2016 Politics

Boomers are confused and angry. Millennials are angry. Younger folks are pretty much living their lives as young folks always have, but they aren’t happy.  So what’s going on in the US and in the world today?  Can it be fixed?  I’m going to ramble a bit here…

I have a retired history teacher friend who constantly amazes me with bits of history that I didn’t know.  I took the required history courses in school, of course, but (a) they are all taught from the state’s point of view and (b) we didn’t get told the whole story.  History, as it was taught to me anyway, wasn’t very interesting, and that’s a problem.  Reading, writing, STEM classes, athletics, and the arts are all important.  We aren’t ‘human’ without all of them.

Still… as George Santayana (among others) said, “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.” And Kurt Vonnegut, who I love dearly, responded in Bluebeard: “We’re doomed to repeat the past no matter what. That’s what it is to be alive. It’s pretty dense kids who haven’t figured that out by the time they’re ten…. Most kids can’t afford to go to Harvard and be misinformed.”  While Vonnegut’s rant is a bit harsh (that’s his style), he makes a good point.  Kids do figure out that situations repeat and they adapt to the world.  The more situations we are exposed to, the richer our experience of the world and our ability to predict how a new situation will play out.  And that’s one reason why a lot of travel before age 30, say, is such a good thing.

Ok.  The US political system has pretty much been a two party system from its inception.  The names of the parties may change, but there are two major political parties.  More than that is a problem.  Yes, we have fringe parties and candidates now and then, but they have no chance of being elected.  They can only take votes away from the two main parties.  That’s history, folks.  So the line you’ve heard about “throwing your vote away” is, unfortunately, true regarding third party candidates.

Personally, I like Bernie Sanders.  I like him; I trust him; I like what he stands for; I like his solid record of standing on his principles.  But Bernie will not be one of the two candidates the major parties put forward.  On the Republican side we see a what appears to be a buffoon named Trump whose claim to fame is manipulating people into investing in commercial schemes, draining cash for his own gain, and then taking the companies bankrupt, transferring his investors’ cash to his own pocket as well as cheating his employees and vendors.  The man has exhibited bigotry, misogyny, and dishonesty in so many ways it is a wonder how any American can take him seriously.  I do not understand his appeal.  On the Democratic side we have an experienced female candidate, Hillary Clinton, who has demonstrated a career-long commitment to improving the lot of all people, particularly women and children.  Unfortunately, anyone who has been in the public eye for a long time will have a history which can be twisted and spun to the opposition’s advantage.  That’s politics.  It amazes me that Hillary’s peccadillos are shouted louder than Trump’s perversities.

Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that “my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.” —Isaac Asimov

Isaac Asimov was a Russian immigrant to the US when he was three years old, so he was effectively as American, culturally, as any of us.  He grew up seeing our foibles and our strengths.  His writings thoroughly demonstrate his observations about human nature as seen in the USA.  His quote, above, describes the Trump supporters as I observe them.  Ignorance is always scary because it encourages people to do things which others (with more experience and/or education) know will lead to no good.

The only thing which encourages me to believe we’ll pull through this election is an observation by Winston Churchill that “You can always count on Americans to do the right thing – after they’ve tried everything else.”  I hope to God that we’ll do the right thing this time.  On the other hand, Britain is a bit crazy now, as is much of the world.  How did we all wind up where we are today?

It seems to me that, after World War II, the world pulled together to rebuild the developed countries.  The United Nations, the Marshall Plan, and scientific progress throughout the world were all pulling together to make a more productive, peaceful, and better life for humanity.  Nothing is perfect and not everybody benefited equally from progress, but as a whole things went well for many years.  Then we get to the more recent years when the US pursued military objectives in the Middle East leading to huge economic deficits at home, hatred and revenge by the persecuted population of the Middle East, and an overall downward trend in the quality of life in the US.  Bill Clinton pulled the US out of a huge deficit and possibly Hillary Clinton might finish the job Obama started to right our economy from the $1.4 trillion George W. Bush deficit.  Obama reduced the deficit by over $1 trillion.  That’s pretty amazing since he was saddled with an opposition controlled Congress which refused to address the country’s economic and social issues.  History, by the way, demonstrates that the US stock market (and the economy in general) does better under Democratic administrations than under Republican administrations.  A rising tide really does lift all boats.

