Put the bad guys on defense

I interviewed a wonk from a think tank yesterday. Wonks have some advantages over politicians in their work, primarily that they can perform their jobs without considering the political aspects of what they study; ie, they aren’t running for office. They are free to examine data and formulate ideas without worrying about how many votes it would cost, in what ways would it stir an opponent and so on. The best wonks, of course, also consider those things but they can also step away into a more pure perspective and just look at the numbers.

And when you “just look at the numbers” you can, if you are willing, see options that the politicians may never view. Because you are looking at just a part of the world — the part that does not include everything involved in running for office — you can see a higher path forward. You can see the path that our better angels would tread. The path we wish our politicians would tread. You can, with a set of analyses and outcomes formulated without the fear factor that is political campaigning, see the right thing to do.

As did the policy wonk I spoke with yesterday. His suggestion is one I endorse: Let’s put forward repeals of Measure 5 and the kicker and make their proponents defend what they’ve done. Before M5, the property tax “burden” in Oregon was borne by businesses and corporations, which paid two-thirds of those taxes. Within a few years of passage of M5, it was homeowners who paid that two-third majority. Portland had a robust school system prior to M5 and the ability to make spending decisions because money, and therefore policy, was controlled locally. M5 took that away: funding and the ability to deal directly and productively with problems. M5 has been a boon for those with capital and it has wreaked havoc on everyone else in the state. Yet we never hear talk of its repeal. Why not? It was stupid in 1990, and it remains stupid today.

As the wonk said, make the the bad guys defend what they’ve done. To this I say, Hell yea.

Those who are in a position to do this most directly, the members of the Legislature, say, Umm, not so fast. I get it. Not everyone in the Leg has a majority such as my rep, Jules Bailey. It might be nice for a legislator to think about dumping M5 or the kicker or the truly heinous M11 — the Kevin Mannix “Gut Oregon’s Budget by Building Lots of Prisons to Store Poor People in for a Very Long Time” Act — but they have no choice but to consider what the think tank resident does not: How will this play with the voters? What good does it do to pass a law that is overturned by the voters and costs me my seat?

To which we might answer, what good are you if you don’t pass the right laws?

The real answer to this, of course, is to take the burden from legislators. For example, most of the Democrats in the Legislature, and more than a few Republicans, know that M36 is wrong. The overturning of Prop 8 in California and the expansion of marriage rights in Massachusetts, Iowa and elsewhere, all without an end of the universe, points out how wrong Oregon voters were in denying what conservative lawyer Ted Olson says is a right the Supreme Court has upheld fourteen times. But it’s not the Leg that is working to undo M36; it’s Basic Rights Oregon and their supporters. The Leg passed the law that gave same-sex couples many of the legal rights of marriage; that was their job, and they did it. It’s up to those outside of the Leg, to citizens and organizations that don’t have to worry about re-election, to tackle issues like the repeal of M36.

I have argued repeatedly that progressivism is what we do, not what we are. M5, M11, M36, the kicker; these are things that are wrong and need to be removed from Oregon law. The Leg can’t do it; as the wonk put it, there is “no appetite” among politicians to even talk about these issues. But those of us not running for office, we can lead on these issues. In most House districts, only two people have to worry about the political ramifications of these issues: the incumbent and the challenger. That leaves a lot of people free to decide that they’ve had enough of rich people putting their tax burden on the middle and lower classes.

It’s time to stop blaming the politicians and take up these challenges ourselves. Our elected officials have plenty to do; political battles over contentious matters like taxes only make make more difficult doing their basic job of governing. They need a working partnership with citizens. A campaign to overturn M5, led by citizens and asking nothing of elected politicians, can work. Especially if the campaign does what the wonk at the think tank suggested: make the bad guys defend what they’ve done to Oregon. Let them make the case why out-of-state corporations should pay a fraction of what Oregonians pay for their homes. That’s not a job for someone running for office; that’s a job for citizens who are pissed-off at being abused by powerful interests with lots of money who’ve been allowed to get away with their lies and distortions for too long.

The view of the world from a think tank may be rose-colored at times, but it can also be very clear and honest. Make the bad guys defend what they’ve done: of course. It’s a simple idea and good advice. And if we know it’s the right thing, and we know the politicians simply cannot do that, then that leaves only two reasonable outcomes:

We give up.

Or we do it ourselves.