Please say a prayer for those who continue to put their lives on the line. 41 have passed since major combat was declared over. A rate of almost one per day.
Category Archives: Public Service, Civics, Government, Activism
That Was The Deal
I am not sure, in this economy, someone can do what I did the last ten years. I don’t think the same opportunities exist. But what can be done about it? Will the coming tax breaks help or hurt?
Democracy presumes and enshrines equality. Capitalism not only presumes but requires and produces inequality. How can you have a society based on equality and inequality at the same time? The classic answer is that democracy and capitalism should reign in their own separate “spheres” (philosopher Michael Walzer’s term). As citizens, we are all equal. As players in the economy, we enjoy differing rewards depending on our efforts, talents, or luck.
But how do you prevent power in one from leeching into the other? In various ways, we try to police the border. Capitalism is protected from democracy, to some extent, by provisions of the Constitution that guard individuals against tyranny of the majority?for example, by forbidding the government to take your property without due process of law. Protecting democracy from capitalism is the noble intention, at least, of campaign finance laws that get enacted every couple of decades.
Separation of the spheres also depends on an unspoken deal, a nonaggression pact, between democracy’s political majority and capitalism’s affluent minority. The majority acknowledge that capitalism benefits all of us, even if some benefit a lot more than others. The majority also take comfort in the belief that everyone has at least a shot at scoring big. The affluent minority, meanwhile, acknowledge that their good fortune is at least in part the luck of the draw. They recognize that domestic tranquility, protection from foreign enemies, and other government functions are worth more to people with more at stake. And they retain a tiny yet prudent fear of what beast might be awakened if the fortunate folks get too greedy about protecting and enlarging their good fortune.
That was the deal. Under George W. Bush, though, the deal is breaking down.
Read the rest by Michael Kinsley in Slate Magazine (via rc3.org). Today Paul Krugman in the NYTimes asks and anserers, “The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities points out, this latest tax cut reduces federal revenue as a share of G.D.P. to its lowest level since 1959. That is, federal taxes are now back to what they were in an era when Medicare and Medicaid didn’t exist, and Social Security was still a minor expense. How can we maintain these programs, which have become essential to scores of millions of Americans, at today’s tax rates?”
A great conversation related to all this is taking place over at Oliver Willis’s.
Working poor get screwed again
Let’s see: they work, are not on welfare, and are contributing to the tax coffers…
But they don’t vote in the numbers required to make them a threat. They aren’t noticed, and are largely forgotten.
So what happens?
David Firestone in the NYTimes: Tax Law Omits Child Credit in Low-Income Brackets: ” after studying the bill approved on Friday, liberal and child advocacy groups discovered that a different group of families would also not benefit from the $400 increase ? families who make just above the minimum wage….Because of the formula for calculating the credit, most families with incomes from $10,500 to $26,625 will not benefit. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a liberal group, says those families include 11.9 million children, or one of every six children under 17.”
If the Democrats could energize this voting base along with the squeezed middle class… well they just won’t will they? via dangerousmeta.
What Did You Do?
Nicholas Kristoff at the NYTimes: What Did You Do During the African Holocaust?: ” In Congo, in which I’ve had a special interest ever since Tutsi rebels chased me through the jungle there for several days in 1997, 3.3 million people have died because of warfare there in the last five years, according to a study by the International Rescue Committee. That’s half a Holocaust in a single country. …Our children and grandchildren may fairly ask, “So, what did you do during the African holocaust?””
An editorial. Not a news piece. Have you seen this covered on our nightly TV news? Except for a few conscious webloggers (yes I am using that word purposely), no one is paying attention. The mainstream news had a responsibility to pick this up. Then again, how could you expect the press to report on trouble in Africa when it won’t expose for the mainstream the state of affairs in Russia? Here goes a prediction for you: Kerry will remind you of Gore soon. Very, very, very soon. Much more sellable to cover his personality then his background and potential policies.
Saddly related: Frank Ahrens at the WashPost: FCC Plan to Alter Media Rules Spurs Growing Debate.
Also saddly related: frontline: Mechants of Cool.
If someone is uninformed – how would they even know what they should have been doing?
