The signs of decline are everywhere. No ideas. No strategy except saying no. Extreme candidates. An unbending view of the constitution that allows no other interpretation. An aging, angry, declining electorate. Technology that doesn't work and that isn't attracting the best young talent in Silicon Valley. A pollster who was so wrong last November it actually skewed the numbers in many election forecasts is saying that the president is in trouble. And perhaps worse, a Ronald Reagan fetish that misinterprets what Reagan really accomplished, and how he accomplished it. Tell me what's positive about the Republicans.
It's as if the party is driving across the Chesapeake Bay Bridge with its eyes closed. Nothing good can come of this. They've already alienated a majority of people by voting down background checks. And now they're making noise that they will reject an immigration bill that has wide support and will address serious deficiencies in our system. Siding with big business on tax reform would be a sweet third strike as we move into next year's election season. In fact, 2010 will be seen as the swan song of the far right; the last
gasp of a fading and rudderless movement that will take up residence in
the south and fight the good fight, 150 years after the last major
battles.
The Democrats, by contrast, are beginning to move out of the morass they found themselves in after the 2010 elections. Yes, they are presently mired in scandal muck, but this too shall pass. The scandals might slow down their momentum, but as the GOP will use them as an excuse to do nothing, the population will see their tactics for what they are, and have always been, and will vote accordingly. The Democrats will probably not take the House, but they will make inroads on the path to a majority in 2016. They'll also hold on to the Senate, but perhaps by a smaller margin than today.
From there, it will be up to the Republicans who are left to either help make this country better or continue their obstruction. Yes, they have Rubio, Paul, Ryan and Christie. But up against O'Malley, Cuomo, Clinton and Malloy, they don't stand a chance.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
Tuesday, May 28, 2013
Sunday, May 19, 2013
The Smoking Gun Shoots Blanks
There's something telling about Mitch McConnell saying that the health care act will be the major issue in the 2014 midterm elections. It means that he realizes that the GOP will smoke its triple scandal orgasm cigarette and move on before the year is out. It also means that he operates in the same blindered echo-chamber the far right has occupied since March of 2010. Yes, the IRS does have a role to play in the ACA's rollout and implementation, but it's not going to be responsible for the death of the Republican Party. The party faithful are doing a good enough job of that.
After a week of terrible news, two major polls--CNN/ORC and Gallup--are showing that President Obama's approval ratings are holding steady in the low 50s, but that many Americans are not satisfied with many of the answers the members of his administration, and he, are giving. That's understandable. These are undeniably poor governmental practices, and if anybody has broken the law, then they should be punished. But that will be difficult.
What happened at the IRS office in Cincinnati sounds suspicioulsy like the office of any other overworked, understaffed institution in the United States. People made choices on their own, seemingly without a lot of oversight, and they tried to be efficient in the face of technology inefficiencies and a dash of confusion. There's no conspiracy here, despite the right wing's continuing bleating, because there were some left wing groups that got caught up in the excess scrutiny. Plus, at the time, most of the new groups asking for tax-exempts status were Tea Party affiliated because that's when they rose to power, so that was the bulk of the applications to begin with. And there's no evidence (yet) that a majority or even a large cohort of these groups was denied their tax-exempt status because of their affiliation. This is not a scandal: It's incompetence, and that's not criminal.
The ongoing drama in Benghazi is likewise a government muddle, but it looks like it's mostly a CIA-State Department fight that resulted in terrible editing and a tragic miscalculation of what was happening on the ground. Again, is there evidence of illegal activity? Probably not, but the GOP will spend more time than it needs to trying to unearth something that isn't there.
The Justice Department's rummaging through the Associated Press' phone records is the most chilling of the three issues because it combines the worst of the War on Terror with a violation of the trust that journalists have with their sources. Its' also the most disappointing aspect of the Obama Administration's continuation of policies put in place during George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. Perhaps this will result in a national shield law, something that, until now, the Obama administration has been against.
The right wing has been waiting for the opportunity to investigate the president for over four years, and they've finally received their opportunity. They will probably be disappointed, but not until they've extracted some political coinage for their trouble. This will boomerang on them if it means that immigration and tax reform are sacrificed in the name of non-existent conspiracies.
And really, if you want to compare Obama to Nixon, then you probably weren't alive during the 1970s, and if you were, you learned the wrong lessons.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
After a week of terrible news, two major polls--CNN/ORC and Gallup--are showing that President Obama's approval ratings are holding steady in the low 50s, but that many Americans are not satisfied with many of the answers the members of his administration, and he, are giving. That's understandable. These are undeniably poor governmental practices, and if anybody has broken the law, then they should be punished. But that will be difficult.