While I am not a deeply religious person, I was raised as a Catholic and understand something of the Bible and Christianity.  I cannot help noticing that all the world’s great religions share common themes of “treat others the way you would like to be treated” and “help those who need help.”  Not only do the great religions share those principles, in times when and where those principles prevail, everybody (yes, everybody) seems to have a better life.  There is a reason these principles have been promulgated for thousands of years:  they work to the best advantage of the largest number of people.

I have to make a politically incorrect statement now.  When I look for reasons why things have fallen apart in more recent years, I look at the difference between how the boomers were raised and how more recent generations are being raised.  If mom has to work to provide enough money for the family to survive, mom is not at home raising the children and transmitting cultural values to those children.  The cultural values being pushed in recent times have been the violence and intolerance of movies, TV, and video games.  We humans are very visual animals, so these are powerful transmission vehicles.

So I blame a rising cost of living, rising expectations to own technology, and salaries that do not keep pace with those costs.  I blame CEOs who for decades have hired consultants to justify boosting their compensation packages.  Now CEOs are paid obscene amounts of money.  The middle class of the 50’s, 60’s and 70’s has disappeared.  Mom has to work.  Kids do not receive the guidance and attention that earlier generations received from their families.  But kids do learn.  Now kids learn from commercial sources with a profit motivation.  There is no effort to instill moral and ethical values on the cable networks.  Heck, you don’t even find a fair treatment of world news in today’s media.  Intolerance is presented as a religious value and it goes downhill from there.  If you read people’s thoughts online, which I do occasionally to see what’s in the public marketplace of ideas, you will also see the follow up comments from people who read those thoughts.  Some of those comments are thoughtful and reasoned.  Some are angry, illogical, and come from a different planet than I have known.

The US would appear to need another Democratic administration.  Therefore, I’m voting for Hillary.  No US elected official is chosen without the support of the people who control and manipulate our economic system.  The Koch Brothers’ Tea Party cost them a lot, but it is pretty much dead at this point.  (Isn’t it?  It’s so hard to tell what’s really going on.)  The Tea Party’s influence continues among those most susceptible to its claims and stories.  That influence seems to have delivered people to Donald Trump.  How and why any woman or any halfway intelligent person would support Trump is a complete mystery to me.  I don’t understand what possible appeal he has to anyone who knows anything about his history.  He may belong behind bars, but surely not running for president of the United States.

I wish Hillary were more likeable.  I will vote for her and I believe she will do a good job.  I just don’t have warm and fuzzy feelings about her.  I’m a bit suspicious of her relationship with Wall Street but hope for the best.  We shall see.

Guest blog: “If We Were Emperor!” by jan howard “wombat” finder

Jan Howard Finder died February 26, 2013.  He will be remembered and missed by many people around the world.  I’m proud to say jan was a friend and will leave this entry here as a reminder of his character and convictions.

This is a first for my little blog.  A friend of mine, jan howard finder, wanted to post this piece online and I volunteered to host it on my WordPress blog.  Mind you I did offer to set him up with his own WordPress blog, but here we are.  The topic is how to get the US moving again economically.  I’ll have a comment at the end, but for the moment, here’s jan:

If We Were Emperor!

by jan howard “wombat” finder

[“If We were Emperor” is the style I am using in order to frame my opinions.   I do not advocate the overthrow of the current US government or the Constitution.]

