Marxists, Czars & Thieves

Constitutional Dictatorship: Its Dangers and Its Design

Constitutional Dictatorship: Its Dangers and Its Design

BBC News - Why do people vote against their own interests?

The Republicans' shock victory in the election for the US Senate seat in Massachusetts meant the Democrats lost their supermajority in the Senate. This makes it even harder for the Obama administration to get healthcare reform passed in the US. Political scientist Dr David Runciman looks at why there is often such deep opposition to reforms that appear to be of obvious benefit to voters.

Americans voicing their anger at the healthcare proposals at a "town hall meeting

Last year, in a series of "town-hall meetings" across the country, Americans got the chance to debate President Obama's proposed healthcare reforms.

What happened was an explosion of rage and barely suppressed violence.

Polling evidence suggests that the numbers who think the reforms go too far are nearly matched by those who think they do not go far enough.

But it is striking that the people who most dislike the whole idea of healthcare reform - the ones who think it is socialist, godless, a step on the road to a police state - are often the ones it seems designed to help.

In Texas, where barely two-thirds of the population have full health insurance and over a fifth of all children have no cover at all, opposition to the legislation is currently running at 87%.

Anger

Instead, to many of those who lose out under the existing system, reform still seems like the ultimate betrayal.

Why are so many American voters enraged by attempts to change a horribly inefficient system that leaves them with premiums they often cannot afford?

Why are they manning the barricades to defend insurance companies that routinely deny claims and cancel policies?

It might be tempting to put the whole thing down to what the historian Richard Hofstadter back in the 1960s called "the paranoid style" of American politics, in which God, guns and race get mixed into a toxic stew of resentment at anything coming out of Washington.

But that would be a mistake.

Drew Westen argues that stories rather than facts convince voters

If people vote against their own interests, it is not because they do not understand what is in their interest or have not yet had it properly explained to them.

They do it because they resent having their interests decided for them by politicians who think they know best.

There is nothing voters hate more than having things explained to them as though they were idiots.

As the saying goes, in politics, when you are explaining, you are losing. And that makes anything as complex or as messy as healthcare reform a very hard sell.

Stories not facts

In his book The Political Brain, psychologist Drew Westen, an exasperated Democrat, tried to show why the Right often wins the argument even when the Left is confident that it has the facts on its side.

He uses the following exchange from the first presidential debate between Al Gore and George Bush in 2000 to illustrate the perils of trying to explain to voters what will make them better off:

Gore: "Under the governor's plan, if you kept the same fee for service that you have now under Medicare, your premiums would go up by between 18% and 47%, and that is the study of the Congressional plan that he's modelled his proposal on by the Medicare actuaries."

Bush: "Look, this is a man who has great numbers. He talks about numbers.

LISTEN TO THE PROGRAMME Turkeys Voting for Christmas BBC Radio 4, Wednesday 27 January at 2045 GMT Or listen via the iPlayer

"I'm beginning to think not only did he invent the internet, but he invented the calculator. It's fuzzy math. It's trying to scare people in the voting booth."

Mr Gore was talking sense and Mr Bush nonsense - but Mr Bush won the debate. With statistics, the voters just hear a patronising policy wonk, and switch off.

For Mr Westen, stories always trump statistics, which means the politician with the best stories is going to win: "One of the fallacies that politicians often have on the Left is that things are obvious, when they are not obvious.

"Obama's administration made a tremendous mistake by not immediately branding the economic collapse that we had just had as the Republicans' Depression, caused by the Bush administration's ideology of unregulated greed. The result is that now people blame him."

Reverse revolution

Thomas Frank, the author of the best-selling book What's The Matter with Kansas, is an even more exasperated Democrat and he goes further than Mr Westen.

He believes that the voters' preference for emotional engagement over reasonable argument has allowed the Republican Party to blind them to their own real interests.

The Republicans have learnt how to stoke up resentment against the patronising liberal elite, all those do-gooders who assume they know what poor people ought to be thinking.

Right-wing politics has become a vehicle for channelling this popular anger against intellectual snobs. The result is that many of America's poorest citizens have a deep emotional attachment to a party that serves the interests of its richest.

Thomas Frank thinks that voters have become blinded to their real interests

Thomas Frank says that whatever disadvantaged Americans think they are voting for, they get something quite different:

"You vote to strike a blow against elitism and you receive a social order in which wealth is more concentrated than ever before in our life times, workers have been stripped of power, and CEOs are rewarded in a manner that is beyond imagining.

"It's like a French Revolution in reverse in which the workers come pouring down the street screaming more power to the aristocracy."

As Mr Frank sees it, authenticity has replaced economics as the driving force of modern politics. The authentic politicians are the ones who sound like they are speaking from the gut, not the cerebral cortex. Of course, they might be faking it, but it is no joke to say that in contemporary politics, if you can fake sincerity, you have got it made.

And the ultimate sin in modern politics is appearing to take the voters for granted.

This is a culture war but it is not simply being driven by differences over abortion, or religion, or patriotism. And it is not simply Red states vs. Blue states any more. It is a war on the entire political culture, on the arrogance of politicians, on their slipperiness and lack of principle, on their endless deal making and compromises.

And when the politicians say to the people protesting: 'But we're doing this for you', that just makes it worse. In fact, that seems to be what makes them angriest of all.

