Democrats, Wake Up!

Oh the wails from Waukesha...

Last night Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker’s campaign dealt a decisive blow to our party’s attempt to reverse, through a recall vote, the results of the 2010 election.  Governor Walker had won the 2010 election by a significant margin, and he'd proceeded to do what he’d promised during that campaign--to end collective bargaining rights for the bloated sector of public employees, and to enact fiscal reform in a state whose budget was pushing it into insolvency.  Yet Wisconsin Democrats fought for an election to recall him from office.  Walker defeated last night’s recall attempt not, as suggested by CNN, by a “narrow” margin, but by a wide and decisive one of 11%.  What's more, the lieutenant governor, also facing a recall election, was re-confirmed.  And then Republican candidates won the four State Senate seats up for election.  This in Wisconsin, traditionally a Democratic stronghold.

The results of the Wisconsin vote have been bitter for many, but it is a taste of what the Democratic party will receive come November unless the party’s leaders, and its rank and file, and President Obama’s political aides reform the party’s platform and discourse.

I urge them to do so now, starting here:

Stop treating our own who speak uncomfortable truths, truths that can save the party, as heretics. (Cory Booker is, in fact, righteous, heroic and right.)

Stop bashing productive businessmen, small or large.  Our country’s financial health depends on what they do.

Stop bashing bankers who act honestly and responsibly.  There are still a few and small businesses and large businesses depend upon them.

Propose REAL reform of Wall Street: if financial risk becomes socialized, profits must not be privatized.

Renounce the Occupy Wall Street movement.  It is not in any way, as has been argued by the NYT and others, like the Arab Spring, and the suggestion that it is is an insult to the brave Arab youth who stood up last year and this against murderous dictators.  The OWS movements have been a blight on the cities that hosted them; they became a rabble of unwashed and unemployed who in a number of instances committed rapes and other felonies.

In foreign affairs, stop treating our enemies better than our friends.

In domestic politics, stop treating our political adversaries like our enemies by demonizing them.  Stop criminalizing policy differences.

On Green Energy, be real.  Until it is “sustainable” (one of our own buzzwords) ours will be a carbon based economy.

On greenhouse gases, CO2 is not a “pollutant” but a part of the cycle of life.  Forests and plants need it.  When a cow sighs, a tree smiles.

Pass the Keystone legislation.  We now know what Dick Cheney was doing when he secretly huddled with oil men in 2000; he was plotting the long-term energy independence of America through the shale oil and gas revolution.  We should be thankful to him for that.  There is no longer a need to fund our enemies by buying it from any of those bad people who sit on top of it in Iran, Venezuela, or (since we’re still not sure about them) Russia.

(Addendum: we didn’t go to war with Saddam Hussein for oil.  If we wanted his oil we could have bought it from him.)

Stop pretending that the last decade’s conflicts, and matters of international and domestic security, are simple.  They involve a series of tragic choices, none of them attractive, but this is what our time has brought to us.

On counter-terrorism, stop blabbing about secret operations, and stop bragging about successful ones.  Take a cue from those we all know to be the actual heroes, the ones who put their lives on the line, and continue to do good work quietly.  

Embrace our returning warriors, help them find jobs and cherished places in society.  (Hint: the returning young leaders of our armed forces are set to become a formidable generation of political candidates.)

Stop baiting the “birthers.”  Our president, who was of course born in Hawaii, once as a young man opportunistically allowed his literary agent and publisher to market him as a Kenyan writer.  Everyone get over this.

Stop with the undertones of anti-Mormon bigotry.

Stop enacting regulations that force Catholic organizations to act against their beliefs.

We have coddled and even pandered to fringe elements who should be beyond the pale.  I mean Alinksy-ites and 9/11 Truthers.  We all know who Saul Alinsky was (and you do too John Cassidy of the New Yorker).  He was a Stalinist communist organizer who did his apprenticeship in the 1930s studying the rackets of Al Capone’s machine in Chicago.  His beliefs and methods do not belong within the Democratic Party of the United States.  As for those who believe the US government had anything to do with the planning or execution of the 9/11 plot, let them discuss such in a cafe east of Suez, but in any case we were wrong to tolerate them under the umbrella of our party.

