How Dems Win in 2012

I was having too much coffee with a professor of strategy, and had a thought inspired by the recent electoral results and the last 2 years. One obvious point is that the Republicans are much more strategic than Democrats. The latter win the occasional battle, but the former keep the war in mind. Proposal:

Convince the Democrat party machinery to immediately let President Obama stop rowing farther and further to the right in order to placate unwinnable votes from across the aisle. This has proven to be a useless course of action. Recall Lieberman filibustering the Health Insurance Act because it contained the Lieberman plan for Medicare buy-in.

Obama can embrace his original moderate position that reactionary Republicans have successfully framed as Lunatic Left Wing. Hold fast to principles of long term growth and fairness, of paying for what we get, of letting science inform decisions preferentially over bottom line considerations, and of enforcing equal rights for all. Then lean even farther to the left, and show America what left wing really is.

As 2011 draws to a close, groom some now-apparently-more-moderate Democrat for the primary. Let Obama lose his bid for an immediate second term; he can return after 4 years.

Meanwhile, hope the Tea Party succeeds in its bid to put some right wing nutcase on the Republican ticket. They've had shocking success at such in this just past election, including the new senator who wants to repeal the Civil Rights Act. Think Palin and Paul in 2012!

I suspect that we'll have not only independents, but lifetime Republicans wondering whether voting Democrat isn't really their best bet.

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Democracy loses the election

At Truthdig, Amy Goodman mourned the biggest loser during the election day this week: democracy.

As the 2010 elections come to a close, the biggest winner of all remains undeclared: the broadcasters. The biggest loser: democracy. These were the most expensive midterm elections in U.S. history, costing close to $4 billion, $3 billion of which went to advertising. What if ad time were free? We hear no debate about this, because the media corporations are making such a killing by selling campaign ads. Yet the broadcasters are using public airwaves. I am reminded of the 1999 book by media scholar Robert McChesney, “Rich Media, Poor Democracy.” In it, he writes, “Broadcasters have little incentive to cover candidates, because it is in their interest to force them to publicize their campaigns.” . . .
Goodman points out that the airwaves belong to the public, yet they are being used for reaping huge profits that create a financial bar to candidates who merely have good ideas.
The place where we should debate this is in the major media, where most Americans get their news. But the television and radio broadcasters have a profound conflict of interest. Their profits take precedence over our democratic process. You very likely won’t hear this discussed on the Sunday-morning talk shows.

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Aftermath

I should probably wait a few days or weeks before writing my reaction to last night's national insanity exhibition. But I doubt I'll "level out" on what has happened. First off, what part of Mr. Obama's "fixing this will take a long time" did people not understand? Did anyone seriously expect all this mess to be cleaned up in two years? Or is it really just that people are only concerned about their own situation and everyone else can just---well, worry about their own situation? Let me say this slowly, so there can be no misunderstanding: we have been digging this hole for 30 years. It will take a bit longer than two years to climb out of it. Thirty years, that's right. Since Reagan. Dear Ronnie, so classically American in so many ways. Carter began the deregulation frenzy with oil, hoping the oil companies would plow their new profits into development of American resources in the aftermath of the first major OPEC embargo. Reagan was surrounded by the rest of the business community, who whispered into his ear, sweetly, oh so sweetly, "Take the restraints off, Ronnie, and we will build you that shining city on the hill all those Moral Majority types are going on about." So he did. And that started it. (Unlike others, I am inclined to believe that Reagan was naive about this. I think he was from that generation that actually trusted people of a certain stature, relied on native patriotism, and so was completely blindsided by the corporate vampires who talked him into deregulating damn near everything. I think he expected them to reinvest in America, not start the whole ugly off-shore account boom and the outsourcing of American jobs. Inclined, I say, but not willing to give him a complete pass. Because along with that, Reagan oversaw the foreign take over of hundreds of American businesses, many of which were involved in basic research and development and manufactured things vital to our national interest. Throughout the 80s, one company after another was bought by Japanese, British, German, French, and occasionally Korean interests and the result was a serious hemorrhage of expertise, know-how, and manufacturing capacity, not to mention the loss of good-paying, high-tech jobs as those businesses were all moved out of the United States and to their new host countries. Why did he do this? Because Reagan was a traditional conservative who believed government should have nothing to do with private sector business, either pro or con, and he refused to establish an "industrial policy" that would have protected these businesses. At the time there was a tremendous wave of sentiment opposed to protectionism, which smacked of a "liberal" or at least Democratic program, but in hind sight clearly was all about keeping international boundaries as open as possible for the multinationals that have presided over the disemboweling of our economy.) Deregulation has been the culture in Washington ever since. [More . . .]

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Tell Me a Joke

Sunday evening I was at a Halloween party, just milling around. Suddenly a tall twenty-something blond in a little black dress appeared in front of me, eagerly brandished a bag of candy, looked directly into my eyes, smiled shyly, and said, "Tell me a joke." Um. I draw a blank. In casual conversation , I am usually full of amusing allusions, anecdotes, word play, and allegory. But I stare helplessly at this vision with her eager smile, silent. I can't think of a thing to say. She stands there waiting. Anyone who has been through college knows about test freeze. You have the answers somewhere in your head, but an impenetrable glacial wall prevents you from getting to them. It was much like that. My mind was a-whorl and adrift. I know that I know a few thousand jokes. Too many of them unusable for a variety of reasons, mostly obsolescence. But I cannot come up with anything. Then another young woman comes up behind me and offers answers. She starts in with a series of blond jokes! Oy, I think, vay. This isn't helping. I mutter something like, "Catch me later," and wander off. Now in retrospect, I ask myself, "Where are my jokes?" I never have been an adept social animal. But I have read dozens of joke books, and scholarly articles on humor. But my lifestyle may also cripple me. I am not agoraphobic, but I don't often meet people in conversational settings. I work from home, communicating primarily by email. I field few phone calls; spending maybe a half hour of phone time a week. Face time? Aside from my wife, I usually go for a week at a time without conversing beyond pleasantries. This is far from the typical office or factory setting where one interrupts conversations to get occasional hours of work in, or where one can converse while working. Most of the joke books I have predate color television. Jokes about FDR or LBJ don't play well any more. Those jokes that I can use are pretty long. Too long to use as a glib response to, "Tell me a joke." I also haven't watched television or listened to talk radio for a couple of months, so I have no idea what currently is passing for humor. But enough about my infirmities. Tell me a joke that I can collect in a repertoire, in case I get another such opportunity.

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Negative interest rates are here

Step right up and buy a bong that pays negative interest:

The U.S. government, for the first time, has sold bonds that have a negative rate of return, as investors seek protection against the threat of inflation. The government sold $10 billion worth of the bonds Monday. Investors paid $105.50 for every $100 of bonds they bought, effectively agreeing to pay the government for the privilege of lending it money.

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