There are several things We would do in order to get the country and economy back on track:

Taxes: 

1. Repeal the two big tax cuts instituted by President Bush, in 2001 and in 2003.
2. Stimulus plan:  A cheque for $5,000 to everyone who has filed a 1040-based tax return in 2011.  [Assuming 150 million taxpayers, corporations NOT included, this would cost $750 Billion.] This would put the money into the hands of those who would give a boost to the economy, the consumers, by buying durable goods, paying down mortgages, etc. It would do what The President Bush said we should do, just after Sept 11, “go out and spend money”; it was said to individuals, not to corporations.
3. Boost for Lower and Middle-classes:  Raise the personal deduction to $7,500, indexed to the Cost of Living.
4. Cap the amount of taxable deduction for interest on home mortgages to $25,000 to $50,000 per year.  The interest cap could be indexed to the Cost of Living Index for that area.
5. Cap other governmental agencies at current spending levels for 5 years.

Education:

1. Grants: We would expand grants to students attending accredited institutions of higher education.
2. Loans: Students would pay off the Federally Funded Student Loans either: (a)    by paying a percentage of  their GROSS income, 1%, 2%, or other suitable percentage. This allows graduates to accept a lower paying job of their choice rather than be forced to accept a job that will not advance their careers.  (b)   or a standard loan agreement over 10 years at the Prime Rate plus 1%, payment to start one year after graduation.
3. Tuition Rebates: We would set up tuition rebates for students in Mathematics, Sciences, and Engineering at accredited institutions of higher education who achieve a cumulative 3.5 GPA or better by the end of their 3^rd academic year.  The rebate would be up to $10,000 or $20,000 in tuition rebates for the 3^rd and 4^th academic years.  This tuition rebate would also apply to Graduate Students.

Energy:

1. Energy Production: Accelerated depreciation [5 years on a plant designed to last 40 years.] on the Capital Costs of creating non-fossil fuel energy production assets, e.g., Wind turbines, Photovoltaic cells, Solar Updraft Towers, Hydrothermal plants, etc.
2. Equipment Installation: 100% deduction, depreciated over 3 years, for equipment and installation of alternate energy producing units by individuals and businesses in the tax year of installation.

Transportation:

1. Increase Federal gas tax: Add a10 cent a gallon increase in the Federal tax on petroleum products with the money going to maintenance and repair of existing infrastructure. NO NEW CONSTRUCTION! The Federal tax is earmarked for existing roads and bridges. We would add up to 10 cents every year for 5 years.  Each one cent [0.01] increase brings in about $1 billion dollars in revenue.  This is equivalent about 25,000 new jobs.  Each new job will bring in about 2 or 3 additional jobs into the market.  The 10 cent a gallon or equivalent increase in the Federal tax on petroleum products could result in approximately 500, 000 and 1 million new jobs.
2. State gas tax fund: Require states to put state gasoline taxes into a separate fund, to be spent on roads, bridges, and other transportation infrastructure. Most state gasoline taxes go into the General Fund and never get spent on infrastructure.
3. State funding: All states would be required to spend, not allocate, a minimum of 90% of the previous year’s road transportation budget or lose ALL Federal DoT funding the following year.
4. The cost of the increase in the tax is about $48 a year to the motorist who drives 12,000 miles a year and gets 25 mpg.  If one drives less and or has a more fuel efficient vehicle, the cost would be less.  What is the cost of a new tire, wheel alignment, wheel balancing, shock absorber, ball joints, etc.? The US’s poor infrastructure costs motorists $67 Billion a year.  [Taken from an ad by Audi.]

Social Security:

Raise the taxable limit for Federal Insurance Contributions Act (FICA) tax to $250,000.  Increase this to $500,000 24 months after the previous increase.

Currently, someone who earns $102,000 pays 6.2%.  Someone who earns $250,000 pays 6.2% on the first $102,000, and pays 0% on the remaining $148,000.  Someone who makes $500,000 pays 6.2% of the first $102,000, and 0% on the remaining $398,000.

The first change would mean:  Someone who earns $250,000 pays 6.2%.  Someone who makes $500,000 pays 6.2% of the first $250,000, and 0% on the remaining $250,000.

