What happened to "law and order" Republicans?

If Republicans wonder why I vote for Democrats, the recent attack by a group of Republican representatives is one of the reasons.  It amazes me that members of the "Law and Order" party would stoop to vandalism in the House of Representatives.  Their protests were even more ridiculous because several Republicans were in the closed meeting.

See https://www.nytimes.com/2019/10/23/us/politics/republicans-storm-trump-impeachment-hearing.html.

I would like to vote for Republicans, but only when they live up to their name: res publica (public things). Instead they seem to be working overtime to promote Redonaldcons.  I didn't care for Ronald Reagan, but Donald Trump certainly makes Reagan look like St. Ronnie!

Greatest Deliberative Body?

Whatever happened to "The Greatest Deliberating Body in the World", aka the U.S. Senate?

If it were a true deliberating body, it would have 100 opinions to begin with before settling into one or two.  Instead we start with two lock-step opinions arguing over a foregone conclusion reached by a small majority.

Comment to Maureen Dowd’s column “Trump, Flush With Power”  seems to think that Trump will be crashing soon after firing some competent people and replacing them with Fox News people.  But some commenters thought Trump would get away with a lot as long as the Senate enables him.




Posted at https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/17/opinion/sunday/trump-fox-news-dowd.html?comments#permid=26368531.

Let’s have facts, not factions

Every year the Senate reads George Washington’s Farewell Address, and every year they ignore it.  This also leads to the break-down of the deliberate designation of three INDEPENDENT branches of government.

The quiescent Republicans seem to have ignored Washington’s warning agains factions more than any Congress in decades.

“All obstructions to the execution of the laws, all combinations and associations under whatever plausible character with the real design to direct, control, counteract, or awe the regular deliberation and action of the constituted authorities, are destructive of this fundamental principle and of fatal tendency.

They serve to organize faction; to give it an artificial and extraordinary force; to put in the place of the delegated will of the nation the will of a party, often a small but artful and enterprising minority of the community; and, according to the alternate triumphsof different parties, to make the public administration the mirror of the ill concerted and incongruous projects of faction, rather than the organ of consistent and wholesome plans digested by common councils and modified by mutual interests. However combinations or associations of the above description may now and then answer popular ends, they are likely, in the course of time and things, to become potent engines by which cunning, ambitious, and unprincipled men will be enabled to subvert the power of the people and to usurp for themselves theeins of government, destroying afterwards the very engines which have lifted them to unjust dominion.”

Please send this to your Senators and Representatives, regardless of party.  Your letters may give them some backbone to take action on George Washington's warning.

Quote of the day: Why vote?

"Hillary Clinton didn’t inspire anyone. Why the hell stand in line if it’s just to vote for more of the same?"
- Unnamed union official
"Can the Democratic Party Find New Voters?", Timothy B. Edsall, New York Times, 2017-06-15

The only reason I voted for Clinton was that she was not Trump.  I can name several female politicians I would rather have seen on the ballot.  Maybe we'll see one of them on the presidential ballot in 2020.

All's fair in love and war...and politics too!

Republicans are complaining that Democrats are making some points of Trumpcare political.  Gosh, where were they in supporting President Obama with the Affordable Care Act.  Do you remember the charges of "death panels"?  Taking away our "freedom of choice"?

It can happen here!

Many of us think that the Constitution protects us from a dictatorship.  Unfortunately we are seeing signs of the possibility with Congress almost being in lockstep with the President and the Supreme Court becoming more subservient to the same ideology as the President and Congress.

Kurt Gödel, a mathematician and refugee from Hitler, studied the Constitution thoroughly in preparation for his citizenship.  He saw a flaw that his friends cautioned him not to mention it in his hearing.

The examiner sympathetically mentioned that what was happening under Hitler couldn’t happen here.  Gödel mentioned that he knew how it could.  His friends managed to quiet him down and he became a citizen.  See My Brain is Open by Paul Erdös.

How could it happen here?  The Constitution can be amended.  Could it be amended to give the President a life term, extend to the terms of Congress, abolish free speech,…?

