Democrats
milhayser | April 4, 2016In January, Hillary Clinton still possessed the benefit of the doubt. Memories of her and Bill snarling at Barack Obama in 2008 had faded, and despite her long and dreadful record, it's always possible to turn over a new leaf. But Clinton's ongoing response to Bernie Sanders shows why she is unfit for the presidency. Even as the frontrunner, Hillary shows no leadership ability; she, too, follows Sanders, trailing him to the left as he takes meaningful positions on issues like income inequality and campaign finance reform. Her saccharine smile says "I can do that too!" but truly she should be…
gregladen | November 5, 2014The Potter Metaphor
Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is the first in a series of books that are metaphorical of the central theme of politics and society in the Western world. Voldemort represents purity of race and racism, the good Witches and Wizards of Hogwarts represent the struggle of self aware consensus around the idea of fairness. The key protagonists -- Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and Ron Weasley, together with a few others -- succeed because of the diversity in ability they collectively represent.
One of the key moments in J. K. Rowling’s book is the solution of the potions…
mikethemadbiologist | August 30, 2011They're getting pretty good at hostage taking, and it worked before. Alex Seitz-Wald reports:
Despite the devastation caused by Hurricane Irene this weekend, House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) today stood by his call that no more money be allocated for disaster relief unless it is offset by spending cuts elsewhere. The Washington Post reported this morning that FEMA will need more money than it currently has to deal with the storm's aftermath and is already diverting funds from other recent disasters to deal with the hurricane, but Cantor's comments suggest Republicans won't authorize…
mikethemadbiologist | August 10, 2011Like Atrios, I don't believe this--nor would any person who takes mass transit or lives in (or near) an urban area:
Last month, I spoke to Christina Romer, Larry Summers and Jared Bernstein on this question. The three of them were arguably the administration's most persistent and consistent advocates for more stimulus. But they all said the same thing: The bigger the stimulus became, the harder it got to spend.
"We had a hard time spending $800 billion quickly, and with that much stimulus, the issue of diminishing returns could be important," said Romer. "I don't believe we could have…
sastyk | July 26, 2011On Friday, in a move that shocked, truly shocked America, President Obama said that food stamps were more important than Defense. Since this sort of prioritization is one of the fundamental differences between the US extreme right (aka Republicans) and the US center-right (also known as the Democrats), the fact that this caused an uproar among Republicans should also stun you. Republicans warn us that slashing America's defense budget until it is only double the next largest nations will cripple us, Democrats call the Republicans meanies, and everyone ignores the point.
The point is that…
mikethemadbiologist | July 22, 2011As with history in general, I suppose the victors write--or rewrite--economic history too. One of the arguments for balancing budgets that's floating around is that Clinton got us a surplus, times were good, and therefore, we should do it again. Of course, things were better for some people, including those at the bottom (which is a worthwhile gain), but most of the spoils went to those at the top. As the joke went, "Clinton has created millions of jobs, and I'm working three of them." Snark aside, the reason why Clinton was able to lower the debt was no mystery: private sector debt…
mikethemadbiologist | July 21, 2011Or more accurately, it's the revolt of the liberals. Personally, it's none of my business whom Republicans nominate for president, but, to me, Romney seems to be a strong electoral candidate (albeit one disliked by the Tea Party/theopolitical base). Why?
Liberals.
Hunh? Let me explain.
I've been talking to liberals who have non-overlapping circles of friends in Virginia, one of the closely contested swing states (thanks to Google+, the ability to use the phrase "circle of friends" is rapidly drawing to a close. But I digress). As I far as I can tell, there are enough liberals who would…
mikethemadbiologist | July 12, 2011I think one reason that the Obama adminstration (including the preznit) don't comprehend the level of anger about the economy is that many of them dwell in a world where they possess economic agency, whereas too many people do not. John Lanchester writes (italics mine):
From the worm's-eye perspective which most of us inhabit, the general feeling about this new turn in the economic crisis is one of bewilderment. I've encountered this in Iceland and in Ireland and in the UK: a sense of alienation and incomprehension and done-unto-ness. People feel they have very little economic or political…
mikethemadbiologist | July 3, 2011It appears the de facto Congressional retirement plan is spreading to the lower orders. For those who aren't familiar with the Congressional retirement plan, here's what I mean:
One of the dirty secrets about many, if not most, congressmen and senators is that they like Washington, D.C., rhetoric notwithstanding. They want to stay in town after they leave (or lose) office. Once you've tasted the Capital of the Free World, do you really want to go back to Pierre, South Dakota? (Tom Daschle comes to mind...). It's funny how many politicians, having made a career out of bashing War-Shing-…
mikethemadbiologist | June 22, 2011Matthew Yglesias wonders why Obama didn't push for a debt ceiling increase when he had the chance last year:
It didn't happen. Obama said he trusted John Boehner. Harry Reid said he didn't want the debt limit to be raised by the 111th Congress because he wanted to force the incoming 112th Congress to take ownership over it. The results of these decisions have been a disaster.