6.2% of that $148,000 is significant. When the limit moves to $500,000:  Someone who earns $500,000 pays 6.2%.  Someone who makes $750,000 pays 6.2% of the first $500,000, and 0% on the remaining $250,000.

If someone currently making $102,000 or less can pay 6.2% of their income to FICA, certainly someone making $250,000 or more can manage.

Health:

1. Medicare/Medicaid: All Medicare, Medicaid, etc., payments would be frozen at current levels for 5 years.
2. Health Insurance:  Any US citizen would be allowed to sign up for The Federal Employees Health Benefits [FEHB] plan, the plan that is available to all federal government  employees. (It’s the same one members of Congress use.)  This would be a “Public Option.”  The Federal Government would pay approximate 75% of the premium and the individual-family would pay the other 25%.  The insured would be free to choose any of the several private insurance plans in the insured’s area: Blue Cross/Blue Shield, Kaiser Permanente, or in my case for example, the Capital District Physician’s Health Plan [CDPHP].  I get to choose my doctors [I easily switched urologists recently]. 

Department of Defense

1. A 5% across the board increase in pay and benefits for all Military Service personnel.  They don’t get anywhere near what they deserve.
2. The DoD budget would be frozen for 5 years.  While research would be encouraged, development would be limited to proof of concept prototypes.
3. DARPA would be encouraged to expand  its challenge programs: Set standards and let private inventors meet the challenge.  Sort of small X-Prize offer.
4. Decrease the DoD budget, potentially 5% a year or more, for 5 years:
   1. by evaluating the necessity of building expensive equipment simply because it’s “new”, when existing equipment is more than adequate for current and near-future projections of enemy capabilities (we’re not fighting the Soviets any more);
   2. by evaluating the necessity of building more of the expensive equipment that no longer meets the operational needs against current and near-future enemies (how many aircraft carriers do we need to fight, or support fights, in small towns in the Middle East?);
   3. and by bringing our service personnel and materiel back home. The ability to mobilize quickly, to transport personnel and materiel needed for quick strike missions, no longer requires the tremendous expenditures of overseas bases.

X-Prizes:

We would set up a series of Federally funded X-Prizes in areas of  need, i.e., energy, space exploration, engineering challenges.  The money would go to the winning teams, not to the institutions for whom they may work.  X-prize funds are not paid out until the established goals are met!

[This is my opinion.  I encourage you to write your own screed.]

—————————

This is Mary again. It’s an interesting proposal. I think an open debate would probably not decrease the DoD budget, most of which goes to pensions, as I understand it. And if we want to encourage R&D, in my humble opinion we need to invest in it, not offer prizes to be awarded when the work is done, since it may never be economically possible to provide a proof of concept.  Still, lots of these things are good ideas.  Your thoughts?

While I’m on the topic, if you do a Google Images search for “jan howard finder” you will find lots of photos from Science Fiction conventions and other places which are the natural habitat for wombats. The lower case spelling is traditional for jan, although they have it wrong on Wikipedia. But then they didn’t mention jan as fan guest of honor at a Sci-Fi convention in Metz, France, either… when Robert Bloch was the guest of honor… or lots of other things, so maybe he’ll write a memoir!

The US Economy, Capitalism, and Democracy

I recently received a financial newsletter forwarded to me by a dear friend who asked what I thought of it.  It basically described the end of the world and life as we know it due to the stock market, the US Treasury, the debt crisis, and so on.  I responded with a heavy heart as follows:

I looked thru it quickly. And I actually agree with him on just about everything.  HOWEVER, having said that… please allow me to quote from one of my favorite movies of all time, Men In Black:

Kay: We do not discharge our weapons in view of the public!
Jay: Man, we ain’t got time for this cover-up bullshit! I don’t know whether or not you’ve forgotten, but there’s an Arquillian Battle Cruiser that’s about to…
Kay: There’s always an Arquillian Battle Cruiser, or a Corillian Death Ray, or an intergalactic plague that is about to wipe out all life on this miserable little planet, and the only way these people can get on with their happy lives is that they DO NOT KNOW ABOUT IT!