Think of how much of the Constitution has already been corrupted by Supreme Court decisions:  Corporations as people, people becoming persons,…

Think of how Republicans are working hard to suppress voting or dilute the effect of any opposition.

All that is needed is for a hard-nosed party to take absolute control of Congress and three-quarters of the states.  Boom!  There goes our Constitution.

Only you can prevent it.  Vote thoughtfully in each and every election, from city council to state house to Congress to President.  You are our only bulwark against our loss of freedom.

Ode to Obama

"Great ode! It's too bad that the Dixiecrats couldn't tolerate a ‘black' man being President. Let's just hope that what goes around comes around and that Trump is soon replaced by an articulate president who considers all legitimate views."

Comment to Charles M. Blow, "Ode to Obama", New York Times, 2017-01-11

What I didn’t explain to younger readers was that Dixiecrats were Southern politicians who were in the Democratic Party because that was not the party of Lincoln.  They hobbled the Democrats on many issues.  Then Richard Nixon played his Southern Strategy and its been into the swamp for Republicans ever since. 

I thought  the last sitting great Republican was Sen. Susan Collins of Maine.  But alas, she is far from being an independent thinker.

See “Susan Collins Just Disgraced Herself at Jess Sessions’s Confirmation Hearing: The senator proved once and for all that she’s no moderate.”

- John Nichols, The Nation, 2017-01-10

Belated Quote of the day: Trump and Putin

"Well, yes, of course Russia said that. But why should anyone believe what Mr. Putin says? The fact that Mr. Trump seems to give greater credence to the Kremlin than to United States intelligence agencies is precisely what has set off so much speculation about his real motives in cozying up to Mr. Putin."

"Yet the speculation, which was gaining currency even before the publishing of the dossier by BuzzFeed, isn’t going away. The reason is obvious: Mr. Trump appears to be infatuated with the autocrat in the Kremlin. As the Russian dissident and chess champion Garry Kasparov noted: “Trump has criticized: Republicans, Democrats, the pope, U.S. elections, C.I.A., F.B.I., NATO, Meryl Streep. Trump hasn’t criticized: Vladimir Putin.”

"Donald Trump: A Modern Manchurian Candidate”. Max Boot, New York Times, 2017-01-11
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/01/11/opinion/donald-trump-a-modern-manchurian-candidate.html.

Political labels = political misdirection?

I would distrust any political labels, whether applied to fellow travelers or political opposition.

“Liberal” is flung about as if “liberals” were irresponsible.  However, those flinging this epithet without thought are rather liberal with giving power to corporations.

And those who call themselves “conservative” are more conserving power for corporations than being thoughtful about change.  I haven’t studied Edmund Burke, but I wonder if he would approve of the actions of those who call themselves conservative today.

Maybe we should call them CONservatives because so many of them are con-men.  “Con” being short for “confidence”, that is the con-man gains the confidence of his mark as he takes the mark's money (or in too many cases both money and votes)

See “The Betrayal of Fiscal Conservatism”, David Leonhard, New York Times, 2017-01-09.

Trump installs coal furnaces in the Gray House

To carry out his promise to bring back coal, Donald Trump has promised to install coal furnaces in the White House.

Republicans, especially from gas-producing states are in an uproar.  They have been promoting gas as a clean energy for decades.  Republican budget hawks are angry about the cost, both of the retrofit and the cost of union coal stokers.

Democrats are just snickering, calling the whole fiasco Gray-House-Gate.

Republicans are undemocratic?

Republicans claim to believe in democracy, but they seem to be doing everything possible to limit democracy to only those who have their views.

They want voter restrictions or oppose making it easier to vote because there will be more Democrats voters.

If they restrict voting because more people might vote against them, are not the Republicans opposed to democracy?

Is Donald Trump a black swan?

Nassim Nicholas Taleb wrote "The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable" in 2007.  Is Donald Trump such a black swan and for whom?  Is he an unexpected creation of the Koch brothers?  Has the intransigence of Congressional Republicans created an opening for the likes of Donald Trump?

Maybe, just maybe, the Democrats can seize this opportunity to increase governance in this country that works for the people, not the corporations or the billionaires. 

