| Photo by Gunnar Ridderström on Unsplash
Part IV of the “Pocketbook Politics” Series
Governors, especially of the 20 poorest states, need to grab the horns of a national ineffective beast of burden based in the District of Columbia. It is respectfully suggested that state governors may begin now to implement back-to-basics governance. And address the pressing problems of their constituents that the powers that be in the corridors of Washington, D.C., have failed to do. This columnist coined in 2020 the term “IBOD Doctrine,” which was used as a national policy in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. “IBOD” is an acronym for “Ignore, Blame Others, and Distract” of a doctrine or a national policy.
The proposal of launching a “Biden Back-to-Basics (B2B) Doctrine” and a “Mississippi River Renaissance” were addressed to president-elect Joe Biden even before he was sworn into office. However, it seemed that his White House staff members never bothered to forward summaries of column articles written about the Old Man River (OMR) as part of the suggested B2B Doctrine to him. Nor did the presidential staff notify the POTUS that the column suggestions had been turned into three books with President Biden appearing on the cover of two.
This column has been written about using back-to-basics methods of solving America’s problems like homelessness, illegal migration, lack of affordable healthcare, unemployment, and other social cancers. This column played up the “Biden Cancer Moonshot” and suggested that it became a “Medical Moonshot.” Also highlighted was a prestigious project of cleaning the OMR waters and pumping them back to the Great Plains and other Western states that have aquifers that are running empty. Yes, instead of the waters ending up in the Gulf of Mexico. An “OMR Renaissance” of starting to pump back North River water is not new, and doing downstream projects is not new.
Perhaps Gov. Andy Beshear of Kentucky should contact his fellow governors of the 31 other states connected to the OMR, as they have tributary rivers providing water. Some of the states are also part of the OMR deltas. Perhaps the 32 states can form a joint consortium—with or without the blessing and participation of the federal government and its agencies.
Why Governor Beshear? The Kentuckian governor laid out a framework in an op-ed published in The New York Times on Tuesday, November 12th, about the “need to focus on core issues that matter to people every day—like jobs, housing and healthcare.” To put it another perspective, it was his equivalent of a socioeconomic “call to arms. “
“The state governors must start to develop concrete changes for the better, like giving economic empowerment to their constituents and stopping relying on dole outs from the federal government. They must undertake their improved versions of “Pocketbook Politics” if they want to prevent the tragedy that happened to the Roman Empire.”
This column has been discussing the idea of cleaning the OMR waters and pumping them back to the Great Plains and other Western states with running aquifers. Yes, instead of the waters ending up in the Gulf of Mexico, it is not a new idea.
There is an ancient model for the proposed elevated pipeline from Kentucky and Tennessee or West Virginia to the drying aquifers and aqueducts in the Continental U.S. (CONUS). The proposed modern pipeline will carry the waters of the Mississippi River—cleaned of debris and hazardous chemicals—to irrigate new farms and memorial-tree parks in the 32 states with tributary rivers and/or part of the so-called “Old Man River Deltas.”
The model is an aqueduct in Zaghouan, Tunisia, constructed during Emperor Hadrian’s reign in 122 AD, was an impressive feat of Roman engineering designed to channel water from Jebel Zaghouan to Carthage, covering a distance of over 132 kilometers (about 82 miles).
Some remnants of this ancient structure were built starting 122 years after the birth of Jesus Christ. They remain as monuments to the Roman Empire’s sophisticated hydraulic technology of the time. Reports say that “intriguingly, the aqueduct system included a series of underground channels and above-ground arches, designed to maintain a steady gradient for efficient water flow.”
The state governors must start developing concrete changes for the better, like giving economic empowerment to their constituents and stopping relying on federal dole-outs. They must undertake their improved versions of “Pocketbook Politics” if they want to prevent the tragedy that happened to the Roman Empire.
The adage is, “If there is a beginning, there is an end.” The United States is just entering its third century of existence. The Roman Empire lasted roughly 1,000 years, generally considered to have begun around 27 BC with Augustus Caesar and ended with the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 AD.
Changes must come from the 50 states, whether Red, Blue, or Purple in political coloring. Washington, D.C., is becoming like Imperial Rome. The three branches of the American government are becoming more autocratic and less people-oriented. “We, the People,” should be paramount in deciding what is best for the nation.
The last Roman emperors forgot what was best for Roman citizens. Will the American people wait until one of their presidents meets the fate of the despotic and crazy Roman Emperor Caligula, whose reign was cut short by his own Praetorian Guards, who escorted him in a horizontal position straight to his graveyard?
