How to Frame Republican Fiduciary Behavior

I wouldn't mind the "Tax and Spend" label on Democrats, if only the Democrats were capable of framing the apparent policy of Republicans: They are the "Dine and Dash" party. They come into office, most recently with a budget surplus. They cut taxes for those most able to pay, strip away regulations, and spend ridiculously. They finally get the boot, leaving huge debts. Then they castigate Democrats for proposing methods of cleaning up the mess, and complain that they failed before programs are even expected to show results. So the next time you hear "Tax and Spend", reply with, "As opposed to Dine and Dash?"

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More on the Dunning-Kruger cognitive bias

Over the past year, this website has published several posts discussing the Dunning-Kruger cognitive bias, and for good reason. The Dunning-Kruger effect is the cognitive bias that naturally comes to mind whenever one thinks of America's tumultuous politics. It especially comes to mind when one considers the rise of the American "Tea Party," notable for producing politicians who are factually clueless but oblivious to this fact. That combination is the essential nature of the Dunning Kruger phenomenon, as described by Wikipedia:

Kruger and Dunning noted earlier studies suggesting that ignorance of standards of performance is behind a great deal of incompetence. This pattern was seen in studies of skills as diverse as reading comprehension, operating a motor vehicle, and playing chess or tennis. Kruger and Dunning proposed that, for a given skill, incompetent people will:

1. tend to overestimate their own level of skill; 2. fail to recognize genuine skill in others; 3. fail to recognize the extremity of their inadequacy; 4. recognize and acknowledge their own previous lack of skill, if they can be trained to substantially improve.

I thought it worthwhile to raise this topic of Dunning-Kruger again tonight, and to further note that in 2005, David Dunning published a book on the Dunning-Kruger effect called Self-Insight: Roadblocks and Detours on the Path to Knowing Thyself. You can read the first chapter of Dunning's book online at this link. Here are a few excerpts: [From page 8]

The notions people have about their skills and knowledge are far from perfect indicators of their actual proficiency… Impressions of skill are somehow decoupled from reality-perhaps not completely but tune extent that is surprising.… People who are incompetent are often not in a position to know that they are incompetent. Judgment of self is an intrinsically difficult task, and the incompetent just do not have the tools necessary to meet this difficult challenge, nor should the rest of us expect them to.

[Space 12]

In 1914, Babinski coined the term now used, anosognosia, to describe these cases in which people are physically or neurologically impaired, sometimes grossly, yet fail to recognize the death or even the existence of their impairment… I take the notion osanosognosia and transfer it, by analogy, from the neurological and physical realm to the cognitive and psychological one.

[Page 13]

It is not that people performing poorly fail to recognize their incompetence. Instead, our argument is that people performing poorly cannot be expected to recognize their ineptitude. They are simply not in a position to know that they are doing badly. The ability to recognize the death of their inadequacies is beyond them.… They are doubly cursed: in many areas of life, the skills necessary to produce competent responses to the outside world are also the exact same skills needed to recognize whether one acted competently. . . the skills needed to perform the cognitive task . . . are the same exact ones necessary for metacognitive (judging the response).

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Quo Vadis?

Electoral politics have become the playground of billionaires and corporations bent on ruling, not governing. Identifying and getting out voters in elections for political offices against these interests is noble but, under our current corrupt system ordinary citizens don't and won't have the money resources now or ever which the billionaires and corporate interests have. One way out is to adopt an immediate strategy of the pursuit of structural changes formed from the grass roots which may, in the long run, blunt the impact of the apparent rise of corporate fascism in America and perhaps turn the tide. States have the most critical role to be played in delivering aid to those hardest hit by our current economic crisis. States are where the tires hit the road, and states can act much more efficiently and quickly to meet the specific demands of their citizens. Even after the states have taken action, Congress can support these actions with direct funding and augment the strained budgets the states face with declining tax revenues in our recessionary economy. I’ll use an example of my home state of Missouri. [More . . .]

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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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