Columnist Thomas Friedman, in today's New York Times, called for a third party to enter the 2012 presidential election campaign.
His reason? Our political system has evolved to the condition that makes it impossible for any president to accomplish anything except during the initial 100 days of the administration.
Friedman makes a lot of good points. He also admits that there is no chance that a third party candidate would actually win. He doesn't mention it, but the only time in our history that a third party affected the outcome of an election was in 1912, when Teddy Roosevelt ran as the "Bull Moose" party (Progressive Party) candidate and won more votes than incumbent President Taft. That put Woodrow Wilson in the White House.
Republicans hoped for a repeat in 1948 when two third parties (Henry Wallace's Progressive Party and Strom Thurmond's States Rights Party) split from the Democratic Party. Despite that, Harry Truman won the election.
The Pew Research Center for People and the Press finds eight or nine groupings of political thought. Each of these groupings could form the basis of a political party, except for one thing: our elections are held on a "winner-take-all" basis. This system, unlike countries with proportional representation, can sustain no more than two parties.
If Friedman really advocates third parties, they have a better chance of success at the state level and in congressional elections than they do for presidential elections.
I am not at all persuaded by Friedman's article, but it is worth reading. Even more interesting are readers' comments.
Wednesday, June 22, 2011
Tuesday, June 21, 2011
Can Americans Make Anything Besides Deals?
Interesting column by Harold Meyerson in last week's Washington Post.
The question Meyerson addresses is whether the United States can learn from the example of others - in this case, Germany. The first part of the question is whether there is anything to be learned from other countries. Clearly there is.
The second part of the question is whether we are capable of learning from the successes of other countries. That's an open question.
Meyerson comments on the German model: "German manufacturers, particularly the midsize and small-scale ones that often dominate global markets in specialized products, don’t seek funding from capital markets (there’s a local banking sector that handles their needs) and don’t answer to shareholders. They make things, while we make deals, or trades, or swaps."
David Leonhardt, the New York Times economics columnist, wrote last week that Germany owed its edge in global competitiveness to a range of policies that could not be more different than ours: limiting home ownership, improving education (including vocational and technical education) and keeping unions strong — which is why “middle-class pay,” he noted, “has risen at roughly the same rate as top incomes.”
The question Meyerson addresses is whether the United States can learn from the example of others - in this case, Germany. The first part of the question is whether there is anything to be learned from other countries. Clearly there is.
The second part of the question is whether we are capable of learning from the successes of other countries. That's an open question.
Meyerson comments on the German model: "German manufacturers, particularly the midsize and small-scale ones that often dominate global markets in specialized products, don’t seek funding from capital markets (there’s a local banking sector that handles their needs) and don’t answer to shareholders. They make things, while we make deals, or trades, or swaps."
David Leonhardt, the New York Times economics columnist, wrote last week that Germany owed its edge in global competitiveness to a range of policies that could not be more different than ours: limiting home ownership, improving education (including vocational and technical education) and keeping unions strong — which is why “middle-class pay,” he noted, “has risen at roughly the same rate as top incomes.”
The German model differs from the laissez-faire approach to globalization that has dominated U.S. policy and discourse for decades, dooming many American workers to penury. Meyerson's article emphasizes the crucial distinctions between Germany’s stakeholder capitalism, which benefits the many, and our shareholder capitalism, which increasingly benefits only the few.
Wisdom
Wisdom is a deep understanding and realizing of people, things, events or situations, resulting in the ability to choose or act or inspire to consistently produce the optimum results with a minimum of time, energy or thought. It is the ability to optimally (effectively and efficiently) apply perceptions and knowledge and so produce the desired results. Wisdom is also the comprehension of what is true or right coupled with optimum judgment as to action. Synonyms include: sagacity, discernment, or insight. Wisdom often requires control of one's emotional reactions (the "passions") so that one's principles, reason and knowledge prevail to determine one's actions.
Wikipedia
The opposite of wisdom is folly. The opposite of a wise man is a fool.
