More Signs of Reason Gone Mad

Among the senselessness that comes to mind when reading about last night's shooting at a movie theater in Aurora is the knowledge that someone working for the NRA will arrive at the office today and be tasked with doing damage control. Worse, 2nd Amendment fanatics will start decrying "liberals" for using this as an excuse to try to violate their Constitutional rights. Welcome to the other side of the Looking Glass.

R.I.P. Tom Davis

Tom Davis, Comedian and ‘SNL’ Sketch Writer, Dies at 59

This is so sad and sobering. When I was a senior at UCLA, I lived in West L.A., near a bar/club where Franken and Davis did stand-up. I ran into them one night. I had met Al while visiting mutual friends from SLP at Harvard a couple of years before and we shared other close friends. They were looking for a ride back to Minneapolis and we spent a couple of minutes figuring out if it would work to go back together. That didn't work out (would have been a Hell of a trip) but I've always remembered what a nice guy Tom seemed to be. He was my age and on a completely different career path. The fact that he's now "inanimated", reminds me of a special time of my youth and the reality of its passing. He's left me with a new (again) appreciation for enjoying each day that Life offers. R.I.P Mr. Davis. My condolences on your loss, Senator.

Elections Matter

When Scott Brown was elected to the U.S. Senate in the middle of the health care debate, there was a general consensus that the lackluster campaigning by his Democratic opponent and the relatively low voter turnout gave Ted Kennedy's seat to a Republican. Notably, the race was seen as a referendum on the Affordable Care Act. Brown's election jeopardized passage of the ACA and cries of "Elections Matter!" resounded from a vocal minority who were determined to push their agenda on the majority.

When Scott Walker became governor of Wisconsin in the off-year election of 2010 and started on a previously unannounced campaign to strip public employees of collective bargaining rights, cries of "Elections Matter!" were heard again, again to justify the imposition of a minority agenda on the majority.

Elections do matter. My growing frustration with hope and change submitting to block and parry is directed at those who share my politics but not my willingness to vote. Governor Walker's ability to push back the recall effort in Wisconsin resulted largely from a broader consensus than contributed to his initial election that elections matter and that he should be given his full term.

What I don't understand, except as a strategy in the war of politics, is why elections only matter when the minority scores a victory in a low turnout election. There was an election in 2008, too. President Obama, who campaigned on universal health care, won handily in an election in which well over half of the eligible electorate participated. Not one Republican was willing to acknowledge that the 2008 election mattered and support the will of the People by voting for the ACA. Recall that the President accepted the invitation of the House Republican Caucus to meet directly and respond to their concerns over a wide range of issues in a televised, unscripted setting. As a result of the way he successfully responded to the false rhetoric and soundbites upon which Republican congressmen based their opposition to the ACA and other programs, the GOP decided that there would be no more invitations extended to the White House for similar exchanges. And, although Senator Brown's election ultimately did not matter enough as it related to blocking the ACA, there was, and remains, a refusal to apply the same elections matter theory of democracy to the acceptance of issues unpopular with conservatives.

Now that the Supreme Court has determined that a Constitutional basis exists for support of the ACA, the GOP is redoubling its efforts to repeal the bill, primarily by replacing President Obama in November. If successful, there will be a return to "Elections Matter!" But if the election in 2012 is going to matter, I am going to do what I can to re-elect President Obama in order to re-send the message from 2008's electorate. More to come.

Pondering = Tea Leaf Reading?

June 28, 2012: Feeling a little full of myself. When asked this week about what the Supreme Court was going to do with the Affordable Care Act, I've been suggesting that Justice Scalia's unprecedented temper tantrum from the bench when delivering his dissent in the Arizona immigration case signaled his frustration with what was coming today. Pass the broccoli.

Vote Republican (if you're so inclined, but not for these reasons)

I am writing tonight to follow up on a graphic I posted on Facebook earlier this week. As anticipated, the graphic, an attack on current Republican dogma, drew several comments, both critical and supportive, on the message I was trying to convey.