Do we really have a five-party “system”?

Many commentators write about the “two-party system” as if it were enshrined in the Constitution.  Actually, the writers of the Constitution feared factionalism.  They thought their document would bring about a system of considered deliberation and reasoned arguments.

Unfortunately, factionalism reared its ugly head quite quickly.  John Adams, a signer of the Constitution, and Thomas Jefferson, a non-signer, soon fell into animosity about the direction of government.  They did reconcile their differences in their elder years, but their dispute lingered in the Whig and Democratic parties.

The Whig party went into decline when several Whigs formed the Republican Party, partly because of opposition to the extension of slavery and partly because of support of modernization.  Ironically, one of the Republican slogans was “Free Labor” as opposed to slave labor.

Over time, the parties’ basic tenets changed with changing times.  The Republicans essentially became the party of Big Business and the Democrats became the party of the People.  But these were not fixed ideologies.  The parties adjusted their ideas to the times.  Republicans put forth ideas that favored a “government for the people” and the Democrats put forward ideas that were corporate-friendly or status quo.  Many commentators referred to the two parties as “big tent” parties; that is, all were welcome if they held loosely to a few basic tenets.

Then somewhere in the eighties or maybe even earlier, the Republicans morphed into a hard-nosed, doctrinaire party.  The days of the RINO (Republican in Name Only) began.  Some very stellar Republican politicians who got things done for the greater good were no longer welcome.  The Republicans also drew in many evangelicals who knew exactly what God wanted; just the kind of religious influence that the signers of the Constitution worried about.  The signers were very aware of the differences among denominations and didn’t want to favor one over the other.

The result of all these changes have left many would-be voters, and even regular voters dismayed.  As the parties have hardened in their stances, many people see government as dysfunctional and more partisan than deliberative.  Remember that phrase describing the U.S. Senate as “the greatest deliberative body in the world”?  I’ll agree to the “deliberate” part, “deliberate” grandstanding for minor electoral advantage.

Back to the signers of the Constitution: I think they had in mind a constituency who knew the men they were electing, if not personally, at least by reputation.  Now we know our candidates by the slick literature they send out and the amount of TV exposure they get.  Unfortunately, third parties spend millions smearing the candidates based on private interest, not the public good that the candidates may promote.

My solution to all this mismatch of ideas and actions is either all candidates are independents selected on the merits they project or candidates are loosely organized into parties that reflect their own interest.

My choices for parties would be Libertarian, Business, Evangelical, Charity, and Common Good.

The Libertarian Party would be almost anti-government.  To them, the individual is primary, government just gets in the way of freedom.  Taxes are just stealing money.  Laws are for other people.

The Business Party would be all in support of large corporations with a bit of a sop to small businesses.  Taxes and regulations just get in the way of corporations “returning value” to their shareholders.

The Evangelical Party would be Bible-centric and would pass laws pushing for more religion in government and for how all should behave, both in public and private.

The Charity Party would take up the causes of those groups who they feel are disenfranchised by government or society.  This Party is difficult to criticize because there are many people with problems that they did not create.  On the other hand, many people in a given group have managed without the Charity Party’s help.

Finally, the Common Good Party is my party (if I were to cease being a Party of One).  This is the party that takes seriously “General Welfare” and “Common Defense” in the Constitution.  The Common Good Party is concerned with infrastructure, safety regulations, commercial laws, and many other laws and expenditures that help promote a prosperous society.

The Libertarian Party ignores how much it depends on government.  What if a libertarian had been defrauded.  Would that person depend on a tax-supported court to seek reparation?  Or would the Libertarian have it out with six-guns on the streets of Laredo?

The Business Party is similar to the Libertarian Party with the emphasis on large organizations rather than individuals.  But would a modern corporation survive without public schools to train a large number of people in increasingly complicated skills, without roads to move its goods around, without police and courts to seek redress for those who would harm the corporation?

The Evangelical Party seems to pick and choose what Bible verses to use.  Two that it seems to me that they ignore most are “Be not like the hypocrites who pray in public to be seen by men…” and “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”  One could also say the writers of the Constitution were all to familiar with the picking and choosing done by various sects; that’s why they wanted “no religious test”.