Now then, throughout time there has always been an Arquillian Battle Cruiser posed to destroy the earth, mankind, or the economy.  And yet somehow we’ve survived for hundreds of thousands of years.  For thousands of generations.  While it is true that we now have the technology to theoretically enable one person or a small group of people to destroy all life on this planet (or the planet itself)… I am reminded of the Nazi general (Dietrich von Choltitz) who refused to destroy Paris. Maybe people will restrain themselves from destroying life as we know it.  On the other hand, Dietrich von Choltitz did destroy Rotterdam, which was arguably an important military target. (Still, my husband was born there, so we’re a bit touchy on the subject.)

This is one of those YES, but ON THE OTHER HAND type of things.  I don’t know which economic story is right.  I see economic disaster all around us.  But disaster has always been there and always been a possibility.  I see “advances” in technology that can make bad people more powerful than in the past.  I see social patterns that weaken the majority of people economically and intellectually.  But I still wonder that maybe we ARE like cockroaches… very hard to kill.  I’m not sure, but I cling to a hope that things will straighten out, that our politicians will right some wrongs eventually, that a leader will emerge with the cojones to put us back on the right track, for a while, until the next mess.  As dear, sheltered, Emily Dickenson wrote:

Hope is the thing with feathers
That perches in the soul,
And sings the tune without the words,
And never stops at all.

I can’t give up hope.  I still fill the hummingbird feeder.

That addresses the emotional content of these economic disaster newsletters, but the harsh reality is that maybe capitalism doesn’t work so well.  It harnesses so many aspects of human nature, that it seems like it should work. And democracy seems like it should work.  In theory it appeals to our better nature. But when you put the two of them together, we observe corporations buying politicians, buying the Supreme Court, Congress, and certainly influencing the White House.  The Supreme Court saying it’s ok for corporations to spend money to influence their best interests in elections? Come on. I don’t think the founding fathers had that in mind.  I hope that US citizens in their late teens, twenties, and older will take back the country.

Looking around the net for places where folks are considering the topics of democracy and capitalism, I found some fascinating things. I am reminded that the internet provides us with this wonderful, open communications medium to discuss our concerns, refute questionable facts, and share ideas. I’m still not convinced of what caused the “Arab Spring” this year, but if the answer is young, educated, unemployed citizens, the topic of democracy and capitalism deserves a whole lot of consideration.  It may be time for a serious adjustment. Mind you I love my country, but I don’t believe we’ve been on a constructive track since Bill Clinton was president.  And we need to think it over. What has made us successful in the past and what will make us successful in the future?

Some links to others considering the topic:  

The first interesting article I’ll mention is  Democracy and Capitalism, Why in the end the two are incompatible.  This is a British blog (Socialist Standard), and I don’t think Socialism is the answer, but the piece makes some good points and is worth reading.

Now here’s a url for you:  http://anticap.wordpress.com/2010/07/29/capitalist-democracy-as-organized-combat/

Anyone whose WordPress blog is titled ANTICAP may be a bit predictable, but you have to check out the great editorial cartoon on this page!  It’s the lead-in to a short blog titled ‘Capitalist democracy as “organized combat” ‘.  The focus is on  the links between inequality and the current economic crisis in the United States with pointers to the work of Jacob S. Hacker (of Yale) and Paul Pierson (of Berkeley), full article HERE.  (It requires some effort to get to the full article, so I’ve linked to it directly.) It is true enough that while economists have noted the increasing wealth disparity in the US, “students of American politics” have been remarkably quiet on the topic. (And that’s why I’m collecting and writing this, of course.) It’s a long, detailed read, but the best analysis of the current US economic and political situation I’ve seen.