This edition of Turkeys Voting for Christmas was first broadcast on BBC Radio 4 on Sunday 24 January and repeated on Wednesday 27 January at 2045 GMT. Listen via the BBC iPlayer.

via news.bbc.co.uk

The Income Tax: WWII Disney Propaganda

Funded and approved by the US Department of Treasury in 1943, this Disney featurette was to encourage every good American to do his "duty" and pay his taxes, which, at this time, were at an all time high. Those who do not wish to pay or don't pay it gladly are depicted as friends of Hitler and enemies of liberty and democracy. Contrary to what has been stated on other posts of this film, it was never "banned" by anyone. Not only was it approved by the Treasury Secretary, it received an Academy Award nomination for "Best Documentary Feature." Even President Roosevelt himself had a hand in approving Donald Duck as the main character.

via www.youtube.com

MUST SEE - Hell-Bent For Election (Part 1 and 2)

One of the first major films from UPA Studios (then called Industrial Films), 1944's Hell-Bent For Election was a campaign film sponsored by UAW-CIO in support of Democratic President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Due to the length of this film it has been split into two parts. Executive Producer - Stephen Bosustow. Production Design - Zack Schwartz. Directed by Charles M. Jones

via www.youtube.com

via www.youtube.com

Obama FY 2010 Budget

Obama Budget 2010 Bud

SCARY STUFF HERE....Budget/Economic Outlook, FY 2010-2020: Testimony of CBO's Elmendorf

via budget.house.gov

Obama To Revamp Economic Team: WHY?

ANOTHER E-MAIL FROM AFL-CIO

My husband received this today - as I said in previous posts, he is a firefighter, and the IAFF (firefighters union) is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, which is why he gets these e-mails.  Just trying to get the word out on what their agenda is.  

Dear XXXX, Wall Street banks threw our economy into crisis. Bailing them out cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars. Now, with unemployment at 10 percent, those same Wall Street banks are planning to give six- and even seven-figure bonuses to the executives who created this mess. It's time to say enough, and send the banks a final notice. Payment is past due on the harm they've done to the economy. Payment is past due on all the ways they've mistreated their customers—from excessive credit card fees to risky mortgages. We're letting the bankers know—since they won't rein themselves in, the government is going to have to do it. And we're letting our senators know we want the banks to face consequences for their actions: President Obama's proposed financial crisis responsibility fee on the largest banks will help get back the taxpayer money that bailed out those same banks, without penalizing community banks and small firms. We need a consumer financial protection agency to provide strong oversight so banks can't play Russian roulette with our economy again, and to protect customers from being bled dry. Tired of banks loading you up with fees while taking taxpayer money and giving executives huge bonuses? Send a final notice—payment is past due and it's time for the government to rein in the banks. Click here to let the bankers know this is their final notice. Your message also will go to your senators to urge them to rein in the banks. In solidarity, Marc Laitin AFL-CIO Online Mobilization Coordinator P.S. Yesterday, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka told us the Massachusetts special election results demand harder, faster, smarter action from us on working family issues. Sending this final notice to the big banks is our first step. Take action now! Visit the Web address below to tell your friends about this.   Tell-a-friend! If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Working Families e-Activist Network. If you would like to unsubscribe from the e-Activist Network, or update your account settings, please visit your subscription management page.

E-Mail from AFL-CIO's Trumka RE: Current Political Climate & Scott Brown Election

My husband is a firefighter, and a member of the IAFF (firefighters union). The IAFF is affiliated with the AFL-CIO. Below is an e-mail my husband received yesterday from Richard Trumka, the AFL-CIO president regarding the current change in the political climate after the Scott Brown win in Massachusetts.  

 
--- On Thu, 1/21/10, Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO <[email protected]> wrote:

From: Richard L. Trumka, President, AFL-CIO <[email protected]>
Subject: A Wake-Up Call
To: "XXXX X XXXXXXXX ([email protected]
Date: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 2:35 PM


 	
Pledge Now:
Work Harder, Faster, Smarter

The wake-up call sent by Tuesday’s special election in Massachusetts for the U.S. Senate couldn’t be clearer.

Working people are fed up with inaction in Washington and expect real results.

We can’t leave it to any political party to protect the interests of working families—it’s up to us to organize and mobilize harder, faster and smarter than ever before.

Please pledge to do your part. Recommit now to push harder to win jobs, health care and an economy that works for all of us. Click here:


 	 
Dear XXXX,

What happened Tuesday in Massachusetts was a wake-up call to all of us.
It was a working class revolt—a signal that in this economic crisis, the American people demand jobs, health care and an economy that works for them now—not political business as usual.

It was a loud and clear message that our elected leaders—and our labor movement—must do more for working people, do it fast and do it smarter.
An AFL-CIO poll taken Tuesday night shows without doubt:
Voters are fed up that elected leaders have done too little to help working families.

They said Democrats have NOT overreached on jobs, the economy and health care—they have underreached.
Voters have seen too much help for Wall Street and not nearly enough help for Main Street.

Unless Democrats demonstrate that fixing the economy is their overriding priority, and begin to create more jobs for working Americans NOW, we’re going to see more results this November like the Massachusetts election.
For the union movement and activists, the message was also clear: It’s not time to leave it to any political party to take care of us once we put them in office. It’s time to organize and mobilize as never before to make every elected or aspiring leader PROVE he or she will create the jobs we need in an economy we need with the health care we need. 
 
I am not discouraged by Tuesday’s election results. Actually, I’m energized and I want you to be, too. Working America is demanding major change NOW—not timid, go-slow, partial solutions.
I know we are the people who can mobilize a massive army to force elected leaders to deliver.

Let’s do it—starting NOW.

P.S. I’m sending this same message in a YouTube video. Please take a look and share it with other fighters for working families.
In solidarity,

Richard L. Trumka
President, AFL-CIO

If you received this message from a friend, you can sign up for Working Families e-Activist Network.
If you would like to unsubscribe from the e-Activist Network, or update your account settings, please visit your subscription management page.

Make Mine Freedom - 1948

THIS SHOULD BE SHOWN IN ALL SCHOOLS!  Great Cartoon with a VERY important message