Wikipedia
The opposite of wisdom is folly. The opposite of a wise man is a fool.
Pamlico County Budget
Last night Pamlico County's Board of Commissioners held a public hearing on the budget for FY 2011 - 2012. The national (and worldwide) economic downturn, which was none of the county's doing, is now harming its citizens.
During the hearing on the budget, members of the county's soil and water conservation board asked the commissioners to reconsider the decision to reduce work hours for two of their employees. This point was taken up by Commissioners Delamar and Ollison before the vote on the budget. They emphasized the services provided by the board to all of the county's citizens.
The county GOP Director of Communications complimented the commissioners on a good budget and then made the predictable observation that we need tax cuts, smaller government and more individual responsibility. He also cited the county's median income as $47,000 per capita (that's more likely the figure for family income, not individual income), 15% below the poverty line and the fact that taxes constitute 56% of the county's revenue. He did not mention that the county has a functional illiteracy rate of 14% and that 24% of the county's citizens have a disability of some kind.
The challenge facing the county was to deal with reduction in funds received from the state, forcing the county to reduce its contribution to both the Community College and the Public Schools at the same time those institutions received reduced resources from the state. The surprise resignation by Dr. James Coon, county school superintendent, represented his contribution to the reduction of central staff in an effort to hold down expenses. Even so, there will be staff reductions, increase in class size, and a likely adverse effect on the quality of education in the county.
The county commissioners have done the best they could under difficult circumstances.
This is a case of stuff flowing down hill. The economic crisis didn't start here and can't be fixed here. It started on Wall Street. It can be fixed by Washington. It won't be fixed until our leaders recognize that what is needed is a substantial fiscal stimulus.
I have written about this before. I won't go into it again, at least not now.
But the only people benefiting from the current situation and the refusal of the national government to take effective stimulus measures are the top 1% of our economy, who own fifty percent of the nation's assets. The next 9% are doing OK. The bottom 90% are hurting. And it's all so unnecessary.
During the hearing on the budget, members of the county's soil and water conservation board asked the commissioners to reconsider the decision to reduce work hours for two of their employees. This point was taken up by Commissioners Delamar and Ollison before the vote on the budget. They emphasized the services provided by the board to all of the county's citizens.
The county GOP Director of Communications complimented the commissioners on a good budget and then made the predictable observation that we need tax cuts, smaller government and more individual responsibility. He also cited the county's median income as $47,000 per capita (that's more likely the figure for family income, not individual income), 15% below the poverty line and the fact that taxes constitute 56% of the county's revenue. He did not mention that the county has a functional illiteracy rate of 14% and that 24% of the county's citizens have a disability of some kind.
The challenge facing the county was to deal with reduction in funds received from the state, forcing the county to reduce its contribution to both the Community College and the Public Schools at the same time those institutions received reduced resources from the state. The surprise resignation by Dr. James Coon, county school superintendent, represented his contribution to the reduction of central staff in an effort to hold down expenses. Even so, there will be staff reductions, increase in class size, and a likely adverse effect on the quality of education in the county.
The county commissioners have done the best they could under difficult circumstances.
This is a case of stuff flowing down hill. The economic crisis didn't start here and can't be fixed here. It started on Wall Street. It can be fixed by Washington. It won't be fixed until our leaders recognize that what is needed is a substantial fiscal stimulus.
I have written about this before. I won't go into it again, at least not now.
But the only people benefiting from the current situation and the refusal of the national government to take effective stimulus measures are the top 1% of our economy, who own fifty percent of the nation's assets. The next 9% are doing OK. The bottom 90% are hurting. And it's all so unnecessary.
Monday, June 20, 2011
Literature
There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged.
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession
with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted,
socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The
other, of course, involves orcs.
John Rogers
One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession
with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted,
socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The
other, of course, involves orcs.
John Rogers
Race and the Past
William Faulkner once observed that the past isn't dead - it isn't even past.
Not that there aren't people who try to bury it.