Then there’s Henry Lamb on Capitalism’s Impending Demise. The point here is that there is no longer a free market economy in the US. It begins something like this: “Labor unions and government regulations have put an end to that era.” and goes on to bemoan the loss of streets paved with gold due to the evil Democrats. Yeah. Labor union membership has been declining every year since the government started keeping records, bozo, so you are – shall we say – full of it. But then my convictions are to support labor.  Organized labor IS part of a free market economy, guys.  The US Dept of Labor Statistics supplies this information: “In 1983, the first year for which comparable union data are available, the union membership rate was 20.1%, and there were 17.7 million union workers.” and this: “In 2010, the union membership rate — the percent of wage and salary workers who were members of a union — was 11.9%, down from 12.3% a year earlier.” More than half of current union members are public sector employees, by the way.  Draw your own conclusion about that.

The Economist in June 2003 ran an issue with the cover article: Capitalism and Democracy, which article I found on Bill Emmott’s website, as he is the author and editor of The Economist. If you have the time and patience to read it, it’s fantastically good.  He agrees that however dark it looks, somehow good times seem to recur eventually.  This time the abuses from inside the financial system have been worse than usual and the political backlash has not hit as strongly as one might expect yet. And that was written in 2003. Where’s the backlash? I don’t know, but the question is excellent.

Then there are some blogs which would appear to be fermenting the next American Revolution.  Worth looking at (great layout and illustrations):   Norman D. Livergood’s Completing the American Revolution. I don’t agree with everything here by any means, and I don’t think Obama is a fraud, BUT democracy and capitalism don’t seem to be working for the majority of people in the US.  At the very end of the piece, he admits that the US government provides more freedoms than other governments and has done some very good things.  So I present this as another “ON the one hand, ON the other hand” state of human/US affairs.

The Daily Kos has a blog entry titled Why Capitalism Is Evil, which might better be titled Capitalism can be proved Evil beyond a reasonable doubt.  It’s lengthy, but well argued and well researched with pointers to other books as well as Michael Moore’s Capitalism: A Love Story.  I admire the effort here and agree with much of it, but like most such excellent pieces, I am left wondering …. what do we do now? If we agree that capitalism, as practiced, does not work, keeping in mind that it did create the greatest nation on the planet, what do we try next?

I’m amused that a right wing website called NewsBusters which has the subtitle Exposing & Combating Liberal Media Bias (I could write a whole book on that topic alone, summary: balderdash) write what they consider a scathing review of Michael Moore’s Capitalism and it reads as a fairly great review. Their complaints don’t ring as bad things. Until the last sentence which attempts to dismiss Moore entirely. I don’t particularly recommend reading this piece, except to note that it quotes Michael Moore as saying he doesn’t have the answer to what’s next, either.

Last reading assignment (ha… are you still with me here?) is a short blog entry in a blog titled PEACE IS POSSIBLE. Simple statement of why capitalism is not equal to democracy.  Amen.

While I don’t have the answers, the questions and the people considering them are important.  I’m a fan of  Adam Smith and The Wealth of Nations.   Peace.

Movement for a 28th Amendment to the US Constitution

I received an email today which asked me to forward it to still another 20 people.  I thought this might be more useful.

It’s time for another Amendment to the US Constitution.  I do believe this.  And I like everything in the proposal below.  See what you think and you are more than welcome to copy and forward it to your friends and Congresscritters.  It will take a huge amount of effort to get this passed because it is not in the best economic interests of the members of Congress.  But it’s worth raising the possibility.

 

“Behind the ostensible government sits enthroned an invisible government owing no allegiance and acknowledging no responsibility to the people.”  —Theodore Roosevelt

 

“Do what you can, with what you have, where you are.” —Theodore Roosevelt

 

The rest of this post is the content of that email:

“The 26th Amendment (granting the right to vote for 18 year-olds) took only 3 months and 8 days to be ratified.  Why?  Simple!  The people demanded it.  That was in 1971… before computers, before e-mail, before cell phones, etc.

