Millau Viaduct, France
The word “infrastructure” puts people to sleep. It’s up there with “tax tables” in the attention-getting zone. However, few things are more important to America than having modern, well-maintained roads, bridges, airports, rail systems, electrical grids and Internet backbones. As Donald Trump and the Republicans have dropped the ball in this area, Democrats have a great issue to run on in the 2018 and 2020 elections. First, however, the Democrats could inject a little sex into the dry terminology on this issue.
A bit of background would be helpful: Donald Trump, who touts himself as a master “builder,” has been talking about rebuilding America’s infrastructure for years, since at least 2015. Even after arriving at the White House, Trump promised up to $1.5 trillion in “infrastructure” spending. However, Trump’s promises, as in many other areas, have come up short, either due to Republicans who control Congress balking at spending money, Trump’s loss of interest in the matter, a deliberate bait and switch, or all three. Indeed, the Republican “Congress so far has allocated $21 billion — slightly more than 1 percent of the president’s goal.” Moreover, a month ago, Trump’s top infrastructure adviser announced that he would be leaving the Trump administration. And this week, when asked about the promised bill, Trump’s Press Secretary told reporters, “I don’t know that there will be one by the end of the year.”
Democrats should capitalize on this failure by Trump and the Republicans. To do so, the Democrats would be wise to avoid dry terminology and keep it stupidly simple. For starters, how about:
–Calling the plan “Rebuilding America.” This is a term the Democrats have used before, but with too much “i”-word last time around.
–Asking Americans questions like:
- “How would you like to have a shorter commute to work?”
- “How would you like to get to your summer vacation at the Grand Canyon or Disneyland faster?”
- “How would you like high speed trains and affordable high speed Internet?” (Note that the latter promotes the Democrats’ Net Neutrality position).
- “How would you like to create millions of new jobs?”
Democrats can also use “Rebuilding America” (as they do with things like affordable healthcare, Social Security, and clean air and water) as a vivid expression of their idea of using “good government” to help people. This is a major distinction from the Republicans’ cruel “you’re on your own” philosophy.
Democrats can even attack Republicans from the pro-business right, pointing out that American businesses would benefit from Rebuilding America in two major ways:
1. They would be able to deliver their goods more efficiently (less delays for the UPS driver delivering your Amazon items); and
2. Big contracts would go out to private businesses for the construction and materials involved in Rebuilding America.
A final reason to drop the “i”-word is that we have another very important “i”-word that many people soon hope to apply to Donald Trump.
Photo by Graeme Churchard, used under Creative Commons license. https://is.gd/nH825Z
