”The Democrats are the party of government activism, the party that says government can make you richer, smarter, taller, and get the chickweed out of your lawn. Republicans are the party that says government doesn’t work, and then get elected and prove it.”
—P.J. O’Rourke
Filed under Democratic Party, Politics, Republican Party, Uncategorized
I’ve come to accept me for me.
The left side of my brain seems to be Democratic. The right side seems to be Republican. Where it all meets in the middle I tend to pick and choose those ideas that seem appropriate for the situation.
Am hopelessly Independent … but happy that both sides are feeding me constant thoughts and ideas.
The Heart and Brain image was found while reading Sarcastic Mama on Facebook.
Filed under Democratic Party, Independents, Politics, Republican Party
U.S. Political Party Identification
For the first time since polls began asking the question ‘Do you consider yourself a ______’, both the Democrats and Republicans have significantly lost brand association with Americans.
I consider myself ‘an Independent’ overtook both Democratic and Republican brand identification in early-2011 and has held its #1 identification spot ever since.
Voter Identification by Party as of 2012.09.30 PollTracker
The biggest loser appears to be the GOP.
Loss of identification with being ‘Republican’ is strange since the the percentage of Americans that consider themselves ‘conservative’ remains a strongly dominating 46% over the 20% that identify as ‘liberal’. The Conservative brand has remained strong since 1980, never once dropping below 40% per Gallup.
Voter ideologic identification per Gallup.com
One response from some Republicans is that loss of identification with the GOP just represents those conservatives unhappy with the party itself, and thus they declare themselves to be independent.
HOWEVER, when Independents are asked which party they lean towards then the Democrats have consistently come out ahead (Gallup Sep 2012) which can only be interpreted as a significant number of center-right Americans find it difficult to sympathisze with the Republican Party itself as the better choice over the Democratic Party.
Party Identification as of September 2012 per Gallup.com
Sources: http://polltracker.talkingpointsmemo.com/contests/us-party-identification and http://www.gallup.com/poll/15370/party-affiliation.aspx
Someone asked, and for a week now the GOP has put the question out there for you and me to think about: Are we better off than 4 years ago?
Life has been challenging. Business has been challenging — and I say that as a CEO of a small but global company.
I’ve always considered myself a conservative, a Reagan Democrat … a Blue Dog if you like that term. You can call me a RINO too — I don’t really care. I’ve become rather fond of the term RINO (Really Independent & Not Obnoxious).
Bottomline: I generally vote Republican 70-80% of the time … although my last three votes for governor and senator in Virginia have been for Democrats, but Republicans at the local level. As to that nagging question: are we better off as a nation than 4 years ago? YES, yes, yes. … We are a bit bruised, have low expectations for more than minimal jobs growth in the foreseeable future, and know that our world has fundamentally changed and it will never be 2007 again. There is nothing to take our country back to — back four years ago — that was better than today … not that I’m so crazy about today as to think life is just grand.
Better than four years ago? Yes. We are no longer hemorraging hundreds of thousands of jobs every month, month after month. We are no longer losing our savings and retirement funds to trying to save our homes and our businesses. We are not doing great, our income is a bit lower, but we are stable … and that fiscal cliff scares me. 2013 could be a real bitch of a year, and 2014 as well.
All recessions eventually work themselves out. But are we better off than 4 years ago? Things are fragile but stable … which beats the alternative of losing jobs every month.
As to that fiscal cliff, President Barack Obama did not bring or lead us to this point. If you want to point fingers we should all start with ourselves and the political leaders of both parties, past and present, that won’t make the hard choices and be truthful about 1+1=2 and deficits, and …
Bill4DogCatcher.com endorses ____.
I have endorsed Gary Johnson, Libertarian. I may well vote Libertarian in November. I have said I would and I am usually pretty dogged about doing what I say.
>> However, should it come to picking just between President Obama and Governor Romney then my choice would be to vote Obama.
There, I’ve said it. Hate me. Call me a RINO … I don’t really care.
I’m just going to sit here with my cup of coffee in my McCain 2008 coffee mug thinking to myself: what a bunch of nutcases the GOP has become. Call me when sanity knocks again at the door.