“Of the 27 Amendments to the US Constitution, seven (7) took 1 year or less to become the law of the land… all because of public pressure.

“I’m asking you to forward this email to a minimum of twenty people on your address list; in turn ask each of those to do likewise.

“In three days, most people in The United States of America will have the message.  This is one idea that really should be passed around.

 

 

Congressional Reform Act of 2011

1. Term Limits.

An elected Congressperson may serve a maximum of 12 years only, defined as one of the possible options below:

A. Two 6-year Senate terms

B. Six 2-year House terms

C. One 6-year Senate term and three 2-Year House terms

2.  No Tenure / No Pension.

A Congressperson collects a salary while in office and receives no pay when they are out of office.

3.  Congress (past, present, and future) participates in Social Security.

All funds in the Congressional retirement fund move to the Social Security system immediately.  All future funds flow into the Social Security system, and Congress participates with the American people.

4. Congress can purchase their own retirement plan, just as all Americans do.

5. Congress will no longer vote themselves a pay raise.

Congressional pay will rise by the lower of CPI or 3%.

6. Congress loses their current health care system and participates in the same health care system as the American people.

7. Congress must equally abide by all laws they impose on the American people.

8. All contracts with past and present Congresspersons are void effective 1/1/11.

“The American people did not make the current contract with members of Congress.  Congressmen made all these contracts for themselves.

“Serving in Congress is an honor, not a career. The Founding Fathers envisioned citizen legislators, so ours should serve their term(s), then go home and back to work.

“If each person contacts a minimum of twenty people then it will only take three days for most people (in the U.S. ) to receive this message.

“MUCH OF WHAT WE FACE IN TERMS OF PRIVILEGE AND SELFISHNESS IN THIS COUNTRY MIGHT BEST BE CHANGED STARTING FROM THE TOP DOWN.”

Me again.  I poked around on the web and found the organization which is working to make this happen.  Amendment to Reform Congress is on Facebook.  And their website is here. In my humble opinion it’s time we got together and agreed on some, most, or all of these changes to our representative government.  The current approach creates a divide between the governed and the government which is hurting our country.  With this Amendment can can continue to be a government OF the people, BY the people, and FOR the people.

It’s time to align the self-interest of Congress with that of the American people and not with that of lobbyists.

Updogs, Downdogs, Marketing, and Politics

Yoga gives you time to think. And updogs and downdogs get me thinking. Thinking about optimism and pessimism.  Thinking about how we view the world, ourselves, and each other.

Mothers are traditionally considered nagging, restrictive, etc. by their children. All of that is true, of course, and the species benefits by the concern of the mother (and father) for the welfare of their offspring.  “Look both ways before you cross the street.” “Don’t talk to strangers.” “Wear your coat.”  “Be careful.”  Sometimes negative sounding words are said with love and concern.  On the other hand, mothers cheer their children on, applauding every step forward, marveling at their beauty and cleverness. Downdogs and updogs?

When we are an updog, we bubble humor and positive vibes, let’s say. We look to the sun as we bend upward. We’re optimistic. Then we have to do something nearly the opposite, designed to stretch an entirely different set of muscles and ligaments. The downdog brings blood to our head, focuses our attention on the ground, and might be considered the narrow, pessimistic, protective position.

Actually both positions remind me of the Village People making large letters, but that is neither here nor there. (Peter Minister gnomes below)  Yoga is fun and I’m easily amused.

So, my thinking drifted towards the difference between blogs that are light and amusing and those which are serious and about subjects which are important to the future of life as we know it.  Various marketing analytics have proven pretty conclusively that the most popular blogs are positive.  Let’s restate that to simply upbeat and downbeat posts: updogs and downdogs.  We all have enough stress in our lives, it seems, that we do not actively go seeking more.  So it would appear that the best advice for bloggers and marketing folks is to emphasize the positive.  Dwell on the solution, not the problem so much.  And, whatever you do, do not disparage the competition.  Ignore them.  Point out how your product is strong in an area, not how theirs is weak.  Your customers aren’t dumb, they’ll figure it out.  Know what?  It works.