One of my conservative friends, Kari, posted a comment in response to the graphic. "Scraping the bottom of the barrel, Sam? I expect much more thoughtful discourse from you. ;-)."

I responded to Kari by promising to blog, "expanding on the theme (with sources)". Here goes.

Let's start with the message in the graphic:

CORPORATIONS ARE PEOPLE.

WOMEN WHO USE BIRTH CONTROL ARE SLUTS.

COLLEGE STUDENTS ARE SNOBS.

GAY AMERICANS ARE AN ABOMINATION.

POOR PEOPLE DESERVE TO BE POOR.

UNION WORKERS ARE SOCIALIST THUGS.

THE UNEMPLOYED ARE LAZY PARASITES.

LATINOS ARE ILLEGAL UNTIL PROVEN OTHERWISE.

THE BIBLE TRUMPS THE CONSTITUTION.

GLOBAL WARMING IS A HOAX.

THE AUTO INDUSTRY SHOULD GO BANKRUPT.

THE US PRESIDENT IS A MUSLIM AGENT FROM KENYA.

VOTE REPUBLICAN 2012

I introduced the graphic with this observation:

I know a number of my friends aren't going to like this. The truth is, these are positions that have been championed by candidates they've supported to various degrees. Might as well own up to it now if these are the opinions/values/programs you want to see prevail in November.

I proved to be particularly prophetic. A firestorm of comments ensued. As of this writing several days later, there have been about 50. More conservative friends went post to post with more progressive friends, including a number of self-proclaimed former Republicans.

The fact that the graphic evoked such strong visceral reactions results, I believe, from a fundamental conflict within the Republican party. As I noted when I posted the graphic, "the truth is, these are positions that have been championed by candidates they've supported to various degrees." The further truth is that a majority of Republicans and Independents think the platform presented is nonsense. The final truth is that our political system has failed us to the extent that we encourage candidates looking to gain traction in early contests to throw red meat to the faithful to generate newsworthy turnout and support.

Unfortunately for principaled conservatives who do not support the scapegoating, denigration and baseless soundbites that pass for political discourse, there is neither an alternative debate nor sufficient demand for one to silence the idiots.

The phenomena is not limited to conservatives. Four years ago, John Edwards was pulling stunts like recreating RFK's tour of inner city ghettos as a means of demonstrating his populist leanings. Senators Obama and Clinton were tripping over one another to distance themselves from the war in Iraq. In this cycle, my progressive friends clamor for wealthy individuals to pay their "fair share" of taxes, playing number games with percentages that ignore the fact that multiplying any percentage by a high income generates a lot of tax revenue. In the final analysis, how much is enough?

One of the most thoughtful comments on the post was from a woman who declared, "I am a Republican and I do not believe in any of these statements." If more Republicans who share her belief system spoke out, and if more Democrats similarly renounced campaigning by pandering to the lowest common denominator, we might actually return to problem solving and civil debate. Unfortunately, we treat our political campaigns like reality TV competitions and our candidates survive by ridiculing their opponents and avoiding the controversy that comes from standing up to the proponents of the theories contained in the Facebook graphic.

I promised Kari sources. Here goes.

1. Corporations are People. This one is easy. I agree. Maybe "people" is the wrong word. But corporations are separate legal entities. They were invented for that purpose. They have allowed remarkable achievements and prosperity not possible through a mere assemblage of individuals. Corporations are separate and distinct from their owners, the shareholders. Their debts and their assets belong to the corporate entity until otherwise assumed or distributed. Where things have gotten out of hand is the claim that corporations have separate First Amendment rights to political speech. Corporations are to its shareholders and management what Charlie McCarthy was to Edgar Bergen. No one would have allowed Charlie to use his income to contribute to political candidates for the same obvious reason that ought to apply to corporate participation in politics.