Best regards,
Bill G
Profits have been hard to come by for small businesses, which did the great majority of hiring of workers, but the last four years have been very good for someone … just not the American workforce.
Filed under Democratic Party, Election 2012, Elections, Republican Party
Politifact.com recently examined an extraordinary claim that President Obama has had the lowest spending record of any recent president.
Can that be right?
Politifact says that such a claim is ‘mostly true’.
I encourage you to read the Politifact numbers analysis for yourself: read it here.
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The Politifact story is a good read for many reasons.
One good reason being that much of what people believe that they know is often without basis.
It is always good to have around a calculator and some real numbers. Politifact tries to provide the numbers and calculations for you.
Secondly, another good reason to read the article is that if you argue to replace something with something ‘better’ then better should be better. Better should have a metric that we can calculate.
I am not always so happy with President Obama but as compared with whom? Certainly not I know how to create jobs Romney, whose state dropped from #37 in jobs growth to #47 during his term as governor.
If you wish to argue that Romney had to deal with a Democratic legislature then so be it. However, please accept that since 2010 President Obama has had to work with a Republican House; yes, Democrats demurred from proposing their own budget so that the Republican budgets could be judged on its own merits (and also true that Democrat are not so hot at using calculators either so it saved them a lot of time and effort.)
Thirdly, the last good reason to read the Politifact article is that we have many tough choices ahead and not a lot of folks want to do critical thinking.
2013 will be a very tough year. The CBO has effectively said that whatever course we take we will cause us to fall back into official recession during 2013. The CBO analysis says that 2013 represents a fiscal cliff that we are about to run off.
For those that say we need austerity and no new increase in the debt limit, you can’t get there from here. You certainly cannot get to there (balanced budgets, decreased national debt, and economic growth) by protecting current levels of defense spending or increasing it.
Just to maintain current spending levels will require an increase in our national debt level. Soon. Even if you were to cancel out almost all social spending you still could not cover defense spending without borrowing more money. Quixotic to me that that the ‘more defense spending’ crowd is quite often the same choir as the ‘no new debt’ crowd and the ‘no new taxes’ crowd. Those same folks recently proposed in the House draft budget an 8% increase in defense spending.
For those that want to pay down the national debt, there appears to be three groups with a view and a following.
—- Group #1 wants to let all tax cuts expire (except for folks that vote for them). The CBO says that letting the tax cuts expire would indeed dramatically decrease our national debt … and do so in as little as the first 12 months. BUT that would also suck so much money out of the economy that it would probably dry up consumer spending and … great ungood would happen. As for those that would let the tax cuts expire, except for those that vote for them — grab a calculator. How is that a balanced plan. Some, primarily Democrats, are arguing to protect tax cuts for the first $1 million of income and to protect the social security pay day tax cut.
—– Group #2: Keep the tax cuts, create more tax cuts or breaks + increase defense spending. This will supposedly cause the economy to grow. This is a revisit of rhetorical Reaganomics: just ain’t happening. Buy a calculator. Hire a consulting firm. Your numbers are on drugs. I am a fan of President Reagan (no one is perfect) but his administration didn’t grow the economy so much from tax breaks as growing the economy from a massive infusion of government cash that left massive debt in its spending wake.
—– Group #3: Target ALL government programs for decreased spending over time (mandate an agency-neutral percentage-based budget cut each year for 10 years), pay as you go congressional budget spending — even if that requires some tax increase (but sunset the tax increase), flatten taxes and remove most exceptions, limit the dollar or percentage value of exemptions, don’t rob from the rich but don’t penalize the working poor either.
So about this article, it offers some good points for thought and debate. One interpretation can also be that much of the fiscal rancor against Obama is hot air. Yes, President Obama has failed to use the leadership power of his office to describe and to outline a path towards fiscal stablity for our country. Yet neither has President Obama been the tax and spend ogre that many have made him out to be.
Filed under Uncategorized
Question – a reader in a discussion group on Facebook asked: “William - just for a matter of perspective, my understanding is that you consider yourself a conservative, is that correct?”
