Roads and bridges

Massachusetts's roads and bridges are always in terrible shape this time of year. Maybe I could even drop "this time of year", but it's worse at the end of winter, when driving without hitting every teeth-rattling pothole is an improvised slalom. Keeps us on our toes.

Bridge repair has some great advantages in politics. Unlike, say, health care, it's tangible to everyone. It's well-distributed, so everyone gets a piece of it. Hardly anyone except for the looniest libertarian wants to go back to privately owned roads, so even if the tightwads grouse about featherbedding at the Turnpike Authority, they still agree that we need roads that aren't pounded back into gravel and sand.

I'd like to see Deval Patrick take his show on the road. Never mind that this will probably pass the General Court (the anachronistic name of our legislature). He needs to recoup some political capital from the casino debacle (and I was on the fence about that). I'd like to see media events all over the Commonwealth, on or near some of the bridges he's proposing to fix.

Then, I'd like to see him start selling us in detail what we're already buying. It's tax time. It's far too easy to complain about the bill if you don't know what you're buying. And most people don't have any idea.