(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . What did you think was going to happen? [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2022-11-06 I’m from Minneapolis and I was talking last night with a young friend from Portland who was telling me how homelessness camps are becoming so widespread—and of course we’re experiencing that as well. And he was describing vividly how that situation is being used by conservative politicians to gain traction in the public mind. “We’ve been compassionate here in Oregon, and look what it’s gotten us. We need more law and order.” Etcetera. It breaks my heart in so many ways, including the duplicity of that message by those whose governing philosophy has caused the issue, and who have nothing to offer to make things better aside from making the lives of vulnerable people more uncomfortable and vulnerable. But we do need an answer/rebuttal, and I think it has to be pointed. Here’s my suggestion. What Did You Think Was Going To Happen??? With policies at the national level that have increased disparities and weakened safety nets... With the richest people holding on to a vastly disproportionate share of our national wealth With 30% of Americans not having enough savings to respond to a $400 emergency need What did you think was going to happen? With income disparities increasing for decade after decade over the past 40 years, at some point ordinary job losses and medical emergencies will be compounded by national events like COVID-related life changes, economic disruptions, increasing natural disasters—and the iceberg of household fragility that is mostly unseen will start to become more visible. What did you think was going to happen? And yet you want to give even more tax cuts and deregulation to the wealthy? What did you think was going to happen? And yet you love your right-to-work states where people are prevented from banding together for higher wages? What did you think was going to happen? And yet you fight the safety nets of universal health care, rational affordable housing policies, school lunch programs, legal protections for tenants? … And, what’s your solution?? The economic system and frayed safety net have pushed the problem down to the local level, and your only idea is to address the symptom? Let’s make it less visible by targeting our law enforcement at scattering folks from sight and making the problem less visible? The truth is you’re not even in the conversation. If you’re only going to address the symptom and not the cause. And if you’re only going to address the symptom by making it less visible, then you’re not even in the conversation. You have no understanding of why this is happening, and you have no true solutions. The grownups are going to need to clean up your mess. The best thing you can do is to please stay out of the way. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/11/6/2134093/-What-did-you-think-was-going-to-happen Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/