The Charity Party’s hearts are in the right place, but the number of problems is so large that many people can’t put their hearts and souls into all those the Charity Party thinks are important.  Government does need a few members of this party just to keep some of issues on the table.

We probably will never have a single Common Good Party because people never agree on the priorities.  This gets back to the Constitution which didn’t really define “General Welfare”.  We do need to have more people who run for office speak out for the common good rather than promote a private interest.

Mel keeps wishing for a majority government, but he keeps seeing a minority voting.

Advice for the Democrats

Kevin Baker wrote an interesting opinion for the New York Times: “Delusions of the Democrats” subtitled “Demographics will not save them”.

He asserts that more female voters and more non-white voters will not help the Democrats in future election.  He asserts that past successes were built on bottom-up ideas rather than top-down pronouncements.

My own take on the Democrats is that they have too many who focus on identity politics and not enough on issues that affect larger groups of people.  Which is a larger group?  Gay marriage proponents or people looking for good jobs?

His closing remark sums it up:

“Invite us to dream a little. You don’t build an enduring coalition out of who Americans are. You do it out of what we can be.”

We the People Lost; They the Corporations Won

The election results are in and I am very disappointed.  Not in who won and who lost, but in how few bothered to even vote.  Those who didn’t vote gave the election away to those who were determined to vote.  And many of those who didn’t vote, if they had voted, might have flipped the results the other way.  This is probably true of both those who normally favor Democrats and of those who normally favor Republicans.

Too many claim they don’t like to choose the lesser of two evils.  Well, guess what?  If you don’t choose the lesser of two evils you might get the “worser” of two evils.

Many in Duluth are proud that they had one of the highest turnouts in the country at a bit less than 60 percent.  I think it is not something to be proud of because a bit more than 40 percent of registered voters didn’t even bother to show up.

Who makes up these no-shows?  Are they people that don’t even care about politics?  Are they people who have other priorities, like Dick Cheney?  Are they people who don’t think their vote counts?  Are they people who don’t think their candidates have a chance?  To those who think their vote doesn’t count – of course it doesn’t, you didn’t cast it.  To those who think their candidates don’t have a chance – of course they don’t have a chance, you didn’t vote for them.

I hope that those who did win have a bit of humility by realizing that most registered voters didn’t support them.  Most registered voters didn’t support them?  Well if 40 percent didn’t show up and a candidate received 60 percent of the vote of those who did, then only 36 percent of the registered voters supported them.  Hey, that’s a lot better than Ronald Reagan’s “landslide” with the support of less than 30 percent of the registered voters.

Let’s look at two races familiar to many in Duluth – 8th District for the U.S. House and 7A for the Minnesota House.

Let’s take the closer race first - 8th District with Stewart Mills, Rick Nolan, and Skip Sandman.  Only 266,081 of the 389,425 registered voters showed up.  Less than four thousand votes separated Mills and Nolan.  Nolan had a plurality of 48.51 percent vs. Mills’ 47.11 percent.  Nolan did not win a majority of the votes cast.  But if we look at the candidates’ support among registered voters, the support is even less.  Nolan received the support of about 33 percent of the registered voters and Mills was close behind with a bit more than 32 percent of the voters.

Next let’s look at the more lop-sided race – District 7A with Becky Hall, Jennifer Schultz, and Kris Osbakken.  Less than 16 thousand of the over 23 thousand registered voters showed up.  Schultz had 62.1 percent vs. Hall’s 33.3 percent.  But Schultz did not have the votes of a majority of registered voters; less than 41 percent of the registered voters cast a vote for her.

You can find the data I used at on the Minnesota Secretary of State’s pages at http://electionresults.sos.state.mn.us/ENR/Home/20.

I didn’t go through all the Minnesota races, but I think you’ll find this lack of majority support in most, if not all races, in Minnesota and throughout the country.  For example, Sen. Al Franken may have had a clear majority of the votes cast, but he received the support of less than a third of the registered voters.

