Political Partisanship

I was politically aware when I was young.  At 10, I stayed up late to see the results of the Kennedy/Nixon election.  It was not as partisan then.  There were liberal Republicans in the NE and conservative Republicans in the SW.  There were conservative Democrats in the South and liberal Democrats in the Midwest.

Both parties had candidates and supporters in each wing and had to get along somewhere toward the center.  So the both parties strategies were to see how close they could get to the center and still have candidates who would promote their general programs.

Nixon changed that.  He managed to move the Republicans away from an economic to a soccially conservative program in the South.  He left the Democrats without a southern base and won.

Since then, the 2 parties have been separating politically.  I used to be a Progressive Republican in Maryland,  It took more years for the Republican Party to purge the NE of Progressive views  and there are still a few rogue holdovers.  My Liberal Democratic party conservatives have been equally purged. 

The "purification" in both parties has damaged our political campaigns.  We used to be able to choose between candidates who 55% liberal vs another who was 55% conservative.  Now our choices are 80-20. 

This can't go on.  Richard Nixon or Ronald Reagan would not have a chance at getting the Republican nomination today.  Jimmy Carter ( mildly conservative) or Bill Clinton (a Centrist) could not get the Democratic nomination today.  You now have to be a fanatic, rabid, and never give an inch, to get a party nomination.  I doubt that John Kennedy could get the Democratic nomination today or Dwight Eisenhower the Republican one now.

I think there are 2 main causes for this.  First, Gerrymandering.  Gerrymandering is named for a Massachusetts government  official named "Gerry" in the 1800s where they structured a single congressional district shaped like a salamander.  It has been used over the decades since, but never so successfully as since the 1990s.  The purpose is to make sure your voting district have enough of one party to guarantee victory every election.

Back then, that couldn't be done for the whole State, because the State had many voters from both parties.  That has changed.  When a State hits about 75-80% one party, Gerrymandering works for the entire State.  It is politically wonderful but ethically evil.  But politicians trying to keep their jobs don't worry about "ethics" very much.  Both Republicans and Democrats to it.

I support measures to prevent that.

The other thing that is destroying voters from controlling elections is Dark Campaign Money.  That's  where people with extreme amounts of money can get involved in  even your local campaigns and influence them with negative ads and you don't know who is paying for it.  

I'll create an example.  "Candidate Smith voted to raise taxes twice.  Vote against Smith".  And the fact is that Smith voted against a bill to allow out-of-state industries to dump raw toxins in the local lake for a 1% tax fee on the dumpers 2 times.  Which is actually a pretty pathetically weak response.  But that's how they work. 

And connected to that is the "astroturf" campaigns.  An "astroturf campaign is the opposite of a "grass-roots" campaign.  A grassroots campaign is started by people at the bottom and builds it way up for a local cause of larger national purpose.

An astroturf campaign a fake one (like astroturf).  It starts at the top of industry or politics and works its way down prentending to be real.  They aren't, but the sure sound like it.

1. 'The Center For Consumer Freedom' supports tobacco companies and fast food restaurants.
2.  'Al Gore's Penguin Army' looked like a local criticism of  his movie 'An Inconvenient Truth', but was sponored by ExxonMobile.
3.  'Americans for Technology Leadership and Citizens Against Government Waste' was funded by Microsoft, which organized a letter drive.
4.  'Save Our Species Alliance'  - Many of these false flag operations have vaguely Orwellian names, but perhaps none are so bad as the Save Our Species Alliance. The group describes itself as “a nationwide grassroots organization comprised of property owners, farmers, ranchers, miners, foresters, builders/developers, sportsmen, recreationists, business owners and ordinary citizens sharing the common goal of making the Endangered Species Act friendlier to local conservation efforts, property owners, and local governments while at the same time, doing a better job of actually saving species at risk.” Naturally it actually opposes most of the Endangered Species Act, especially all the parts that inconvenience the logging/timber and cattle industries. Who naturally bankroll most of the group’s operations.
5. 'Working Families For Wal-Mart' was/is a group created by Wal-Mart and PR firm Edelman to give the appearance that a grassroots organization was rising up to support Wal-Mart against unions and labor. The effort mainly consisted of fake blogs including one called “Wal-Marting Across America”.

Another corporate and political trick is to pack the microphones at some town hall meetings with prepared speakers.  The announcement is made that the mikes are open, and a dozen people wearing identical clothes instantly stand in line up to say nearly identical speeches.  They are all sitting at the aisle seats waiting to go.  They use up all the audience speaking time and no one else gets a chance.

We have to find a way to stop this nonsense.  Otherwise, we will go the way of the Greeks and Romans and French and British.  Things can change, but it will take effort and determination. 

Vote for the most centrist candidate in the primary (and VOTE).  Vote for the most centrist moniee in the election.  Get people elected who will stand more toward the center.  The CENTER CAN HOLD!  We just have to all decide to reconstruct it.

Sure, we have had hotly contested elections.  But most were closer to the center than you may know.  Kennedy and Nixon were like 45-60 on the political scale.  Kennedy was hard on the Communists and he wasn't friends with hard line unions.  He expanded our actions in Vietnam.  Later Nixon worked to make peace with China and created the Environmental Protection Agency.  Watergate aside (and Kennedy had persoanal faults)  they weren't 80-20 apart. 

And now we are.  We have to get back to some degree of general agreements.  Or we will fail. 

A Little History

A century ago, the US economy and government was in the grip of what were called Robber Barons.  People so wealthy and powerful that they formed business monopolies, chose political leaders by themselves, decided what laws would be passed and considered everyone else but themselves "losers".  Working people were poverty-stricken, there was no "Middle Class".  You were either rich or broke.

