Congress in the upcoming elections, there is a lot we can do locally to combat the looming disasters caused by carbon emissions. Buying food grown locally by small farm entrepreneurs will cut down on carbon emissions from food trucked over long distances. Conserving energy with efficient appliances and lighting, buying electric vehicles and installation of renewable energy technology in homes and businesses are good places to start. Join an environmental group and work to protect our clean air and water. Go to politician’s offices and town halls and demand they stand up for the environment by supporting bills to combat climate change. 

Our economy will react favorably to the need for technological changes to protect the environment. There is no Planet B to head to if we don’t protect her.

Waring R. Fincke is a retired attorney and serves as a guardian for the elderly and disabled.