That's what you might conclude from some of the hysterical comments from "experts" with whom I might normally agree. However, the mess in Wisconsin in which public school teachers are conducting a fit has most commentators becoming irrational.
If Wisconsin eliminates or reduces the bargaining rights of public service workers it will not be the end of democracy. It's a bit analogous to term limits. My position is that we have had term limits all along. They're called elections. However, to protect us from ourselves many people believe that we need to limit the ability of an individual to run for the same office too many consecutive times, lest his/her constituents actually vote for that person again and again.
State legislators and governors are the ones to blame for public service workers having such lucrative deals. The state legislators and governors cave in pretty much every time they are threatened with a loss of services by public school teachers, fire fighters and police officers.
In 2010 the traditionally liberal state of Wisconsin voted for conservative Republican state legislators and governor who are now trying to do what Wisconsin voters should have expected. What to do? How about voting them out next time and insisting that their replacements replace the union rights taken away in 2011? The solution is not a panic attack.
The power of the ballot is not going away, so everyone should just calm the heck down.
A commentator whom I usually respect is Paul Krugman of the New York Times. Krugman is also a teacher. Consider this from Krugman's column today:
what (Republicans) are trying to do is to make Wisconsin — and eventually, America — less of a functioning democracy and more of a third-world-style oligarchy...
On paper, we’re a one-person-one-vote nation; in reality, we’re more than a bit of an oligarchy, in which a handful of wealthy people dominate.
Krugman is correct that wealthy people have disproportionate power in the United States. That's because they are active. Contrary to Krugman's assertion that we need to codify the power of working people what is needed to counter one millionaire using one million dollars to influence public policy is for one million people to contribute one dollar to work against that position.
So why doesn't that happen? It's because the American people are dumb and lazy. Like the basic problem in the housing scandal, people do not have the right to be stupid.
Monday, February 21, 2011
Sunday, February 20, 2011
Last grownup standing: why Obama will be re-elected.
As big a disappointment as Obama has been and as much as of a disaster as Obama has been, he is likely to be re-elected in 2012 because every other possible candidate and almost all major national political figures have abdicated that most basic position: grownup.
In the less than two months that John Boehner has been Speaker of the House of Representatives he may have already become even more objectionable than his predecessor Nancy Pelosi as impossible as that may seem at first glance.
Obama actually sounds like he is in control of his emotions and thinking rationally. Obama seems intelligent and knowledgeable. Obama seems respectful of both his supporters and opponents. Obama seems to consider the impact of both what he does and what he says. Plus, Obama is already president, making everything he does and says seem grownup.
The other basic thing that will help Obama get re-elected is that you cannot beat somebody with nobody. Right now his opponents have a bunch of nobodies who seem intent on remaining nobodies, pandering to the most basic biases of the American people to the detriment of the country. While the American people have continually and consistently demonstrated their willingness to act against their own best interests, it does not enhance presidential aspirations to join in that counterproductive exercise. You may get elected that way but you cannot improve conditions once in office because you will be expected to act as a non-grownup, something that will surely fail and ultimately earn the wrath of the American people.
While you'll never consistently lose elections by underestimating the foolhardiness of the American people, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. The chickens will come home to roost. The American people will waste votes in inverse proportion to the seriousness of the office, with president being the post least likely to get votes for candidates who have less than 40% chance of winning, i.e., getting less than 40% of the popular vote.
If the 2012 presidential election is between a grownup and one of the non-grownups, the grownup wins.
In the less than two months that John Boehner has been Speaker of the House of Representatives he may have already become even more objectionable than his predecessor Nancy Pelosi as impossible as that may seem at first glance.
Obama actually sounds like he is in control of his emotions and thinking rationally. Obama seems intelligent and knowledgeable. Obama seems respectful of both his supporters and opponents. Obama seems to consider the impact of both what he does and what he says. Plus, Obama is already president, making everything he does and says seem grownup.
The other basic thing that will help Obama get re-elected is that you cannot beat somebody with nobody. Right now his opponents have a bunch of nobodies who seem intent on remaining nobodies, pandering to the most basic biases of the American people to the detriment of the country. While the American people have continually and consistently demonstrated their willingness to act against their own best interests, it does not enhance presidential aspirations to join in that counterproductive exercise. You may get elected that way but you cannot improve conditions once in office because you will be expected to act as a non-grownup, something that will surely fail and ultimately earn the wrath of the American people.
While you'll never consistently lose elections by underestimating the foolhardiness of the American people, you cannot fool all of the people all of the time. The chickens will come home to roost. The American people will waste votes in inverse proportion to the seriousness of the office, with president being the post least likely to get votes for candidates who have less than 40% chance of winning, i.e., getting less than 40% of the popular vote.
If the 2012 presidential election is between a grownup and one of the non-grownups, the grownup wins.
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Wisconsin teachers suck.
Wisconsin teachers have been beseeching the state capitol trying to pressure the governor and majority of legislators to negotiate into backing down from changing state policy regarding public service unions.
The merits of the issue are not what is important, although you'd never know that from the news coverage, which emphasises video of unacceptable behavior by the teachers and couching that behavior in terms that are intended to make it acceptable.
1. Almost all Wisconsin teachers have attended these activities by taking paid sick days, i.e., lying about their health and defrauding the entity that pays them.
2. Wisconsin teachers are often screaming nonsense and otherwise behaving out of control.
3. Many Wisconsin teachers are carrying signs depicting the governor as Adolf Hitler and describing him as a Nazi. Other signs are incoherent.
