Category Archives: Politics

Government spending and the economy

Americana, Current Affairs, Politics

I often wonder if the people who say that The government can’t make jobs. are just bullshitting or if they really believe it. I wonder the same thing when I hear Romney talking about President Obama – although he rarely uses President when referring to Obama – wanting to make the United States weak. My gut reaction is that they really do not believe it and they are just bullshitting but I am not so sure.

As an aside; this is one of the positions that people seem to come to from the completely opposite position without ever having stopped in the middle. When I was a young boy, Negros were Uncle Remuses that sort of sat around – rather than working hard because they didn’t have the Protestant ethic like White People – being kindly; then, with no stop in between, they became Black Panthers who were scary. In the same way, it used to be that Roosevelt – people who thought this didn’t call him President Roosevelt – didn’t end the depression, the depression only ended because we started spending lots of money – government money – on the war; now the same people say spending government money will not end a recession. End aside.

Anyway, it does seem self evident to me that the government can  make jobs. When the government hired companies to build the Golden Gate Bridge, they, in turn, hired workers. When the Obama Administration gives money to California for the Highway Department and they hire companies to rebuild the rest stop at Black Mountain Road on Highway 280, those companies hire workers. The additional work results in additional jobs.

But, somehow, by saying The government can’t make jobs. over and over again, people start to believe it. (I used to think that the left’s constant yammering about the right wanting to overturn Roe vs. Wade was similar, but, after seeing the anti-contraception – not to mention anti abortion – legislation passed in Republican majority legislative bodies, I am ready to admit I was wrong.)

Even if the meme does work, even if the people saying The government can’t make jobs. really do believe it, it is still bullshit. The Obama Administration created jobs with the Stimulus Bill and definitively made the Great Recession a little better.

Wanting to be right

Americana, Politics, Psychological Musings
In writing about Andrew Breitbart’s death and life on his blog Ta-Nehisi Coates writes

….by neglecting to research Sherrod before putting up a clip of her talking, by electing to see her as little more than a shiv against the hated liberals, he deprived himself of knowledge, of experience, of insight, of enlightenment. That he might learn something from Sherrod, that he might access some power from her life, and pass that on to loved ones and friends, never occurred to him. Publicly, he lived to make himself right–a tradition that is fully empowered in our politics. Breitbart didn’t invent the art of making yourself right. But he embraced it, and then advanced it.

That is what took me to sadness. I have experienced curiosity as a primarily selfish endeavor. It originates in the understanding of the brevity of life, and the desire to see as much of it as possible, from as many angles as possible without doing too much damage to my morality. The opposite of that – incuriosity, dishonesty, the opportunistic deployment of information – is darkness. Breitbart died, like all of us will, in darkness. But as a media persona he chose to also live there, and in the process has impelled countless others to throttle themselves into the abyss.

There is much more to the blog post titled On Making Yourself Right and I encourage you to read it, but my take away was It is so easy to hang on to being right and it is so destructive. At least it is so easy for me: maybe I should say It is so easy to make somebody, who doesn’t agree with me, wrong. Maybe a week ago, I linked to a less than flattering article on Meryl Streep and then I wrote a blog post on Viola Davis a day or two later. Karen Amy took exception – mildly and politly – on my Facebook page and I could just feel myself  wanting to argue. Wanting to be right and wanting to make Karen wrong.

Around the turn of the century, Peter Kuhlman recommended an alternate history novel 1632 by Eric Flint. As I recall, he described it as amusing, but I ended reading and interpreting it as a dream with all the characters representing different facets of myself. To me, the book was all about taking down walls, letting in the outside world, listening to the other and be willing to see their point of view. All about being willing to be influenced by the world.

One of the reason that the characters in 1632 were able to let in the outside world, is because they were confidant in who they were at their core. For a long time, I kept thinking that it would make a good movie, but – now – I don’t think so. It is too last century, when we, as a nation, felt confident is who we are. It was before Bush the Younger and the disaster of Iraq, before the Great Recession, before the our national feeling of decline.

Ironically – and counter intuitively, I guess – when I am most confidant in who I am, it is easiest to hear the other person. My strong suspicion is that Andrew Breitbart and Rush Limbaugh – for that matter – are so loud because they are afraid. And they are afraid because – as Ta-Nehisi Coates so eloquently writes – they are living in darkness.


 

 

 

 

Why Romney can’t beat Obama

Americana, Politics

Everybody talks about the economy when they are discussing the election and I am sure that the economy is important, but running a good campaign is also important and the Romney campaign doesn’t seem to be able to do that. They booked Tiger stadium in Detroit and 1200 people showed up and from the seating arrangement they seemed to know that not many people would show up. Four years ago, Obama FILLED stadiums. Much smaller stadiums but they were full of energy.

Elections usually come down to GOTV – get out the vote – and that takes energy. Romney is not building it. The Romney rally must have been very depressing to anybody who did show up. Community organization – GOTV – is the Obama specialty.

Behind the curve

Americana, Politics

“Conceding that his refusal to release tax returns was “a mistake” and “a distraction” that helped cost him a South Carolina primary win, Romney said he would release his 2010 federal return along with an estimate of his 2011 taxes.” from the Los Angles Times. They – whoever they are – say that timing is everything and I am sure that they are right. I have never understood why somebody like Romney, who seems very intelligent, would not just instinctually realize that he can’t stonewall the release of his taxes. But he did stonewall the release until well after it hurt him in South Carolina.

As a Democrat, I am rooting for Romney to hold back on releasing all his taxes because that will be the best way to keep the issue alive. But, good timing has never been my strong suit; when I see that something is going to happen, I am usually ahead of the curve. And sometimes, the curve never gets there. In 1999, I was convinced that the era of the MacMansion in the boondocks was over and people wanted smaller, closer in homes. I missed the trend by almost ten years.

I comfort myself, however, by remembering that General Douglas MacArthur, an often a brilliant general, was also, often, ahead of the curve. It doesn’t comfort me, however, again, that being ahead of the curve caused MacArthur trouble. Several times, he saw that he was going to win a battle and started drawing troops out before the battle was actually won which actually prolonged the fight and, a couple of times, almost lot it for him.

So maybe Romney is right and stonewalling the release of additional taxes will help him, but I don’t think so.