The Republican Party is not the only one struggling with doctrinal purity. As MSNBC reports, there are divisions among Democrats as well. Centrists from both parties have been purged recently, in doctrinally-motivated primary challenges.
White House adviser David Axelrod is still confident the Democrats will pull together in November. He says there is a “fundamental split” distinguishing his party from the Republicans. The Coke-versus-Pepsi metaphor is really apt here. The two parties – like the sugary drinks – are indistinguishable, but marketing men like Mr. Axelrod have generated a bloodthirsty culture war over this supposed split.
As a guide to party purity, we present below the updated Four Squares of Jeremiah.
So, Democrats like Blanche Lincoln are punished by – guess who – the unions, for drifting rightward, and (ex-) Republicans like Arlen Specter are punished for drifting “leftward,” or UP in the diagram.
The Republicans can always get out the vote by putting some gay-bashing measure on the ballot, and the Democrats rally their base by promising ever-bigger handouts.
Individual candidates on both sides are eager to quit the bad habits associated with their parties, but their handlers have grown dependent on this electoral shorthand. Americans must stop voting along party lines, and start looking at what each candidate really stands for.
See also: Man from Another Dimension
Categories: Center Field
Tagged: conservative, Lincoln, purity
Conservatives on the Texas Board of Education are enjoying their majority – dictating which opinions will become required reading for Texan school kids. For instance, America is no longer to be described as a “democracy.”
The left is apoplectic, of course, because textbooks designed for Texas will spill over into other states. In fairness, the left is generally much stronger in the schools – and the new curriculum is less egregious than advertised. The school board left science alone, and focused on social topics which are politicized anyway.
The real question is why politically-motivated amateurs of any stripe are allowed to set standards for our schools. If parents paid the bills – directly, instead of through millage dollars – they would never tolerate such nonsense. Parents have very clear objectives for education, and brainwashing isn’t one of them.
Wherever is found what is called a paternal government, there is found state education. It has been discovered that the best way to insure implicit obedience is to commence tyranny in the nursery – Benjamin Disraeli
One feature in the controversy was where to find the “separation of church and state” clause in the Constitution (the 1st Amendment). Now if we only could find the same clause for schools.
Categories: Education
Tagged: conservative, Disraeli, Texas
How are gun rights like gay rights? Jeremiah has written that “rights are rights,” no matter what, and the Supreme Court seems to agree. Interestingly, the same 14th amendment approach that was used to defend gay rights in California is now being used to defend gun rights in Chicago.
No State shall make or enforce any law which abridges the privileges of citizens of the United States.
The point to this amendment is that all Americans have certain basic rights – notably black Americans, in the historical context. The states can add rights, but not subtract them.
We are seeing more lawyers appeal to this notion of “basic rights,” as states have become more aggressive about abridging them. So, what’s next? Abridging our rights at the federal level.
Categories: Civil Rights
Tagged: Chicago, freedom, guns
Now, here’s a guy who can make you wake up screaming. David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States, was on the radio yesterday. He laid out exactly how broke America is, and what the consequences are likely to be. Stephen King has nothing on Mr. Walker. He is also a former head of Jeremiah’s favorite former government agency, the GAO. You can see a video of him here. Oops, no you can’t! The 404 errors have started already.
In the interview, Walker scares the hell out of Terry Gross. Naturally, she blames it all on president Bush. Walker’s senate testimony, however, states that the crisis will not be solved by ending the war, ending earmarks, cutting defense, lapsing the Bush tax cuts or ending “waste & fraud.” He is after the big nut, the structural deficit, which means Social Security.
Surprisingly, Walker does not want to privatize social security. He just wants Congress to stop stealing from it. He casually mentions “Social Security cash surpluses, which have been used to help finance other government activities.” What? Our contributions aren’t sitting in a bond fund?
Categories: Finance
Tagged: deficit, GAO, social security
It was grim watching Mitt Romney take his ritual beating on Fox News. He was on the program to promote his new book and, obviously, his 2012 presidential bid. The book, titled “No Apology,” is a defense of American exceptionalism, and Mr. Romney wanted to talk about geopolitics.
This is a book about what we need to do to strengthen America globally and make sure that our geopolitical position and military position is stronger.
His interviewer, however, wanted to talk about health care and abortion. On even-numbered days, the right attacks president Obama for being “stuck” on health care. This was Sunday, though, and time to pillory Mr. Romney for his own efforts on the matter. The argument, tortured as it was, seemed to be that since Congress is slowly coming around to a plan much like then-Governor Romney’s – that plan must be a bad one.
Mr. Romney is a successful businessman with a solid record of administrative skills. By contrast with professional politicians, he can be relied upon to balance budgets, meet deadlines, etc. He is not, however, a good dissembler – and so, probably unelectable. After a prolonged beating on health care, Chris Wallace got round to his coup de grace. He accused Mr. Romney of “flip-flopping” on abortion.
Mr. Romney stammered and made an excuse for leaving “social issues” out of his book. It looked an awful lot like flip-flopping. If he wants to be president, Mr. Romney must learn to control the debate. He should have cited his honest opinion on the matter, something like, “I don’t care a fig about your social issues – not while Iran is building the bomb.”
Categories: Civil Rights
Tagged: geopolitics, Iran, social issues
Warning, this video contains material you may find offensive – second graders in California, forced to write letters of protest to the governor. Are they protesting global warming, perhaps? No. Their teacher, one Jody Hoffman, has the little tykes protesting cuts to the school budget. No self-interest there …
You will make our teachers, and other people that are poor, lose their jobs. So, please don’t make them lose their jobs.
A real educator would have helped the kids to understand the challenge facing Governor Schwarzenegger – and how to pronounce his name. Why does the evil Snort-a-Jigger want to cut our beloved music program? Why can’t he cut the fire department instead?