People had few legal rights to complain.  Courts were packed by judges appointed by the rich to defend their overbearing methods.  Does that term "losers" ring a bell when you listen to a Trump speech?  It should.  Trump wants to return to those years.

The Republican party is to blame for this.  They have denigrated the value of government for years.  They refused to admit that government for the People is a good thing.  They desired that political success go only to the rich and powerful, so that they could get more than any human could possibly need to thrive in the world.

The Republican party has yelled for several decades that all we need to succeed is to have no government regulation.  That outsiders "know best".  That inexperience in world affairs is somehow "purer" than experience.  Basically, that ignorance is better than knowledge.  Now they have their purfect candidte for an upcoming humiliation of that view.  Trump will be crushed, and they might lose both the Senate and the House.  And later, the Supreme Court, as vacancies will be filled in the next 8 years.

The Republicans hate government so bad that they slashed the budget of the IRS, whose only function is to collect taxes and make sure we all pay what we owe.  They call it "starving the beast".

But the IRS is merely the agency that collects taxes declared by Congress.  The audit function doesn't bother most of us.  What they look for is very rich people who aren't paying their fair share.  They aren't after those of us earning $30,000-100,000.  They are after those multi-millionaires and billionaires who are paying nothing in taxes by gaming the system with secret accounts overseas or claiming massive business losses through indirect multiple company tricks.

We WANT more IRS agents to find those cheaters and get the Government revenue for schools, military support, VA hospitals, and roads and bridges!  What we don't want is the Donald Trumps of the world to get richer by cheating on their taxes.

More IRS agents don't threaten me or you.  They threaten the most wealthy who have been cheating us all.  We should SUPPORT more IRS funding for auditors.

The government does a lot of good things.  Defense, education, infrastructure, personal rights, helping poor States, assuring honest elections, managing the general economy, protecting the right to religious freedom, the whole Bill Of Rights...

That takes some money.  Not much in exchange for the common good.  In some countries, it is more; in some it is less.  I think we are doing pretty well where we are.

The Republicans want to lessen Government to enfeeblement; Democrats want to expand it in some few directions.  That's general human progress.

Let's consider insurance.  The theory of insurance is that the larger the group, the less risk there is to any member of the insurance group.  Doesn't it therefore make sense to increase the insurance pool?  YOUR medical costs go up everytime an uninsured person needs medical care.  So shouldn't we increase the number of insured people?  Fewer uninsured people mean lower costs for the rest of us.

Now let's say that the roads are failing in your area.  And in other areas.  And will fail in the future in other areas.  Isn't it a better idea to all get together and share the expenses gradually overall instead of all at once locally?

Isn't that what helping your neighbors now so that they can help you tomorrow is all about?  Government is merely the organized method of sharing todays costs with your neighbor tomorrow.  What you need to accept is that your neighbor might be several States away.

We understand that when some community many States away suffers a natural disaster.  A hurricane, an earthquake, a tornado.  We help them then.  That's what government is.  Society agreeing to hel each other in bad times...

And the Republicans fight against THAT!

Politics As A Profit Center

I suspected many months ago that Trump was playing the money game by running for office as he gave his speeches.  Now I have more evidence.

The recent Federal Election Commission filings provide information Trump would preferred to hide.  But unlike tax filings, those are public.

Trump says he is financing his campaign.   Well, not really.  He is LOANING money to his campaign (and loans usually have interest charges). That's right, he is loaning personal money (and it may be more tricky than that) to his campaign.  That means he is signing the checks on both sides of the loan!  The campaign is obligated to back Trump back for the money he is essentially loaning to himself.

Don't you wish you could borrow money that easily and expect payment back?  But it gets worse... 

Trump is using his own businesses to support his campaign.  And he is charging his campaign a hefty sum for "privilege" of using his own services.  The idea seems to be that he will use his own companies to benefit financially supporting his Presidential campaign.  Its a great gig, if you can arrange it.  And Trump does.

Use his his own jet to fly to campaign stops?  Trump charges himself high fees.  Staying at his own residences in various States?  Trump charges the top rates to his campaign.  Eat at a fundraiser (and yes he has them though he says he doesn't) you eat Trump steak and drink Trump wine.  Get given a framed picture of The Donald for a donation?  That picture comes in a Trump Picture Frame. 

Play a round of golf with Trump?  High green fees for the round charged to his campaign.   He charges the campaign to operate his campaign in various business locations he profits from. 

Staffers and campaign supporters eat at Trump restaurants, fly accumulating Trump miles, and wear Trump T-shirts made by Trump companies.  Those Trump hats he tosses out at campaign rallies?  A staffer company makes those and the campaign pays top dollar for them.

On the single day Trump announced his campaign in June 2015, his campaign cost generated $506,846 to Trump businesses.  One single day!

By the end of just 2015, the Trump campaign paid out $2.2 million, $2 million of which went to the airline where Trump is the CEO...

$90,000 went to staffers eating at Trump Cafe and Trump Grill...

Unspecified amounts went to Trump Payroll Corp. and Trump Tower Commercial LLC to pay for campaign staff payroll management, but that work isn't cheap...

This isn't a campaign, its a profit-making scam!  The Republican party has finally produced the perfect example of its long-held claim that businessmen (and it's usually men) are the most suited to run the country for the benefit of all the citizens.  If running for office is now a profit-center for Republican candidates to operate as a business, do you want to see what laws they pass?  I sure don't.