Hmmm… could be a trap.
The author had not really identified their own perspective. Earlier in the day I had gotten a broadside from another Facebooker when I posted the picture below.
The broadside writer wanted to know: “Why do you post crap like this? There are no real “Republicans for Obama” – only pretend Republicans trying to give an extremist legitimacy.”
Maybe. Maybe not.
My purpose wasn’t to support either Obama or to support these Republicans.
There seems to be no discussion these days that isn’t a bit dangerous to one’s reputation.
+++++++++
Back to the question:
“William - just for a matter of perspective, my understanding is that you consider yourself a conservative, is that correct?”
Yes. I do consider myself a conservative.
What passes for conservatism these days is mostly a reactionary push back against a world that has changed and some folks know that their days are numbered. Their days are numbered because they have chosen to embrace a political ideology that is at the same time just as much exclusionary as it is generational. Except for Ron Paul’s fans, the Republican Party is older, overwhelmingly a party of caucasian America, and seemingly tone deaf as to how others see America.
I myself am a caucasian so the issue is not with that as a cause. The cause of the numbering of the GOP’s days is that Republicans have played so long to themes embraced by those that have enjoyed white privilege that its tone deafness just feels normal for it. What? Problems? No, the average GOPer sees the rest of the world as having problems but not it. Maybe not. Except for RINOs. RINOs see things in a multitude of colors – ergo they have got to go too. They are a cancer in the Republican Party. You either see things as black and white, good or bad, evil or our way.
Election 2012 - "The Plan"
Until 2009 I considered myself a Republican. I considered myself a conservative Republican.
I was active in the Tea Party at the very beginning. Met many fine people. Met many strange ones, too. Most of the strange ones are still there but the pragmatic conservatives have moved on.
The Tea Party very quickly attracted a different sort of conservative: those full of anger. There are those that say such a depiction is full of bull droppings. But it is not. Perhaps they were mad at themselves — hopefully they were because they had won almost total control of U.S. national government and they botched it. They did such a poor job that conservatives like myself no longer wanted to be associated with the party.
Reality is that you don’t have to be Republican to be a conservative. It is a good thing too as many conservatives in the Republican Party are what I consider wingers: they’ll do and say whatever they believe it takes to get the party back into power.
There is no real home for pragmatic conservatives at this time. Most still cling to calling themselves ‘Republicans’ but I don’t think that such will survive the election of 2012.
In 2010 it appeared that the conservatives surged back to power. What I saw was that our country was still very much in the depths of economic downturn. There was no good news with Obama’s name on it, and a very angry 24/7 campaign to attack Obama and to demonize Democrats paid off. (It didn’t hurt that most Democrats jumped at seeing their own shadow. That was extremely helpful to the 2010 GOP election efforts).
However, a recent study of policy positions rated Obama THE most moderate president of any Democrat since FDR’s day. His positions (except for health care) are scarcely different that President Bush’s. There are conservatives and libertarians that realize that. (Outside of the party we conservatives don’t think in talking points.) Add in just a tad of good economic news and people will come to stop and to think about that. People think much clearer when their homes aren’t being repossessed.
So as a pragmatic conservative I spend much of my time battling to save what little good remains of the ‘conservative’ bumper sticker.
Liberals aren’t evil. Neither are philosophical conservatives that believe that we are all in this together.
My prediction for 2012 — although it is still early in the game: Obama wins reelection courtesy of the GOP and many of the angry nutters that have the loudest voices. Democrats retain the Senate. And as for the House of Representatives … the Dems get it back by 10 seats.
Yes, I am conservative. But that doesn’t make me blind and tone deaf. Although, you just never know.
Filed under Democratic Party, Election 2012, Republican Party, TEA Party
Dear America,
There is a war for your mind. It is a constant war with battles waged not for control of the majority but the few.
The battle for the minds of the majority was won long ago.
You may ask: If the war was won already then why aren’t we all in accord? Why don’t we have a common understanding?
A good question. A good question indeed. The challenge for victors is that wars are never truly won. Victory is usually nothing more than a period of calm when the many submit to the few and when all appears well throughout the land.