Remember, these are TEACHERS, not clerks in the department of motor vehicles, or cops, or firefighters. TEACHERS! People who have graduated college, specializing in teaching and leading young people, guiding them in dealing with life.
If this is what President Obama would describe as a teachable moment, then what is being taught by these professional Wisconsin teachers to the students of Wisconsin? Nothing positive that I can see.
Wisconsin parents should condemn the teachers and demand that they go back to work and behave themselves. The students of Wisconsin will have plenty of embarrassing and humiliating video of their teachers to throw back at them the next time a Wisconsin teacher tries to exercise classroom discipline or moral suasion.
The merits of the issue are not what is important, although you'd never know that from the news coverage, which emphasises video of unacceptable behavior by the teachers and couching that behavior in terms that are intended to make it acceptable.
1. Almost all Wisconsin teachers have attended these activities by taking paid sick days, i.e., lying about their health and defrauding the entity that pays them.
2. Wisconsin teachers are often screaming nonsense and otherwise behaving out of control.
3. Many Wisconsin teachers are carrying signs depicting the governor as Adolf Hitler and describing him as a Nazi. Other signs are incoherent.
Remember, these are TEACHERS, not clerks in the department of motor vehicles, or cops, or firefighters. TEACHERS! People who have graduated college, specializing in teaching and leading young people, guiding them in dealing with life.
If this is what President Obama would describe as a teachable moment, then what is being taught by these professional Wisconsin teachers to the students of Wisconsin? Nothing positive that I can see.
Wisconsin parents should condemn the teachers and demand that they go back to work and behave themselves. The students of Wisconsin will have plenty of embarrassing and humiliating video of their teachers to throw back at them the next time a Wisconsin teacher tries to exercise classroom discipline or moral suasion.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
Obama, super wimp!
Super Bowl Sunday on the FOX network established two things:
- Bill O'Reilly is the most boorish American
- Barack Obama is a super wimp.
It was demonstrated on MS-NBC last night that in his White House interview of the president O'Reilly interrupted Obama at least once on every question, about 50 times. I have never seen an American president treated so rudely.
In recent years the conduct and treatment of the president has continuously declined, starting at least as far back as George Bush the elder in 1992 when he was unsuccessfully running for re-election against Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Bush was interviewed on the NBC Today show starting around 7:15AM. He submitted not only to commercial interruption but to a 15-20 minute break for the local news.
As a kid I can recall seeing an hour long interview of President Eisenhower at 10PM. There were no commercials. Eisenhower was treated with great respect and the setting was very formal.
Obama followed his humiliation at the hands of O'Reilly with a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce intended to convince the U.S. business community that Obama doesn't really regard them as the Republicans they are: bums who are only concerned about themselves and their rich friends. I heard this morning on CNN that 48% of their business is outside the U.S. Maybe the name of their lobby group should be changed to reflect that: 52% U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
- Bill O'Reilly is the most boorish American
- Barack Obama is a super wimp.
It was demonstrated on MS-NBC last night that in his White House interview of the president O'Reilly interrupted Obama at least once on every question, about 50 times. I have never seen an American president treated so rudely.
In recent years the conduct and treatment of the president has continuously declined, starting at least as far back as George Bush the elder in 1992 when he was unsuccessfully running for re-election against Arkansas governor Bill Clinton. Bush was interviewed on the NBC Today show starting around 7:15AM. He submitted not only to commercial interruption but to a 15-20 minute break for the local news.
As a kid I can recall seeing an hour long interview of President Eisenhower at 10PM. There were no commercials. Eisenhower was treated with great respect and the setting was very formal.
Obama followed his humiliation at the hands of O'Reilly with a speech to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce intended to convince the U.S. business community that Obama doesn't really regard them as the Republicans they are: bums who are only concerned about themselves and their rich friends. I heard this morning on CNN that 48% of their business is outside the U.S. Maybe the name of their lobby group should be changed to reflect that: 52% U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Tuesday, February 1, 2011
Repeal Obamacare!
2-2. That's the score in federal court after a judge just supported the 26 of our 50 states bringing the case by declaring the entire health care law unconstitutional. Two courts have upheld the law and two have ruled against it.
Cool.
That means the U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly have to hear the case, hopefully soon enough that the ruling will cause the issue to be a major issue in the 2012 presidential and congressional election.
The main provision providing the basis for appeal is the mandate that people buy health insurance starting in 2014 if they do not otherwise have it. If the law is struck down in 2012 then there will plenty of time for a new president and congress (all of the House and one third of the Senate) to be elected and pass universal health care (Medicare for all U.S. citizens) in 2013. Not much lost in time but much gained by ridding of us of that mess of a law that Obama to his shame agreed to support in his most offensive weasel compromise.
Cool.
That means the U.S. Supreme Court will almost certainly have to hear the case, hopefully soon enough that the ruling will cause the issue to be a major issue in the 2012 presidential and congressional election.
The main provision providing the basis for appeal is the mandate that people buy health insurance starting in 2014 if they do not otherwise have it. If the law is struck down in 2012 then there will plenty of time for a new president and congress (all of the House and one third of the Senate) to be elected and pass universal health care (Medicare for all U.S. citizens) in 2013. Not much lost in time but much gained by ridding of us of that mess of a law that Obama to his shame agreed to support in his most offensive weasel compromise.
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