It’s hard to blame Ms. Hoffman. She is a product of this same educational system, with its socialist mindset. Daddy government can always find the money, if only we cry hard enough.
Categories: Education
Tagged: budget, California, schools
Our latest inductee is Senator Blanche Lincoln, now being drummed out of the Democratic Party for voting against “public option” and the GM bailout, among other heresies. Senator Lincoln faces stiff opposition in the Arkansas primary. The AFL-CIO, which usually supports incumbent Democrats, has organized $4 million in contributions for rival Democrat Bill Halter.
This left-wing attack on a Centrist Democrat exactly mirrors the right-wing attacks on Centrist Republicans like Scott Brown. Senator Lincoln is a leading bipartisan and a founder of the Moderate Democratic caucus. As she says:
I don’t answer to my party, I answer to Arkansas
Gerald McEntee of the AFL-CIO put it best, when he spoke of drawing a line in the sand. Moderates in both parties live in fear of crossing somebody’s line in the sand. Just look at the hate directed against Senator Brown on Facebook, or ex-Democrat Joe Lieberman – purged for the same beliefs as Senator Lincoln’s.
If Senator Lincoln is Scozzafava’d by her Party, perhaps she will follow Honest Joe’s lead and run as an independent.
Categories: Center Field
Tagged: Honest Joe, litmus test, unions
Jeremiah recalls the first oil shock, in 1973, and so he was dismayed to live through another one in 2008. This is a “fool me twice, shame on me” story. Shame on Congress, that is, for enacting a cowardly regulation instead of doing what needed to be done. Back in 1973, we all drove econo-boxes like the Ford Fiesta. We hated it. As soon as the Arabs let up, we went back to driving trucks. The Fiesta, however, remained a best-seller around the world.
If gas prices had stayed high, we would have adjusted. We would have moved closer to work, invested in rail systems, and produced more fuel-efficient cars. Detroit would have risen to the challenge, and American auto makers would still be relevant. OPEC foresaw this, of course, and dropped oil prices just low enough to keep us hooked.
Europe made the adjustment. They developed the infrastructure to withstand another oil shock, and now European companies dominate the relevant technologies, like high-speed rail. Europe’s leaders kept the price of gas high by taxing it – not usually a challenge for American lawmakers – and so developed a resistance to OPEC.
Mike Jackson, the CEO of AutoNation, has called for Congress to end the regulatory regime known as CAFÉ and raise gas taxes instead. Why is the nation’s largest car dealer calling for a gas tax? Because CAFÉ forces car companies to produce cars that people don’t want to buy. Fuel-efficient cars become loss-leaders, to appease the government.
The result of CAFÉ is a charade, wherein the government pretends to regulate fuel efficiency and the automakers pretend to comply – a charade that only enriches the lobbyists. It punishes the auto industry for the sins of the oil industry. A rise in gas prices would hurt working people in the short term but, in the long term, it would make America stronger.
Categories: Finance
Tagged: gas, OPEC, tax
Now that Congress has captured the Fed, the next voice to be silenced is the GAO. Already there is an ominous dearth of reporting on America’s debt crisis. The GAO, which had been shrieking from the rooftops, has not produced a new analysis since October. Download that one here, before it vanishes from the web site.
Free spenders in Congress would like Americans to believe that we won’t go broke until 2035 – the fantasy budget known as “baseline extended.” The GAO has the temerity to place our day of reckoning in the immediate future.
The longer action is delayed, the larger the changes will need to be, increasing the likelihood that they will be disruptive and destabilizing.
The Times has photos of what “disruptive” looks like in Greece right now. America will be the next Greece, and Congress doesn’t want you to know it. Expect future GAO forecasts to be rose-tinted.
Categories: Finance
Tagged: Greece, politicize, spending
Senator Scott Brown describes himself as a fiscal conservative and a social moderate. This formulation challenges voters to think of fiscal policy and social policy as two different things, instead of the old left-right divide. This means that policy choices can be sorted into four buckets instead of two. Of course, real politics is more complicated than that, but – for voting purposes – two dimensions are better than one. Here, then, is a two-dimensional taxonomy:
Fiscal and Social Conservative
This is the new, socially-oriented Republican Party. There are no Democrats in this box, and not even all Republicans. For these people, the social dimension dominates, which means protecting their ideal of social organization and family values in particular. They are often blind to fiscal policy, and they consider social moderates like Sen. Brown to be false Republicans.
Fiscal Progressive and Social Conservative
It is hard to find any voters in this category. Most people who are social conservatives are also fiscal conservatives, or at least indifferent to fiscal policy. To find leftist fiscal ideas together with social conservatism, you have to consider old-school union labor – intolerant of social minorities and big business alike.
Fiscal and Social Liberal
Modern Democrats have the advantage of moral consistency. Since the 1960s, Democrats have been socially liberal, anti-war and hostile to business. They favor big government and they don’t mind high taxes, especially taxes on corporations and “the rich.” Since they have been in the majority, Democrats have drifted ever farther to the left.
Fiscal Co
nservative and Social Moderate
This is the grand old Republican Party, as Barry Goldwater and Ronald Reagan knew it – small government, low taxes and states’ rights. Goldwater fought a losing battle against the religious right, as did his successor John McCain. Today, only “northeast Republicans” are in this category, along with “blue dog” Democrats.
Ask yourself which part of “taxpayer-funded abortion” offends you, or “bank bailout.” The answer may be more complicated than you think.
Categories: Center Field
Tagged: Goldwater, left, right
So, Democrats like Blanche Lincoln are punished by – guess who – the unions, for drifting rightward, and (ex-) Republicans like Arlen Specter are punished for drifting “leftward,” or UP in the diagram.