Today's New York Times has an article about the race riot 90 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When I was growing up in Tulsa, I never heard about the riot. It was typical of riots by whites against blacks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this case, spurred by untrue rumors of a black on white sexual assault, armed white citizens attacked the prosperous black area of town known as Greenwood, killed perhaps 300 residents and burned the area to the ground.
My grandparents, who lived in Tulsa at the time, never told me about it. After they died, I found an old photograph of a distant Tulsa neighborhood engulfed in flames.
No wonder my grandparents never told me. My maternal grandfather was a member of the Klan. Both he and my paternal grandfather were among the armed rioters on that day.
It wasn't a glorious day in my family's history.
Or that of my home town.
Not that there aren't people who try to bury it.
Today's New York Times has an article about the race riot 90 years ago in Tulsa, Oklahoma. When I was growing up in Tulsa, I never heard about the riot. It was typical of riots by whites against blacks in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In this case, spurred by untrue rumors of a black on white sexual assault, armed white citizens attacked the prosperous black area of town known as Greenwood, killed perhaps 300 residents and burned the area to the ground.
My grandparents, who lived in Tulsa at the time, never told me about it. After they died, I found an old photograph of a distant Tulsa neighborhood engulfed in flames.
No wonder my grandparents never told me. My maternal grandfather was a member of the Klan. Both he and my paternal grandfather were among the armed rioters on that day.
It wasn't a glorious day in my family's history.
Or that of my home town.
Thursday, June 16, 2011
Singing from the Wrong Sheet of Music
Last Saturday, we attended a baccalaureate ceremony for our graduating grandson.
There was lovely music, sung by the college choir. Early in the ceremony, the choir sang a spirited rendition of "America the Beautiful."
Unlike the unsingable drinking song with Francis Scott Key's lyrics that we chose as our national anthem in 1931 under President Hoover, "America the Beautiful" isn't bombastic.
I wonder how much of our national readiness to go off firing rockets comes from "bombs bursting in air" and prideful assertions that we are "the land of the free" and the "home of the brave."
Maybe if we had a less bombastic anthem, we could pay more attention to the arts of agriculture and industry, the challenges of diplomacy and the creation and celebration of beauty and a bounteous plenty. Who knows what heights such an anthem might inspire us to achieve.
"America the Beautiful" is just such an anthem.
There was lovely music, sung by the college choir. Early in the ceremony, the choir sang a spirited rendition of "America the Beautiful."
Unlike the unsingable drinking song with Francis Scott Key's lyrics that we chose as our national anthem in 1931 under President Hoover, "America the Beautiful" isn't bombastic.
I wonder how much of our national readiness to go off firing rockets comes from "bombs bursting in air" and prideful assertions that we are "the land of the free" and the "home of the brave."
Maybe if we had a less bombastic anthem, we could pay more attention to the arts of agriculture and industry, the challenges of diplomacy and the creation and celebration of beauty and a bounteous plenty. Who knows what heights such an anthem might inspire us to achieve.
"America the Beautiful" is just such an anthem.
Delicious Seed Corn
The Governor vetoed the NC legislature's budget which reduced our education spending to the level of Mississippi.
All over a penny sales tax.
Are the citizens of NC so cheap we would withhold a penny from our schools? I don't think so.
But all of the Republican members of the general assembly and five Democrats made it clear they don't give a fig for our children. Or our college students. Or the economic future of the state.
I know something about Mississippi. I started school there in 1943. I graduated from Ole Miss in 1958.
If you really want to, it isn't hard to win a race to the bottom.
We don't want to go there.
But as I warned before, we are eating our seed corn. I hope we enjoy it.
All over a penny sales tax.
Are the citizens of NC so cheap we would withhold a penny from our schools? I don't think so.
But all of the Republican members of the general assembly and five Democrats made it clear they don't give a fig for our children. Or our college students. Or the economic future of the state.
I know something about Mississippi. I started school there in 1943. I graduated from Ole Miss in 1958.
If you really want to, it isn't hard to win a race to the bottom.
We don't want to go there.
But as I warned before, we are eating our seed corn. I hope we enjoy it.
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