What's more, not only was the disaster predictable but even once it was visibly on the horizon the White House bungled it. There was a brief opportunity for the President to dig in his heels and simply refuse to…
mikethemadbiologist | May 21, 2011Earlier this week, Republican presidential hopeful Governor Tim Pawlenty uttered something, that if it had been said by a Democrat, would have led to accusations of elitism, snootiness, and disdain for 'real' Americans. Faced with the question of why he decided to run for president, Pawlenty responded (italics mine):
I try again, saying I am curious about when he first imagined himself worthy of the history books, ready to send soldiers to their deaths and endure the national stage's harsh toll. "I don't know," he replies. "I wish I had a good answer for you on that." Pawlenty says it is not…
mikethemadbiologist | May 5, 2011Part of the discussion surrounding the elimination of Osama bin Laden has taken a somewhat ghoulish turn: what does it mean for Obama's re-election chances? While I'm more of a zombies-eat-brains! type of guy, I'm certainly willing to be ghoulish, especially when it gives me the chance to discuss some interesting political science.
A couple of years ago, political scientist Douglas Hibbs published a model that describes the percentage of the vote an incumbent party will receive in a presidential election based on only two factors: disposable income and U.S. military causalities. By his…
mikethemadbiologist | May 4, 2011So I was pleasantly surprised to read about this strong pro-union move by the Rockefeller Republican Obama Administration--it's definitely not par for the course:
In what may be the strongest signal yet of the new pro-labor orientation of the National Labor Relations Board under President Obama, the agency filed a complaint Wednesday seeking to force Boeing to bring an airplane production line back to its unionized facilities in Washington State instead of moving the work to a nonunion plant in South Carolina.
In its complaint, the labor board said that Boeing's decision to transfer a second…
mikethemadbiologist | April 28, 2011I didn't think we would see assaults on unions happening in Massachusetts. I was wrong:
Last night, the Massachusetts House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill (111-42) to strip public-sector workers of their ability to bargain collectively for healthcare. The rhetoric surrounding the bill, proposed by Democratic State House Speaker Robert A. DeLeo, is in many ways similar to what Wisconsinites recently heard as Gov. Walker pushed his infamous unionbusting bill....
The State of Massachusetts currently faces a budget deficit of $1.9 billion. House Democrats say that by limiting…
mikethemadbiologist | April 21, 2011When I read this otherwise excellent article by Chris Mooney about why scientific evidence often doesn't persuade people*, I had the exact same reaction Kevin Drum did:
But be prepared to be annoyed when Chris wrenches his spine out of shape bending over backward to find an example of liberals denying science as much as conservatives. It might be true that you can find vaccine deniers in the aisles of Whole Foods, but if there's any rigorous evidence that belief in the vaccine-autism link is especially pronounced or widespread among liberals, I haven't seen it. Surely there's a better, more…
mikethemadbiologist | April 16, 2011I always say, that when it comes to policies, people have to like this crap. That is, your policies have to make people's lives better. And they don't want to hear about the methodological details, the ins and outs. Like most people, when their cars breakdown, they want to take it to the mechanic, get back, put the key in, and have the engine turn over. Most don't care how the car was fixed--they don't care about that (some do, and that's ok too). With that, I bring you Blue Texan who reminds us of this (italics mine):
But more broadly, the notion that Democrats lost the 2010 midterms…
mikethemadbiologist | April 15, 2011There's been a lot of back-and-forth in the Democratic bloggysphere about whether the budget deal is a good or a bad deal. While the political maneuvering, framing of issues, and so on matters--matters greatly--the discussion seems to have ignored the actual consequences of many of the stated budget cuts. And macroeconomic effects are important too, but many programs actually do important, critical stuff. Think Progress gives us some examples:
Here are just some of the cuts included in the deal, which should be voted on by the end of the week:
- Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for…
mikethemadbiologist | April 11, 2011A couple of weeks ago, President Obama acted like the president we hoped he would be and not the corporate donation seeking tool that he has turned into--he declared a sane educational policy in response to a question about the absurd number of standardized tests some students end up taking:
... we have piled on a lot of standardized tests on our kids. Now, there's nothing wrong with a standardized test being given occasionally just to give a baseline of where kids are at.
Malia and Sasha, my two daughters, they just recently took a standardized test. But it wasn't a high-stakes test. It wasn…
mikethemadbiologist | April 10, 2011David Plouffe, Obama's spokesman, responds to critics of Obama's capitulation to the Republicans:
"I would ask Robert Reich and others to actually consume the details of this," Mr. Plouffe said in an interview on Saturday. "There are some in our country who simply believe spending cuts are not required to help the economy. The president has made it very clear that we cannot stay on this fiscal trajectory."
Actually, many people in our country simply think cutting government spending with one of out seven Americans out of work or working too few hours is batshit lunacy. We've been through…
mikethemadbiologist | April 10, 2011Yes, it's good that Planned Parenthood was defunded--I support Planned Parenthood. But the Democrats were routed on the economics. Right now, with U3 unemployment still near nine percent, and under- and unemployment essentially unbudged, we need more spending, not less (remember, government deficits mean an increase in private savings--in this case, unemployed people would get jobs and accumulate some savings or pay down debts). We also need these programs because they do useful stuff.
The House is controlled by batshitloonitarians, but the Senate Democrats and the Obama Administration,…