Then one day someone asks a new question … and the war begins anew.
About the 1%. They won long ago. For them to continue to win they need class warfare constantly being fought. Peace and calm do not define victory. Division and distrust and discord are the means of assuring recurring victory in the episodic battles that wage to keep the 1% in power and in control of society’s direction and wealth. Distract the many and try to manage the bothersome few.
Relative peace and civil discourse are anathema to the 1%. If we were not constantly arguing and hating one another then we would be comparing and discussing. An outcome for the greater good seldom works in the 1%’s favor. Not that the greater good works against the 1% — but the entire premise of the 1% is that more is always better than less. Even when more is so much that ‘more’ has little meaning other than the quest for more being the end game itself.
That does not make the 1% evil or bad or even ungood. Survival of the fittest, the fastest, the most cunning among us is just the way of life.
To the 99% I say: there is no such thing as the 99%. You may not be the 1% but you are certainly not the 99%. At best you are the sum of the parts of our society that cobble together some coalition. If history offers clues then the left can bring together elements of the 99% for very short periods, unlike the right which manages usually to keep its three to four allied elements generally in some form of harmony.
To the 99%, you are being driven to constant distraction. I do not wish to accuse the 1% of being unpatriotic but I would tell you that patriotism has very little meaning to them — regardless of the empty homilies that pass their lips or how many flags adorn their homes and buildings. Patriotism is constantly used to define issues for the purposes of focusing the minds of the more conservative elements of our society that do respond to symbols of family, faith and country. Much or most of the 1% are apolitical and apatriotic and embrace those concepts only when it supports their own economic objectives.
Yes, the vast majority of the 1% would trade your jobs without second thought if it meant another few cents on the dollar in their pocket. That is not patriotism.
The 1% would sell weapons and natural resources developed by our tax dollars to almost anyone in the world that would buy them if there is profit in it. The transfer of technology, resources and national knowledge accrued by the many and sold on the world’s markets — that is not patriotism.
Our illegal immigrant problem — we are daily driven to distraction and encouraged to drive out those that took our jobs and violated our laws because ‘illegal means illegal’. Yet where were the voices when laws were needed to manage our borders and to develop the skills and to protect the jobs of our own citizens? They were silent because it was profitable. That is not patriotism.
Do not hate the illegal immigrant that came to America to find a job and a better way of life. They were invited. The wealthy are wealthier because of it. You are too.
Dear 53% or 47% or whatever percentage group you belong to: America has fundamentally changed. The 1% won long ago and we are now on a path that can not be easily reversed. Talk of reversal of our economic fortunes is wasted time and energy. Our reality has fundamentally changed and there is no going back.
There are good times (for some) ahead but the good times of 10, 20, 30 years ago are gone and will not come back in our lifetimes.
America’s middle class is dying a slow protracted death and that is why we are so angry. Yet the American middle class is just as much to blame for its own demise as is the 1%.
America’s middle class will continue to shrink and to lose its vitality … and while the middle class will be encouraged to be angry at the working class … those supposed dregs of society that are incapable of pulling themselves up by their own efforts … that working class infused with a healthy dose of illegal immigrants that just want to feast off the ingrateful gratitude of the well fed and pampered middle class that supports them … and yet … and yet … DISTRACTION ZONE … and yet it seems to be the 1% that is pocketing the wealth of the middle class.
To the middle class of America: Stop allowing yourself to be distracted. Focus. Please get some perspective before it really is too late.
To the middle class of America: You exist. You have a Darwinian right to continue your existence as long as you are worthy of existence. Your existence and continued class health and wealth does not depend upon demonizing the less well off in our society. They have almost no voice. They are the future you if you do not focus!
Some perspective, please:
To those that want to Occupy Wall Street and to Tea Partyers and to the American middle class in general: There is a war for your mind. It is a constant war with battles waged not for control of the majority but the few. As long as our system remains in gridlock then the 1% continue to win.