2. Women who use birth control are sluts. This platform is derived from the Rush Limbaugh/Sandra Fluke controversy. Check out the interesting take the Christian Science Monitor had on the controversy. Here, given the opportunity to take Limbaugh to task for his off the wall attack on Sandra Fluke, GOP candidates shucked and jived. Rather than thoughtful discussion about the conflicts between individual rights and religious freedom, it was safer not to incur demagogue Limbaugh's wrath. Governor's Romney's comment, "It's not language I would have used", leaves the impression that it wasn't the attack that was out of line, just the inclusion of raw language in destroying the reputation of a woman following her constitutional right to petition Congress for a redress of her grievances.

3. College students are snobs. This plank apparently misstates Senator Santorum's characterization of President Obama as a "snob" for saying everyone should go to college. Leaving aside the fact that President Obama never said that and has championed trade schools and community colleges as an alternative, study after study confirms that persons with more education trend higher in income and the ability to support their families. But Rick Santorum was not courting an educated electorate. His demographic is the less educated, malleable malcontent who blames folks who have achieved some modicum of success for their plight. Senator Santorum played the snob card and ran with it because it generated buzz in the media and support among a constituency looking for a scapegoat.

4. Gay Americans are an abomination. This plank overstates the case, but just barely. Opposition to repeal of DOMA is largely as Republican cause, as is the submission of constitutional amendments for popular vote. For background, check out this link on Senator Santorum. Governor Romney is not in strong disagreement in this election cycle.

5. Poor people deserve to be poor. This is a stretch. Certainly, unlike the positions outlined above, no one is campaigning on this slogan. It largely derives from fiscal conservatives wanting to cut programs that give people living in poverty opportunities to better themselves.

6. Union workers are Socialist thugs. Unions have become more and more of a scapegoat for the failure of the Obama administration to increase employment. The alleged stranglehold on the economy is belied by the falling numbers in union membership. Fox News is a leader is utilizing disinformation about union organizing and its effects.

7. The unemployed are lazy parasites. This was a popular belief offered by Congressman Gingrich as he railed against extending unemployment benefits. While he did not always get away with it (see discussion towards end of link), GOP opposition to extending benefits was as much about opposition to encouraging laziness as it was about the financial pressures of paying for the program.

8. Latinos are illegal until proven otherwise. This is another example of an overstatement not far from the truth. Recent legislation adopted in Arizona and Alabama, and pending in the rest of the alphabet, effectively turns the U.S. into a police state for people of Hispanic descent. Governor Perry was dismissed for a lot of reasons, not least of which was his support of immigration reform and his refusal to disavow the impossibility of deporting 10 million illegal immigrants. As an aside, I often tell clients that one person's "amnesty" is another person's plea bargain. Funny how many conservative Republicans are looking for amnesty if they get as much as a speeding ticket.

9. The Bible trumps the Constitution. You'd have to have been deaf, dumb and blinde these past few months not to have noticed the injection of religious reasoning into proposals for public policy. Sarah Palin, Michelle Bachmann and Rick Santorum were leading proponents of Evangelical Christian dogma as a solution to the problems arising in our foundering society. The whole dispute with the Catholic Church over whether the government can require its contracted health plans to provide a birth control option arises over a dispute about the scope of the Commerce Clause in the U.S. Constitution.

10. Global Warming is a Hoax. Yes it's scary and, yes, it will be expensive to fix. But real leadership would speak candidly about the problem and not just scoff because Al Gore made it a priority topic of discussion. Here's a link that made its way around Facebook. It's from Minnesota's own Paul Douglas. And, yes, it's scary.

11. The Auto Industry should go bankrupt. Another example of semantics being used recklessly. The auto industry (or, at least, a large share of it) did go bankrupt, and the results of the Chapter 11 reorganizations proved highly beneficial compared to liquidating as an alternative. The issue comes down to whether Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization would have been possible without U.S. government financing. Governor Romney has been on both sides of the issue and is justifiably criticized in my mind for taking a cavalier attitude about the fallout from massive layoffs across the industry. Having done a fair amount of Chapter 11 reorganizations, on behalf of both debtors and creditors, I do not think bankruptcy financing necessary to reorganizing GM and Chrysler would have been available in 2008 except from the Federal government.

