1999-03-08 Vice President Calls for Measures to Ease TrafficCongestion

Doug Henwood dhenwood at panix.com
Mon Mar 8 13:57:23 PST 1999


Max Sawicky wrote:


>The rest is tiddly-winks, but actually the regional
>transit topic is quite promising. It addresses the
>depopulation of cities, the difficulty of urban
>residents getting to jobs in the suburbs, the
>merits of construction jobs, air pollution, and
>the diminution of open space. It all depends on
>money being devoted to it, but the Gore initiative
>is a logical initial step.

You're more generous than I am. I see Gore sensing a problem, or something that the polls identify as a perceived problem, and offering a typically New Democrat microresponse. Turning the White House into Chopper 1600 ain't gonna solve the traffic problem. But it will give the impression of trying to solve the problem, which is perfectly consistent with the Stan Greenberg "narrative" approach to politics: tell 'em a winning story and they'll vote for you. Even if the story is crap.

Doug



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