The battle is for the few that ask why — those that refuse to vote the party line and to perpetuate constant gridlock. We must ask why over and over again. Why do we continue to allow our jobs to be given away for the profit of the few?
Our middle class is in a race to the bottom with the working class people of the world. Nothing against them, but as a member of the American middle class I am not ready or willing to make one of the largest wealth transfers in history. I am not willing to support the continued enrichment of the 1% or the enrichment of the world at my own expense.
We are in a race to the bottom that will only plateau once we have fallen significantly and the rest of the world has risen to where labor rates and market saturation of want over need is balanced. That could take another generation or two.
To the middle class: our best days are ahead for most of us but only if we make changes now! We must make significant changes in our personal choices of lifestyle and demand public transparency of both government and corporate transnational financial transactions.
In our personal lifestyle and professional choices: we must eliminate debt and we need to develop a menu of skills.
Eliminating debt will be bad for our economy. It could shrink our economy 15-20%. Get over it. Get on with it. Our current economic situation is longterm. There is no positive outcome on the horizon if we live as we currently do. Eliminate debt and restructure your life to be as debt-free and self-sustaining as possible. Thirty year mortgages are the road to serfdom. Renting is not a great plan either in many cases. If you have to buy strive for less and strive for shorter term loans. Stop buying McCastles.
Income assurance: the American middle class has a significant challenge: it has few tangible skills. Your/our entire education system is based upon managing the world around us. You need a menu of skills that are of value to others in your community. Ask yourself: if you were to lose your job today what service can you provide that others would be willing to pay for?
If you find the above question hard to answer then you are in trouble, deep, deep trouble. You not only need a skillset but a menu of skills; and each need their own hourly value. You need to start planning now for your life in the emerging American middle class — one that will be smaller, more agile, and which is our future already as of today.
To the 1%: I bear you no ill will. It is the nature of all survivable things to seek more efficient means to accumulate more value and more power. This always comes at the loss of something or someone else. You have existed always and always will.
To the 99%: Stop. Think. Avoid distractions. Do not attack the left or the right because you belong to the other. You will fail if you do. We will fail if you do.
To the 99%: Seek to think objectively. Demand that our leaders put numbers to paper. DO NOT buy into promises of hope and change. DO NOT buy into claims that we can take our country back. It is far too late for that. Collaborating with the new owners because you believe it to be your patriotic duty to support amoral, apatriotic, anationalist accumulation of wealth only hastens the day when America is just another province of the world.
Money is power. America is just a politically defined flow of money. It was not the left or the communists or whomever you might wish to blame for America’s current economic woes. We have only ourselves to blame as we collaborate with the 1% — they will profit by it but we will not, not the majority of us. The wealth of the 1% is no longer American wealth. It is wealth that knows no country and offers no allegience to anything other than reinvestment at higher dividends. Do not be distracted by the presence of flags or invocations to protect our inherent rights as Americans. This is meaningless drivel to the 1% — which they will willingly sell to you as in ‘you too can be rich if you just try hard enough’, all the while flying as many flags as China can produce.
To those that are participating in Occupy Wall Street — you have my sympathies. To supporters of Occupy Wall Street that complain that no one is paying attention, did you notice that it was Fox News that provided you your first major coverage? And it is Fox News that continues to provide you the majority of coverage. You are the new distraction. The artificial debate created is whether you and the Tea Party are similar. It really does not matter. Your concerns are very similar. Your desire to blame someone other than yourself is the same.
Your anger is aimed in the right direction but I don’t believe that you have a plan. Your rage is just as controlled and directed and manipulated as is that of the Tea Party. Do not be useful tools.
The American middle class as we know it will die a protracted death over the next 10-20 years. Suburbia and all of its trappings will soon enough be very different. The new middle class will be much smaller. It already is. I cannot think of a practical way to stop this, or to advise you how you could stop this future from arriving. It is after all already here. America 1950 will be completely gone by 2030, and in 2030 we will be talking about the middle class that emerged from 2007.
Be slow to anger and swift to thought. Only some will win. The battle is for the few and will be won by the few that win the hearts and minds of the distracted many.
>> What the middle class of the world may look like by 2025.
