The Art of Politics #237
By Hank Silverberg
When I sat in a Political Science 101 class in college almost 50 years ago, the professor would remind us over and over again that practicing good politics included the art of compromise.
It's a basic theory that taking one step forward is better than stagnation or one step backwards. Or as the Rolling Stones put it in song, "You can't always get what you want."
This past week though, gives us hope that is changing.
President Biden, for all his faults, can claim success
Pretty much everybody, with the exception of those who are not very bright, (read Lauren Boebert and Matt Goetz among others) knew that defaulting on the national debt would have tanked the economy worldwide and likely have created another great depression for us all.
So, both Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy gave a little to get the deal.
I don't need to review the agreement here because you have probably heard about it or read about it ad nauseum elsewhere online or on the air.
But let's just say that neither the right wing nor the left wing is happy. And the only real winner is the American people who can now go on with their lives knowing that their government, when pushed, can still function.
Ronald Reagan was right that when he said on occasion the government can get in the way, though the government's failure to act was not on his mind when he said it. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution is more to the point. Our government exists, among other things, to "promote the general Welfare" of our citizens. And that means making hard decisions that work for the majority of the population, even if it alienates the extreme wings.
https://constitution.congress.gov/constitution/preamble/
The Art of Compromise won't work on everything in the political sphere. The legal status of abortion tops that list. But I sure wish those in the House and the Senate would go back to Political Science 101 and remember what politics really is.
This time the American people won. Who knows what will happen next week?
Hungry America?
As I wrote above, one of the major responsibilities of the United States Government is to "provide for the general Welfare" of its citizens. But apparently, we as a whole and the government as our representatives are failing in one major aspect--feeding our population. Sure, there is enough food to go around. There is no famine like in Ethiopia or the Sudan. But we now face what's being called an "unprecedented" rise in "food insecurity."
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| (Courtesy sott.net) |
Backing that up is research from the U.S. Census Bureau compiled last month which found that 23% of the respondents sometimes don't have enough to eat. That's up from 15.8 million people to 19.2 million people in the last year.
And all this comes even with the unemployment rate at a 50-year low and the economy relatively strong.
It's particularly bad for the elderly, children and the poor, many of whom have to choose between paying for their medication, rent or eating.
And I want to note here. Most of the people who fit into this "food insecurity" category ARE working. They just don't make enough money to live on.
Both surveys were done before the debt ceiling agreement worked out by Congress and the President, which will cut food stamps (SNAP). The new rules for SNAP raises the age limit, which has now gone up from 49 to 54, for those able-bodied people without dependents to get food stamps if they are not working. About 700,000 people would be impacted by the new work requirements.
This is frankly inexcusable in modern day America. It's one of the reasons there's been such a hard push to raise the minimum wage, though those who oppose that move just don't seem to understand why it's needed. Virginia has acknowledged the need. A new law which takes effect July 1, requires employers to pay those with disabilities the same minimum wage as everyone else. The national average minimum wage for those with physical or mental disabilities is just $3.34 an hour.
Why Are They Killing ERIC?
Virginia has become the eighth state to get rid of ERIC. That's the Election Registration Information Center that is used by states across the country to make sure you can't vote in more than one state at a time. The data base is collected by Departments of Motor Vehicles where you register to vote.
ERIC has been around since 2012 and has been credited by many election officials across the country as a good method to prevent voter fraud.
But now Virginia Governor Glenn Youngkin, acting on advice from his Elections Commissioner Susan Beals, has withdrawn his state. Alabama, Florida, Missouri, West Virginia, Iowa, and Ohio are the other seven to withdraw. What do they have in common? They are red states controlled by Republican governors.
Beals, by no coincidence, used to work for Virginia State Senator Amanda Chase, the state's leading elections denier and a backer of Donald Trump.
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| (ERIC states before Virginia withdrew) |
What makes Virginia's departure more notable is that the state was one of the founding members of the compact which created ERIC in 2012 when Republican Bob McConnell was governor.
ERIC is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that is composed of state elections officials. Until a few months ago, Republican elections officials had been praising ERIC as a very positive tool for preventing voter fraud. Thirty states had been participating before the withdrawals began.