12. The U.S. President is a Muslim agent from Kenya. This is a classic case of playing to the fears of the uninformed electorate. If you're dependent on ratings to make a living, why not engage in ridiculous conspiracy theories and pump up the rhetoric, forever?

Bottom line is that the planks in the platform characterized in the Facebook graphic represent very real positions, theories, and attitudes promulgated by the most vociferous element of the GOP's constituency. If I was a more moderate, educated Republican, I would also be defensive about being painted with this drivel. But the best defense is a good offense. Rather than being upset about the sarcastic "Vote Republican 2012" tagline, join together in speaking out against those who trivialize legitimate inquiry into the direction our country is heading and offer realistic solutions.

Thank Goodness

I am so relieved that Rush Limbaugh will finally get his come uppence. His personal attack on Sandra Fluke, a Georgetown law student, because she dared to petition Congress for a redress of her grievances struck a chord this weekend. The outrage was bi-partisan, if you exclude the GOP office holders and would-be office holders, too spineless to actually call Limbaugh out for his tirade.

George Will had one of the best lines on ABC's This Week Sunday morning. Mocking Speaker Boehner for going no further than calling Limbaugh's remarks "inappropriate", Will was incredulous. "Inappropriate?!", he asked. "Eating your main course with your salad fork is 'inappropriate'".

The reason for my relief is my conviction that when Limbaugh's remarks are fully vetted, the conservative, "family values" electorate will turn on him and his apologists with a vengeance. Limbaugh did not merely call Ms. Fluke a "slut" and a "prostitute". He also suggested that if she wanted taxpayers to pay for her birth control, and, therefore, for her to have sex, she should provide something to him in return. Specifically, Limbaugh asked her to make a sex tape and post it on YouTube so he could watch it.

Boom! Once the One Million Moms and the Tea Partiers and Rick Santorum and Michele Bachmann supporters hear the whole story, and realize how Limbaugh apparently spends his free time, they will refuse to support or associate with the lascivious pornography junkie (I exclude Newt Gingrich supporters from my list to the extent they are not otherwise included because the Speaker's hypocrisy on matters of out of wedlock sex is too unconscionable to contemplate).

Do not worry about me. I have not lost my mind nor become stupidly optimistic. I never expect much from Rush Limbaugh in the human decency column. What I find unnerving is the lack of outrage from EVERYONE besides Limbaugh. Milquetoast apologies and qualified condemnations do not count. For an electorate that is so quick to shroud itself in its view of the Constitution, the excuses being made for Limbaugh's behavior, or, worse, the attempt to pass it off as entertainment, ignore the basic fact that Ms. Fluke was exercising her First Amendment right to express her opinion.

There will be no additional condemnation by the One Million Moms, GOP presidential candidates or any of their ilk. They are more interested in merely repeating the mantra "Family Values", as if that absolves them of their general intolerance, than holding self-described "entertainers" accountable.

This country is in serious trouble when it has given national political party contender status to a total maniac (cf. The Onion, February 29, 2012) who attacks President Obama as a "snob" for wanting our youth to get a college education, but dismisses the significance of Limbaugh's attack, telling CNN "(Limbaugh's) being absurd, but that's, you know, an entertainer can be absurd." The lack of any critical analysis of Santorum's selective self-righteousness by millions of his supporters, and the resulting refusal to be associated with such nonsense, illustrates the challenge faced by those trying to have an intelligent discussion on solving the country's problems.

What's Wrong with this Picture?

This is not another blog about photography, but does arise from disturbing images.

I just watched President Obama deliver his State of the Union address. As he was speaking, I was making note of certain parts of the speech. Here's a pop quiz. What do the following excerpts from the SOTU have in common?

