Change the name to Redtails

A bit cartoonish, but a good start.

Last year about this time, I was riding to work with my orange Camelback backpack with a bright red flashing light clipped to the back.  I passed at least two cars with obvious, perhaps excessive Washington Redskins decorations, and, while waiting at a stop sign, an undecorated car rolled down its window so the driver could cheer my "great Redskins colors".  It's fair to say that the team has a sizable fan base and that they are generally pleased with its name. 

That said, Councilman Grosso had an excellent idea that (almost) won an international rebranding contest.  The titular winner, "Warriors", is so banal that it probably reflects lack of knowledge of the Tuskegee Airmen rather than a serious preference.  American bomber pilots knew that a Redtail would not go haring after Messerschmitts in pursuit of glory; he would stay on their wing and make sure they got home (read the book). There are only a few of them still alive today, and theirs is a story that we must not forget.

The "Redtails" name fits existing cheers and songs with only a syllable to change. "Redtail-gating" will, by rights, become a regional pre-game culinary specialty.  This could include grilling pies, and, of course, plenty of pork.  The team's colors, even my riding gear, are already appropriate.  Most importantly, it would honor a group of men who made an incredible contribution to our nation just as the opportunity to collect their oral histories fades away.

This is not about political correctness.  There is little more powerful for a group's identity than owning its slurs and marching onward to victory.  The Washington Redskins cannot claim to be doing that, however, and have not turned a controversial name into that of a champion.

Changing the name is the right decision because the mood in Washington needs a lift, a reminder of when people let their better selves soar and a deeply divided nation served with distinction for our common good.  It's the right decision because the Tuskegee Airmen were a great example of the discipline and focus that a football team needs to win.  It is the right decision because nothing would honor their courage in war and peace more than stadiums singing "Hail . . . to the . . . Redtails."

Wanted: Pork

For those who wonder why Congress seems to be stuck in a cycle of constant fiscal crisis, your pie maker suggests that the problem lies in a lack of pork in its diet.

At its worst, so called "pork barrel" spending made up a tiny fraction of the federal budget and funded many useful roads, dredging projects and interesting military prototypes.  Almost more importantly, it gave deal-making politicians something tangible to (a) show their constituents that voting for them was a good idea and (b) a means of directly rewarding supporters in their own districts. 

The real key is (b).  Right now, a Republican from a safe district will almost certainly lose his job if the Club for Growth says so because they can mobilize more money for a primary campaign and whip up a core of energetic RINO hunters.  With nothing to offer the local business community but the hope of saner government in the future, who could they convince to stand against the tide and possibly see their businesses blacklisted by the local talk-radio set?

The system was not without its problems.  There were a few incredibly ill-founded projects, and groups like research universities had begun using direct appropriations to subvert merit-based funding awards.  However, eliminating one of the leadership's key tools for whipping votes to bring about good governance was the work of daydream believers.

The sad truth seems to be that we need pork.  When it returns it should come with stricter rules on what could be funded via earmarks and perhaps rules-based agreed limits on the percentage of any agency's budget that can be directly earmarked.  That has two huge potential benefits:
(1) Deal-making Congressmen will have something to show for their efforts, and
(2) Congress would have a clear, if small, role in the setting of Executive priorities.

Most importantly, however, is that pork lets us talk about real interests instead of ephemeral values.  As any good pork pie recipe will tell you, a little bit goes a long way towards helping disparate ingredients come together.