It is easy to blame corporate interests for the big gains by the Republicans across the country, especially when the New York Times has headlines like “Business Leaders Cautiously Expect G.O.P. Win to Open Some Doors” (2014-11-05).  Given the statements by some Republicans, one could expect a floodgate of legislation that favors corporations over the environment and public health.  It is easy to blame the Supreme Court for letting corporations have all the rights of people that led to huge amounts of money spent on attack ads.  It is easy to blame the Koch brothers for manipulating legislation and public opinion to their benefit.

It is hard to remember that this has been going on in politics for over two centuries. 

Newspapers in the early Nineteenth century often were libelous in their attacks on politicians they didn’t favor.  Corporations lobbied for their pet projects.  Remember “Honest Abe” was a railroad lawyer and, as President, even called for doubling the subsidy for building a transcontinental railroad, a corporate give-away if there ever was one.

For over 100 years the turnout of the voting age population has been “dismal” in presidential elections.  The high was 73.2 percent in 1900, the low was 48.9 percent in 1924, and average since 1900 have been 57.0 percent.  Interestingly, Bush I and Bush II had 50.3 percent turnout, Bush II did better in his second election with 55.7 percent turnout.  Then Obama did better and better: 57.1 percent and 59.3 percent turnout.  Hope does increase turnout.

Will the turnout continue to climb in 2016?  It depends on you.

Mel voted and hopes you did, too.

This article was published in the Reader Weekly, 2014-11-13 and can be found at http://duluthreader.com/articles/2014/11/13/4345_we_the_people_lost_they_the_corporations_won.

I am a Democratic Party leader?

Way back in 2008 I donated ten or twenty bucks to the Obama campaign.  Ever since then I receive pleas for money and for filling out a “survey” from the Democratic National Party.

“OFFICIAL PARTY BUSINESS - OPEN IMMEDIATELY”

The letter, this time “from” Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz, includes:

Melvyn, you are one of a select group of party leaders…

I am a Democratic Party leader?  The last time I was an official party leader was in the 70s when I was a Republican precinct financial chair.  Then came Reagan.  I’ve been wandering in the political desert ever since with a couple of forays to support one or another independent candidate.

Now Reagan looks like a liberal and my only choice is pretty much to vote Democratic.  The Democrats are several steps closer to reality and practical governance than the Republicans.  Where are the likes of John Anderson, Arne Carlson, and Bill Frenzel?

I scribbled on a plea for the 2012 Presidential campaign that Obama should depend on his big donors rather than small donors he courted so well in 2008.  I haven’t sent any money since.

Still the pleas come.

The return envelope is labeled:

SURVEY RESPONSE ENCLOSED – PLEASE RUSH

As with all political surveys, the questions and answer selections are biased toward the bias of the party printing the survey.  They are meant to affirm the party’s beliefs rather than shape them.

Well, I will vote in November.  That is a lot more than I can say about many who call themselves Democrats.

Democrats elect Republican Congress

Come on!  Diehard Democrats won't vote for Republicans!

They don't have to vote for Republicans to elect them to Congress.  All they have to do, is they have so often in the past, is to not show up on Election Day!

See http://www.nytimes.com/2014/04/01/us/politics/democrats-scramble-to-stave-off-midterm-disaster.html.

Stop crying about money in politics and voter disenfranchisement.  Show up and vote!  If you don't, you may find yourself disenfranchised in the future.

One of best defenses of government

Sen. Elizabeth Warren gave an excellent speech defending the importance and effectiveness of the American government recently.  Watch her speech at

http://www.upworthy.com/a-senator-gets-mad-about-the-shutdown-and-starts-naming-names-about-time

What if Senate demands compromise on PATRIOT Act?

What if the U.S. Senate demands that the House of Representatives compromises on the spending bill by removing certain aspects of the PATRIOT Act?

Poster: A warning from the "Invisible Hand"

Here is a poster for you to send to any writer or politician who has taken a position for or against corporate influence in public affairs.  Drag the poster to your favorite document or mail program and print or send as many copies as you would like.  All I ask is that you include the link at the bottom.