Aaron Regunberg: Think Again on Pension Reform
Friday, November 18, 2011
Have you ever been on one side of a debate and looked around you to find that your values are radically different from the rest of the people on your team, people youusually want to have nothing to do with?
When this happens to me, I try to stop and ask myself how well I actually understand the particular issue in question, and if there’s any chance I may not have the full story. Sometimes, of course, my opinion remains unchanged and I realize that I actually had more in common with these people than I originally thought. Often, however, I discover there’s some aspect of the situationthat I’ve missedand, after learning more, my position changes and I switch to the side that’s more in line with my core values.
I bring this up because I think it’s relevant to the ongoing pension reform debate, particularly following some of the endorsements the current pension bill has received. If you consider yourself a Democrat—and certainly if you consider yourself to be at all progressive—and you’re a big supporter of this particular ‘reform’ initiative, I’d suggest that you take stock of who’s involved in the fight and ask yourself a few questions.
GET THE LATEST BREAKING NEWS HERE -- SIGN UP FOR GOLOCAL FREE DAILY EBLASTFor example, why does the Rhode Island Tea Party agree with you? In case you hadn’t heard, the RI Tea Party has given a ringing endorsement to General Treasurer Raimondo’s pension reform plan, praising her for having the courage to push a plan so in line with their principles. Now, I don’t want to bash the tea party; I think they’re mostly good, sincere folks. But I’ve heard their spokespeople testify at the Statehouse, I’m on their listserv, and I’ve been to their rallies, and never have I seen anything from them that persuaded me that their beliefs are very well informed or that their values are in any way representative of the interests of most mainstream Americans. It was, after all, only last summer that the Tea Party Caucus in D.C. nearly forced our country’s government to default. So, yes, if you’re a Democrat and your strongest ally on the pension issue is the Tea Party, I think that’s a situation that’s worthy of some inner-interrogation.
Another good question to ask yourself: why are you on the same side as a big business coalition (EngageRI) that has already pumped over half a million dollars into this debate and refuses to disclose its donors? Again, not to hate on big business, but I think most Democrats agree that the interests of major corporations are often not the same as the interests of working families. Along the same lines, most progressives believe that when big business uses its private wealth in unrestrained ways to influence policy, democracy can get a little shaky.
Of course, if you happen to be Karl Rove or another conservative Republican and you find yourself on the same side as the Tea Party and a bunch of corporate lobbyists, well, that’s probably where you ought to be. But if you identify as a Democrat, let alone a progressive Democrat, who disagrees with these groups on nearly every issue, then perhaps your stance on this particular subject is worth thinking through one more time.
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