What happened at the IRS office in Cincinnati sounds suspicioulsy like the office of any other overworked, understaffed institution in the United States. People made choices on their own, seemingly without a lot of oversight, and they tried to be efficient in the face of technology inefficiencies and a dash of confusion. There's no conspiracy here, despite the right wing's continuing bleating, because there were some left wing groups that got caught up in the excess scrutiny. Plus, at the time, most of the new groups asking for tax-exempts status were Tea Party affiliated because that's when they rose to power, so that was the bulk of the applications to begin with. And there's no evidence (yet) that a majority or even a large cohort of these groups was denied their tax-exempt status because of their affiliation. This is not a scandal: It's incompetence, and that's not criminal.
The ongoing drama in Benghazi is likewise a government muddle, but it looks like it's mostly a CIA-State Department fight that resulted in terrible editing and a tragic miscalculation of what was happening on the ground. Again, is there evidence of illegal activity? Probably not, but the GOP will spend more time than it needs to trying to unearth something that isn't there.
The Justice Department's rummaging through the Associated Press' phone records is the most chilling of the three issues because it combines the worst of the War on Terror with a violation of the trust that journalists have with their sources. Its' also the most disappointing aspect of the Obama Administration's continuation of policies put in place during George W. Bush's tenure in the White House. Perhaps this will result in a national shield law, something that, until now, the Obama administration has been against.
The right wing has been waiting for the opportunity to investigate the president for over four years, and they've finally received their opportunity. They will probably be disappointed, but not until they've extracted some political coinage for their trouble. This will boomerang on them if it means that immigration and tax reform are sacrificed in the name of non-existent conspiracies.
And really, if you want to compare Obama to Nixon, then you probably weren't alive during the 1970s, and if you were, you learned the wrong lessons.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
Tuesday, May 14, 2013
My Commencement Address
Now that it's graduation season, the press can't help but write articles like this one that discuss the terrible job market and how recent college graduates don't feel prepared to enter the work force.
To that I say, welcome to reality.
College is not job training; it's academic training, and any university worth its books will operate on that premise. Graduates who think that they are now ready for the working world are living under a false assumption that's been sold to the public for decades. High school guidance counselors, college consultants and many teachers peddle this connection as if it was always true and that the main reason one should go to college is simply to get a job. Institutions of higher education have bought into this line of illogic and are even going to far as to tailor their recruiting messages to highlight the terrific jobs their graduates have found.
What the colleges don't tell you is whether those jobs are related to what you majored in. That is sometimes an inconvenient measure, akin to the one your high school used to keep property values in your town elevated. The school highlights the wonderful colleges its graduates attend, but does zero follow-up to see who's staying in school, who's graduating, and where they're working. And all it costs is a zillion dollars, most if it in indebtedness that's crushing the wannabe middle class.
So back to the question: Do you want job training? Find an apprenticeship or a school that focuses on technical skills. Don't go to a pricey university and then complain that you don't believe that you are ready for the working world.
A university degree confers upon you the affirmation that you've studied an academic discipline, thought about it, questioned its assumptions and come out the other side a more EDUCATED person. Along the way, perhaps you took that odd course that had nothing to do with your major or making money simply because it was interesting or the professor was exceptional or the guy/gal you liked was also signed up. A university is not a job factory, and people ignore that fact at their peril.
When I graduated in the early 80s, all full of myself for having gone to the premier Communications school in the country, I was asked the same question on every interview:
How fast can you type?
Mazel tov to all recent graduates. Your work education begins now.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
To that I say, welcome to reality.
College is not job training; it's academic training, and any university worth its books will operate on that premise. Graduates who think that they are now ready for the working world are living under a false assumption that's been sold to the public for decades. High school guidance counselors, college consultants and many teachers peddle this connection as if it was always true and that the main reason one should go to college is simply to get a job. Institutions of higher education have bought into this line of illogic and are even going to far as to tailor their recruiting messages to highlight the terrific jobs their graduates have found.
What the colleges don't tell you is whether those jobs are related to what you majored in. That is sometimes an inconvenient measure, akin to the one your high school used to keep property values in your town elevated. The school highlights the wonderful colleges its graduates attend, but does zero follow-up to see who's staying in school, who's graduating, and where they're working. And all it costs is a zillion dollars, most if it in indebtedness that's crushing the wannabe middle class.
So back to the question: Do you want job training? Find an apprenticeship or a school that focuses on technical skills. Don't go to a pricey university and then complain that you don't believe that you are ready for the working world.
A university degree confers upon you the affirmation that you've studied an academic discipline, thought about it, questioned its assumptions and come out the other side a more EDUCATED person. Along the way, perhaps you took that odd course that had nothing to do with your major or making money simply because it was interesting or the professor was exceptional or the guy/gal you liked was also signed up. A university is not a job factory, and people ignore that fact at their peril.
When I graduated in the early 80s, all full of myself for having gone to the premier Communications school in the country, I was asked the same question on every interview:
How fast can you type?
Mazel tov to all recent graduates. Your work education begins now.
For more, go to www.facebook.com/WhereDemocracyLives and on Twitter @rigrundfest
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)