But this is an election year.  And while it’s true that gunfights and fisticuffs rarely break out on the floor of the US Congress today, the verbal equivalent is everywhere, all the time.  The scandals that arise, the anger expressed on all sides are amazing to me.  I’m wondering how anyone can conceivably consider THAT candidate when they are obviously a perverted, arrogant tool of corporate interests with a massive negative advertising budget.  How can that be?  In the political world, “going negative” is done repeatedly, because everyone believes it works in the political sphere.

Why would “going negative” work in the political sphere but not in business to business sales and marketing?  Even consumer products rarely go “very” negative.  A taste test, perhaps, but Tide would never say that Arm & Hammer is terrible laundry soap and just plain doesn’t work.  (And it makes you fat!  Actually I recall a beer company years ago that set up a hotline phone number you could call and they would say things like that about their competition.  It was a hoot, but it was traded virally, under the table, not advertised. It was funny because it was snarky and underground.) That would be foolish.  Hardly anybody would believe a blatant lie about a commercial product.  But people will believe mudslinging charges thrown back and forth regarding political candidates, according to studies. I don’t find negative ads engaging or educational, but that’s me.

I am much more reminded of Adolf Hitler’s Big Lie Theory, “If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”  I read that many years ago and rather hoped it was not true.  But time has shown that it is, in politics.  Hitler is also known for having said: “It is always more difficult to fight against faith than against knowledge.” And “The victor will never be asked if he told the truth.”  Big, simple, lies, often repeated. Sounds like a description of political ads this time of year.  So how is it that so many people vote against their own best interests?  How do we allow some of these horrible human beings to run for office and actually elect them?

Tis a puzzlement to me. Updogs and downdogs are both designed to do us physical good.  Optomistic and pessimistic blogs may not be equally successful, but they can each have been written with good intentions.  Not every product review on CNET is a glowing tribute.  We seem to have invested so much emotion and faith in our political views, that a party which aligns itself with one important political view of yours would appear to capture your heart without your brain considering ALL the views of that party.  Belief is strong.  And unquestioning.

There is a 2004 book (with an awful cover) called Don’t Think of an Elephant: Know Your Values and Frame the Debate — The Essential Guide for Progressives by George Lakoff,  Howard Dean, and Don Hazen.  They raised questions about how the right was so successful in framing the debate and winning the hearts and minds of Americans.  Well, it seems simple enough.  When you control the media, all the media, you are likely to be able to get your point of view across better and more persuasively than any other view.  Leave it to Beaver, Father Knows Best, and Lucy were shows of another, more restrained age.  I’m not arguing for their return.  Far from it.  In recent years I’ve enjoyed Chuck, 30 Rock, Psych, Burn Notice, Glee, and bits and pieces of other shows.  I can’t abide the bad manners, anger, and side of humanity I see in so much of TV: reality TV, Fox News, and so on.  These are values we’re transmitting to our children.  We’re teaching them that those behaviors are acceptable…. or they wouldn’t be shown on TV as part of our commonly shared (accepted?) culture, right?  Tipper Gore wanted warning labels on rough rock lyrics.  The  poor woman must faint dead away if she listens to what passes for some “rap music.”  Why do people watch these things?  Why do people listen to these things?  They presumably reflect something already in their lives.  Or their lives come to reflect them.

Is there a conclusion here?  The same one that’s been around for hundreds if not thousands of years: we are each responsible for our vote.  That people are trying to manipulate us and make finding “truth” very difficult is pretty much the human condition. The search for The Truth is an arduous, but worthy goal.  I can’t help but believe that a strong vision of the future and an expression of specifics the person would fight for makes better political advertising than mudslingging.  Or do I mean “better” in terms of how I would like to think of our society, as opposed to what constitutes effective political marketing?  Which is why I like business to business marketing, and not political marketing.  Please vote next Tuesday.