politics
October 28, 2003
Electability
A friend of mine recently asked me if any of the current Democrats running for President has a chance of beating George W. Bush. My reply:
I would agree that the Democratic fight for the White House is an uphill battle. You seem to be asking “Who can win?” rather than “Who is the best person for the job?” It’s a fair question. Right now I would guess many left-leaners would happily trade Bob Dole for GWB. But we’ll confine ourselves to the Democrats. No matter what we think of them pro or con, we can cross off CMB, Sharpton and Dennis K. As for the others, Edwards isn’t going anywhere. Leiberman is basically a Republican and stopped connecting with the base of the Democratic party in January of 2000. Kerry has spent the last six months waiting for Dean to mess up. His vote on Iraq will keep haunting him as long as things are going badly there. Clark is not happening… something could change but he came out of the gate with much fanfare and hasn’t been heard from since… Gephardt…well I don’t know what to say about Gephardt. I like him. He’s gotta lotta potential…. of course, so do I… and it is unlikely that I will be elected POTUS.
At this point I believe Dean is the clear favorite for the nomination. Yeah, he isn’t perfect. He’s not great on TV yet (he will get better I think). Do I agree with everything he says and does? Of course not. But, compared to the other campaigns his is significantly better organized and funded and it has remarkable energy. Dean’s campaign has used the internet to build a network like no campaign has ever done before. He is building a team of people that are investing themselves in the political process. That team is numbering the tens and hundreds of thousands and still growing. All those people also equals a huge number of individual donors. People that have given multiple times already and are still way below the $2000 limit. (The other big Dems raise mainly large donations from a much smaller group of people, just like GWB…. Dean taps wealthy Dems, but much smaller fish as well.) I’ve given Dean’s campaign two $25 donations totaling $50. Not much, but it’s $50 more than I have ever donated to a political campaign in the past, and I can keep giving as he progresses. Dean is basically a social moderate to liberal and a fiscal moderate to conservative. That suits me. I’m not really making my point very well, which is that despite what you hear in the press, I think Dean is the only Democrat that has a chance. And I think his chances get better every day.
August 29, 2003
Direct Democracy
I've been wanting to comment on the California recall election for some time, but frankly, I haven't known where to start. By now it's a cliche to call it an embarrassment, and all the jokes about Arnie, Gary Coleman, Gallagher and various porn stars and purveyors have been made. So what we're left with is the reality: a wealthy man with an agenda hired signature gatherers to find a small minority of Californians willing to spend $60 million dollars on holding a recall election for Governor of California. People have said it's direct democracy run amok, and they are correct. A Google search pulled up a number of recent editorials regarding the direct democracy issue and the recall. I read through many of them and didn't find anything worth suggesting… but there is a decent article from The Claremont Institute, written in 1998, and obviously not directly addressing the recent recall, it nonetheless gives a good overview of why direct democracy in California is not always a good thing. The problem is that we elect and pay government officials to do a certain job… to develop public policy, to make, uphold and enforce our laws, and to generally protect and facilitate the public good. Direct democracy (initiatives, propositions, recalls) not only circumvents that process, but ultimately cripples it as well. All the tough decisions are left to the “public” … causing gridlock within our government and making special interest salespeople the marketers of our laws and policies. I am not naive, I understand that powerful and organized interests will always have influence in our government, but direct democracy just doesn't work when the room gets larger than x hundred people. We don't need to reinvent the wheel, we just need to show up and elect smart, caring, responsible people to represent us in our democratic government. We don't have decisions about health care, legal services or education made by a commitee of millions, we research, decide upon and hire trained professionals for those tasks… why would we treat something as important as our government and laws any differently?
July 31, 2003
Citizen sends $400 tax rebate to Howard Dean
Erica Derr of Greensboro, NC has decided what to do with her $400 tax rebate (which she asked both of her senators to vote against), she's sending the full amount to Dean for America as a campaign contribution. You can read her excellent “Guest Post” to Howard Dean's Weblog here. This is the kind of direct democracy I support. Unlike the California model, where we elect leaders who refuse to act on anything and we end up voting on Propositions for everything… and now we have this stupid recall, but I digress… Derr's example is the way it's suppose to work… support a candidate that you believe in… help get them elected so that they can govern…
July 07, 2003
Weblogs and politics
Tom Coates links and comments insightfully on an event in the UK regarding: Can Weblogs Change Politics? My view is that the potential political uses of weblogs are just starting to be realized by both elected officials and candidates. In the US, the major media outlets are making much of presidential candidate Howard Dean's fundraising on the Internet, but it's not simply about using the Internet for fundraising, it's the grassroots networks and communities that are enabled and in many ways facilitated specifically by weblogs that are making a difference. Good weblogs are not static, they are frequently updated. Dean's official blog is updated very regularly and was constantly updated on the last day of the most recent financial reporting quarter. Dean's weblog served as the common point of gathering for a community that raised around $800,000 (of a total of $7.5m for the quarter) on that single day. But just as, if not more importantly, Dean's message and campaign news are being constantly broadcast through his blog. This means that people from all over the country can take part in the campaign and contribute to the campaign in a real-time way. This feeling of community is empowering to say the least, and goes far beyond just being an effective fundraising tool.
June 10, 2003
new official Howard Dean Blog is live
Presidential candidate Howard Dean's official weblog, Blog for America is up as of today. What I know of Dean I like, and I will definately be checking out his campaign in more depth in the coming months. As I told one of my leftier friends that have been splattering “Impeach Bush” bumper stickers all over Portland, Oregon, “Your time would be better spent working for a candidate to replace Bush.” Dean may be the man to work for.
May 24, 2003
Warren Buffett on the Dividend Tax Cut
I encourage everyone to read this “Dividend Voodoo” piece by Warren Buffett. I have attempted to link to a printer-friendly (ad-free) version of the article at The Washington Post.. hopefully the link will work for awhile.
Remember when the Republican Party used to stand for fiscal responsibility, a balanced budget and eliminating the deficit? At this point there seems little doubt about President Bush surviving re-election next year… but the real question is: Will America survive four more years of G.W. Bush as President.