by Dan Burns

Mar 1, 2023, 8:00 AM

A way to maybe sell cuts to the military budget

My own opinion of the overall state of the polling-industrial complex is no secret. That said, when numbers from (relatively) legitimate pollsters show the same things, year in and year out, and said numbers tend to track with common sense, I do generally regard them as valid. For the most part, progressive priorities like greater investments in public education, health care, retirement security, etc.; support for reproductive rights; making the greedheads pay up; and so forth enjoy at least 2:1 support among the public. But cutting military spending tends to lag at around 50% support, from what I’ve seen.

The amount of fraud and waste in military spending is incalculable. Over half of it is flagrant corporate welfare, that could and should be far better used. Some people are trying to do something about it, but efforts keep going nowhere.

So, how about we replace “cutting military spending” with “cutting fraud and waste from the military.” The latter of which can be sold as making the armed forces better.

For that to actually happen the White House would have to get behind it, and use its famed “bully pulpit” so that corporate media can’t just mostly ignore what a wretched, mega-sewage hole war pig greed and corruption are – and what that’s costing the rest of us, especially those who need real help most. That’s unlikely to happen with this administration. While it’s been much better than I expected on domestic issues, its foreign policy is the shits, especially its creation of a “new Cold War” with China. But with our ever-growing progressive numbers in the electorate, and ever-decreasing right-wing ones even as the latter who remain get louder and crazier, change on that could actually be in sight.