Race and Infrastructure

There are two major stories in the news that, at first glance, don't appear to have a link between them. But I think they do. And I apologize if connecting them sounds rather cynical. I could be wrong, but I don't think I am.

One story, reported just a few days ago, is that more black, Hispanic and Asian babies were born in the United States last year than white babies for the first time in this country's history. And, in all likelihood, that's going to be the trend for the rest of this young century and possibly the twenty-second century as well.

The other story, an ongoing one, involves the nation's infrastructure. President Obama - incidentally, the nation's first "minority" President - is proposing a new federal infrastructure program to build and rebuild highways, railways (especially high-speed passenger rail), airports, bridges, dams, sewer systems, and the like. The Republicans who control the House of Representatives support none of that, complaining that the proposed program spends more money at a time when the government is practically broke and, besides, amenities like high-speed rail sound very "European."

So how do these stories link to each other? Here's the thing. Rachel Maddow of MSNBC has noted that public works projects like the Hoover Dam and the Golden Gate Bridge were built as government projects. Chris Matthews has added that Lincoln gave private railroads government support to build the transcontinental railroad and Eisenhower built the interstate highways. Furthermore, Maddow has noted that such public works projects are built with future generations in mind. By building the great public works projects we need, Maddow points out, we're not only helping our economy, we're leaving something behind for the benefit of our children, our grandchildren, and our grandchildren's grandchildren.

So do you think an overwhelmingly white Republican party is interested in building anything for the benefit of future generations when future American generations will be dominated by brown people? Does anyone honestly believe that the Republicans who now control the House are interested in spending money on any public works project that will enhance the lives of Americans in the late twenty-first century when more than half of Americans will be black, Hispanic, and Asian by then? The recent lease of the Indiana Toll Road by Indiana governor Mitch Daniels to a foreign (Spanish-Australian) consortium until 2081 suggests that not only do Republicans refuse to build infrastructure for a future non-white/Hispanic majority, they don't even want that future majority to control the infrastructure we already have now.

Note this: A brown-skinned majority population does not make your country a Third World nation. Lack of public investment in an economic system where all the money flows to the top makes your country a Third World nation.