As for those in the media loyal to the Democratic party, and that is most of you, you have done Democratic politicians no favor by reinforcing their delusions that they can hold the positions they do, act in the ways they do, and still be popular outside New York, DC and California.  Your readers and viewers are not fooled, and it has not made them love our politicians, or you.

Who and what, then, is the Democratic party?  It is the party of the great middle class (yes, there still is one), of working men and women, of people with compassion for the vulnerable, and for those starting out.  It’s the party that believes wealth, especially inherited or corporate wealth, should not play an undue role in elections. It’s the party that tries to makes sure everyone gets the same fair start.  It’s the party that works toward creating a nation where each of us, citizen or immigrant, candidate or accused, will be judged by what they have done, and on the content of their character.

Last night a bell was sounded, and there is now a long, challenging race to November.  Despite the Republicans' resounding defeat of our candidates in a solid blue state, there is still hope.  Democrats, wake up!

Social Scientists Say: "People Aren't Smart Enough for Democracy to Flourish"

One should be wary whenever one reads a headline with the phrase "Experts Say" or "Social Scientists Say."  Generally, they say whatever the writer would like them to say, because honestly any given social scientist will say just about anything, and it's really a matter of which social scientist the writer chooses to quote.

In any case, this is what David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University asserts: "That incompetent people are inherently unable to judge the competence of other people, or the quality of those people's ideas."

Journalist Natalie Wolchover of Livescience.com extrapolates this to conclude that "a growing body of research has revealed an unfortunate aspect of the human psyche that would seem to disprove this notion, and imply instead that democratic elections produce mediocre leadership and policies."

Wolchover further opines... sorry, writes:
 

As a result, no amount of information or facts about political candidates can override the inherent inability of many voters to accurately evaluate them. On top of that, [Dunning said] "very smart ideas are going to be hard for people to adopt, because most people don’t have the sophistication to recognize how good an idea is."  He and colleague Justin Kruger, formerly of Cornell and now of New York University, have demonstrated again and again that people are self-delusional when it comes to their own intellectual skills. "To the extent that you are incompetent, you are a worse judge of incompetence in other people," Dunning said. In one study, the researchers asked students to grade quizzes that tested for grammar skill. "We found that students who had done worse on the test itself gave more inaccurate grades to other students." Essentially, they didn't recognize the correct answer even when they saw it.  The reason for this disconnect is simple: "If you have gaps in your knowledge in a given area, then you’re not in a position to assess your own gaps or the gaps of others," Dunning said. Strangely though, in these experiments, people tend to readily and accurately agree on who the worst performers are, while failing to recognize the best performers.

Very bad news, this, from the professor.

Meanwhile, this made me very curious about Professor Dunnings own choices for the best political candidates.  Here via campaignmoney.com are Professor David Dunnings contributions to political candidates:

DUNNING, DAVID
ITHACA, NY 14850
CORNELL UNIVERSITY/PROFESSOR

KERRY, JOHN F

VIA JOHN KERRY FOR PRESIDENT INC
08/03/2004    500.00    24991236389

OBAMA, BARACK

VIA OBAMA FOR AMERICA
08/31/2008    500.00    28933253652
09/14/2008    500.00    28933938393
09/28/2008    500.00    28933938394

Hell Froze Over... and No One Even Noticed

Actor Tim Robbins, the recently-separated partner of Susan Sarandon, donated money to Republican Michelle Bachmann?

According to The Daily Beast, this is so:

"If Federal Election Commission records are to be believed, Robbins has not only donated regularly to Democratic candidates over the past 18 years, he also has written checks to conservative Republicans. In the 2006 election cycle, according to public records, the actor gave $5,000 to 10 Republican candidates for the House and Senate—including, most shocking of all, Minnesota’s resident wingnut, Rep. Michele Bachmann."

More Beastliness here.