But a far-right website has been spreading rumors that ERIC is funded by liberal activists (not true) and that was apparently enough for Youngkin to buy into the conspiracy theory. The sources of that rumor? The Pew Charitable Trust provided some seed money for ERIC back in 2012, and the trust has received some donations from George Soros in the past. But Soros' money did NOT go to ERIC. The program is actually funded by the participating states, meaning taxpayer dollars.
Other states have expressed concerns about personal data but have given little evidence of any issue over the 10 years ERIC has been operational.
So, the Republican party that continues to spread the myth of massive voter fraud is slowly trying to destroy one of the most successful voter fraud fighting tools across the country. It's easy to figure out their motive.
Virginia is the eighth Republican-led state to leave ERIC : NPR
Who Wants to be President?
This may be the only time I print this list. (See below.) But here we are, 17 months before the 2024 election and eight months before the first primary, and there are 11 announced Republican candidates and six more whose names have been mentioned.
On the Democratic side, President Biden finally declared he is running again, and there are only two potential challenges, both fringe candidates with little chance of getting the nomination.
Now comes word that a group called "No Label" is slowly getting ready to run a third-party candidate, and at least one well-known Democrat may be their choice.
My question though, is who would want the job? Sure, you get free housing and a nice big travel allowance, but salary is only $400,000, and you are basically on the job 24/7/365.
You have to deal with critics every day who sometimes get ugly and talk to some foreign leaders who you really do not like. Even your friends sometimes say things about you behind your back. There is this guy in uniform who follows you around with a suitcase all the time that would allow you to blow up the world if necessary. But then you have to worry all the time about why that might be necessary.
The media is always asking questions on complex issues that you have to answer in 30 second sound bites, and sometimes reporters ask really stupid questions that you have to pretend are relevant to anything important.
And God forbid anybody in your family, from your kids to distant cousins and their spouses, do anything unsavory that you are going to have to answer for.
Oh, and you always seem to be asking people for money for your next term, including money from people you don't like and don't want to be associated with.
No thanks. I don't want the job. But here is a list of people who do, including a few you have probably never heard of.
First THE REPUBLICANS
In no particular order of standing or quality.
Announced:
Donald Trump (I would prefer not to write anything because my words would be banned in school libraries across Florida.
Ron DeSantis (same as above)
Larry Elder (who?)
Nikki Haley (disses old people)
Asa Hutchison (no one can find Arkansas on the map)
Vivek Ramaswamy (he thinks his millions will buy him the job)
Tim Scott (he's a U.S. Senator, but he has no footprint anywhere outside of South Carolina)
Corey Stapleton (who?)
Mike Pence (so irrelevant I forgot to put him on the first version of this list)
Others
Chris Christie (he may announce this week, but can he get over the lawn chair meme?)
Chris Sununu (a few old timers may remember his father, John)
Liz Chaney (she was great on the Jan 6th Committee, but out of touch on almost everything else.)
Glenn Youngkin (he's just looking for a new gig when his single term as Governor ends.)
The DEMOCRATS
Joe Biden (he already has the job, but can he keep it?)
Marianne Williamson (quadrennial candidate that nobody ever votes for.)
Robert Kennedy, Jr. (the name may be alluring, but he's an anti-vaxxer.)
This list may grow a bit in the next few weeks, but it will get smaller very quickly after that.
Dumbest Quote of The Week!
This week's dumbest quote comes from the sports broadcasting booth and the mouth of former Met Keith Hernandez, who now does color commentary for the team.
Hernandez was analyzing the batting stance of Toronto Blue Jays catcher Alejandro Kirk.
As Justin Verlander was getting ready to make a pitch, Hernandez said of Kirk:
"You want to always be erect when you make contact."
Well, maybe. But his colleagues in the broadcast booth were awkwardly silent for about ten seconds before Hernandez added:
"Like a telephone pole!"
We can probably forgive Hernandez for not realizing what he was saying. After the game he rushed back to his wife who was in labor at the time.
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