"I say we have not even had the decency to maintain the assets that our parents and grandparents built for us - our roads, our bridges, our wastewater systems, our sewer systems; by the way, those weren't Bolsheviks, those weren't socialists that built those things for us - much less build the infrastructure we need for the 21st century"
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Bennett’s line is less policy brief than moral indictment: a scolding aimed at a country that loves to mythologize self-reliance while quietly living off inherited public goods. The opening move, “not even had the decency,” frames infrastructure neglect as a character flaw, not a budgeting debate. It’s a deliberately shaming verb choice, the kind that turns potholes and broken treatment plants into evidence of civic laziness.
Then comes the real pivot: “those weren’t Bolsheviks, those weren’t socialists.” That aside is doing the heavy cultural work. Bennett anticipates the reflexive American allergy to anything that smells like government spending and answers it with a pointed reminder: the most taken-for-granted symbols of modern life were built through collective investment, often championed by politicians who would be insulted to be called radicals. It’s a rhetorical inoculation against the predictable Fox News chyron, built into the sentence itself.
The repetition of “our” is also strategic. Roads and sewers aren’t abstract line items; they’re shared property that binds strangers into a functioning society. By listing unglamorous systems like wastewater and sewers, he refuses the shiny TED-talk version of “infrastructure” and insists on the hidden networks that keep a city from collapsing into disease and dysfunction.
The final beat - “much less build the infrastructure we need for the 21st century” - lands as a generational challenge. If we can’t maintain what we inherited, what right do we have to talk about innovation, competitiveness, or national greatness? Bennett’s subtext: nostalgia is cheap; upkeep is the real patriotism.
Then comes the real pivot: “those weren’t Bolsheviks, those weren’t socialists.” That aside is doing the heavy cultural work. Bennett anticipates the reflexive American allergy to anything that smells like government spending and answers it with a pointed reminder: the most taken-for-granted symbols of modern life were built through collective investment, often championed by politicians who would be insulted to be called radicals. It’s a rhetorical inoculation against the predictable Fox News chyron, built into the sentence itself.
The repetition of “our” is also strategic. Roads and sewers aren’t abstract line items; they’re shared property that binds strangers into a functioning society. By listing unglamorous systems like wastewater and sewers, he refuses the shiny TED-talk version of “infrastructure” and insists on the hidden networks that keep a city from collapsing into disease and dysfunction.
The final beat - “much less build the infrastructure we need for the 21st century” - lands as a generational challenge. If we can’t maintain what we inherited, what right do we have to talk about innovation, competitiveness, or national greatness? Bennett’s subtext: nostalgia is cheap; upkeep is the real patriotism.
Quote Details
| Topic | Legacy & Remembrance |
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