• In the last 22 months, we’ve added 3 million jobs.
• GM is once again the number one car manufacturer in the world.
• No American company should be able to avoid taxes by moving its money and profits overseas.
• It is time to stop rewarding companies that ship jobs overseas and reward companies that create jobs in America.
• Women should earn equal pay for equal work.
• America's production of oil is the highest it's been in 8 years.
• Last year America relied less on foreign oil than at any time in last 16 years.
• I believe what Abraham Lincoln believed: the government should only do for people what they cannot do for themselves and no more.

If you guessed that they were all applause lines, you're half right. They were all applause lines for everyone in the House Chamber except for the Republicans. Speaker John Boehner sat on his hands in response to each of these pronouncements by the President and his colleagues followed suit. In another instance, when the President called for comprehensive immigration reform after touting his administration's success in reducing illegal border crossings, John McCain appeared to be nodding in agreement. But, unlike those who stood and applauded around him, he did not put his hands together.

I cannot get the image of stone-faced Republicans out of my mind and find it incredibly disturbing.

Take a look at the list again. Who could possibly be against, or not appreciate, any of the items highlighted by the President? The coordinated refusal by Republicans to show any support for the efforts of our president is another in a long series of examples of the implementation of obstructionist policies designed to denigrate and politically destroy President Obama.

I am not naive. I know how the game is played. But with everyone acknowledging that the economic crisis we face as a nation requires our leaders to demonstrate actual leadership and put aside political squabbling, the Republicans' strategy is particularly disappointing.

Senator Mitch McConnell, the Minority Leader in the Senate, had a soundbite bouncing around the media today. He said something to the effect that if a CEO of a company had the same dismal performance as President Obama over the past three years, he'd be shown the door. The observation was succinct, contentious and guaranteed to become a talking point among the non-discerning and contentedly under-informed elements of the electorate. It was also nonsense.

What Senator McConnell leaves out is that if a CEO's efforts to carry out the will of the shareholders (technically, board of directors) who elected him was thwarted time and again by a few contrarians in the company's management team, obstructionists who demanded that their co-workers follow their leave on threat of termination, it's the contrarians who would be shown the door in order to give the CEO a chance to perform.

Unfortunately, American CEO Obama lacked the authority to fire Congressional Republicans who bragged from the start that they would oppose any proposal by the President in order to paint him as ineffective and limit him to one term. It is the height of arrogance for Senator McConnell, having spent the past three years blocking the President's initiatives, to criticize President Obama for not following through on all his aspirations.

It is to the same degree depressing to reflect that our democracy has devolved to the point where, as part of a coordinated plan to embarrass the President, Republicans cannot bring themselves to applaud achieving a reduction of America's dependence on foreign oil or the idea that our daughters should receive the same pay as our sons for doing the same work. In what universe would Congressional representatives, elected to serve their constituents while guiding the country to peace and prosperity, take issue with General Motors' return to prominence on the world stage or disapprove of limiting the role of government to undertaking no more than what citizens cannot do for themselves.

We have another eight months or so until the election in November. Join me in challenging our candidates, of whatever political bent, to stay focused on legitimate issues and to offer concrete solutions as the test of their competence for public service. When you see, instead, candidates relying on factually inaccurate character assassination to promote themselves by contrast, ask yourself how we are better served by allowing such intellectually empty pretenders to ascend to leadership. Use your social networks to share relevant, thoughtful analysis with your peers and followers.

One final thought, a final rule of the challenge just made. Do not be dissuaded from declaring the Emperor naked because his more popular predecessor was similarly unclothed. So, for example, Speaker Gingrich's moral lapses in his first two marriages are not excused because President Clinton also broke his vows. If the hypocrisy of having a serial adulterer serve as standard bearer of the Republican Party, which seeks to impose its version of family values on all of us, is objectionable, say so. President Clinton's personal misconduct in 1995 offers no relevance to our weighing the integrity of candidates in 2012.