A few interesting stories
AlterNet: Neo’s the Hero of My Generation: “For many of my peers, it’s not cool anymore to listen to Jay-Z, wear Gap clothes, or watch MTV all day. Those things are seen as being a part of our Matrix. My generation uses terms like “keep it real” and “don’t front” ? the worst thing you can be is phony. Everyone wants to be original; nobody wants to be a copycat.”
A trend that’s been building now for a while if you’ve been paying attention to pop music. Think of Avril Lavigne and notice how Pink has evolved. Note the use of bands on stage in hip-hop these days (thanks to Philadelphia’s own The Roots. Hugely influential). They are even declaring….
FoxNews: Metal is back: “So why metal now? Coletti attributed its resurgence, in part, to the current mood of the country. “Look at where the world is. Music is louder and harder in trying times,” he said. …But that doesn’t mean that Britney Spears can’t stay relevant. “She just needs to learn to play electric guitar,” Coletti said.”
Time: Goodbye, Soccer Mom. Hello, Security Mom: ” “Since 9/11,” Creighton says, “all I want in a President is a person who is strong.””
Whiners not wanted.
NYTimes: Trust in the Military Heightens Among Baby Boomers’ Children: “The idea of nationality, being a nation, is important to people shaped by 9/11. This is a generation that knows nations really matter. They trust government.”
Related to earlier story about Republican dominance in politics: NYTimes: Democrats Seek a Stronger Focus, and Money: “Norman J. Ornstein of the American Enterprise Institute says Democrats may have passed a point where “minority status gels and makes it exponentially harder to get back in” because potential candidates and donors see only minority status in their future….Thomas Mann of the Brookings Institution disagrees, seeing parity between the parties as likely for some time. He argues that even the lack of a coherent positive message does not matter too much. “Most decisive elections are a consequence of the public rejecting something,” he said. The most effective message, he said, usually is the simple “throw the rascals out.”…But Democrats these days lack the killer instinct that it takes to sell blunt, demagogic messages. As Bob Shrum, a prominent consultant for 30 years, said: “It’s probably a weakness that we’re not real haters. We don’t have a sense that it’s a holy crusade. We don’t have a sense that it’s Armageddon.””
Not related but a good read: Time: What Makes You Who You Are: “Only now is it dawning on scientists what a big and general idea it implies: that learning itself consists of nothing more than switching genes on and off. The more we lift the lid on the genome, the more vulnerable to experience genes appear to be. …This is not some namby-pamby, middle-of-the-road compromise. This is a new understanding of the fundamental building blocks of life based on the discovery that genes are not immutable things handed down from our parents like Moses’ stone tablets but are active participants in our lives, designed to take their cues from everything that happens to us from the moment of our conception. “
Memorial Day
Give thanks to those who have put their lives on the line for all of us.
The Young Hipublicans
I’ve argued with my aging friends and family that this was the trend. Read the NYTimes story about the Hipublicans. I think they are about 3-5 years late catching on, but better late then never. Key quote comes from a 19-year old: “Conservatives are inclusive in a way that liberals are not.”. Amazing how perceptions can change in just a short amount of time.
Speaking of which, it’s important to note how dire things were for the Republican party during the 70s and it’s efforts first to resurrect itself and now to dominate politics. Lessons to note for the Democratic party in there.
In promising trend, US poor exit high-poverty areas
During the 1970s and ’80s, America’s poorest citizens lived ever more isolated lives. They were increasingly shunted into ghettoized neighborhoods where basic necessities, like good grocery stores and decent schools, were further and further out of reach.
The 1990s began to change that. The decade-long economic boom – along with welfare reform and other shifts – helped spur some 2.5 million people to leave poor neighborhoods and begin to connect with the economic and social mainstream, a study released Monday finds.
Read the rest in the CSMonitor. But what about the new normal?
JFK Intern Shows Social Change
WashPost: “Now, of course, it’s so different”. So different someone like JFK is almost unelectable anymore.
Disappointed
Gary Hart would have helped to make the ’04 race interesting. He’s out now.
Rafe does an analysis of Colin Powell’s speech to the UN and it is an eye opener. via dangerousmeta.