Commencing Countdown, Engines On
In a week, Americans will go to the polls, if they haven't already and vote for president. In other news, water is wet and the sky is blue. Seriously, if you don't know when the election is and you read this blog, then there might not be help for you. Well, yeah, that is too far, but well, that's how politics is going these days. The recent campaigns have stepped up their attack ads in the last week, especially the McCain campaign. Obama has kept up his campaign of "closing the deal" most consisting of what he wants to do for the country, how exactly his tax plan will work, how his health care will cover people not covered right now and hitting hard on his stable leadership in contrast to McCain's uneven leadership. McCain and Palin have of course stepped up the ferocity of their attacks, and not just the ones on each other. They have seized on a soundbite Obama had with "Joe the Plumber" where he said the phrase "spread the wealth" and have decided that this makes him a socialist. So, the soundbites have been about Obama the socialist, the redistributionist-in-chief or other 1980's monikers making a come back. Some of the older and discredited theories, such as Obama not an American citizen. Hillary Clinton tried this, and ask her how well that worked. Jeremiah Wright and any number of other things are likely to come back in this last week. In this home stretch, no one is a sure winner, no matter what the polls say, and everyone in the US, and beyond, is convinced this is the most important election since. . .well, probably the last one. Obama has inspired a lot of people who usually don't give a damn to really give a damn, and McCain has inspired people to really dislike Obama, given he ceded the middle ground with Sarah Palin. So, when all else fails, attack, attack, attack, or at least so said James Carville.
We're a week out from the elections, weeks into a bailout rescue package for the banking industry that will end up costing about 750 billion dollars and has so far led to the government buying up banks or at least equity stock in them to effectively nationalize them. McCain came up with his own plan, that was also oddly socialistic, in the sense that now THE GOVERNMENT would hold most mortgages in the US, which is a step further than the current plans call for. Governor Palin, during her brief tenure as governor, aside from single-handedly holding off Russians and killing wolves, also took the opportunity to re-distribute some wealth in her state when the oil prices went up, and instead of letting the people who earned the money keep it, she chose to keep it and give it out to people regardless of their income or what they had earned. Of course, this is part of Alaska Permanent Fund and has long been part of the Alaska budget, but if it were portrayed in a different light, it could be seen as socialism, depending on how you define it all. People are calling Obama's tax plan communism or socialism or what have you because he wants to let the Bush tax cuts expire and send us BACK to the socialism that led us to the dot com tech boom under Clinton. Under the Obama plan, the top income tax rate would go from the nadir it is now at 35% to the oppressive and massive 39%. Note, under Carter, this same rate was close to 70%. But yes, 4% is the difference between communism since McCain and Palin have declared it so.
Socialism over 4%. There are arguments about whether or not this is part of a redistribution of wealth scheme that is blatantly anti-American, to hear other people tell it. This is somehow massively unAmerican that one candidate has ACTUALLY COME OUT AND SAID HE'LL RAISE TAXES, and not try to be George H. W. Bush who made his famous read my lips pledge, that he ended up eating his pledge hard. Now, it was a Democratic Congress that made him do it, and then they beat him up with it in 1992. So what does all of this mean? NOT A DAMN THING. Yeah, read that again. Bush raised taxes, that doesn't make him a communist or socialist. Other presidents raised taxes, they're not communists. Other presidents increased social programs, they're not communists. After all, the GI Bill didn't care about income or what was earned, just military service. To take it a step further, there are non-social programs that take in lots of tax money to make an equal, public good for all. For example, President Eisenhower took a lot of tax money, billions of it, and made big roads all across the country that don't always charge tolls that anyone with a car can use. This is not communism, yet people who didn't pay in federal income taxes benefit as much as people who paid in at the top percentage. This is the nature of our Republic. We started with Jefferson wanting a big public library (the Library of Congress), we added in a progressive income tax with the 16th Amendment (which was voted by the elected officials and the people, not a random decision of the Supreme Court). But what does this have to do with the campaign? Not much.
But that's been the tone recently. Each side trying to dig up the ONE last bit of "evidence" that will prove to the entire American electorate that their opponent is not just a political opponent but a threat to all of America and will change the election from being close to being a landslide for their candidate. The singular Holy Grail of evidence that will, like the winning move in a game of Go be the one piece that turns the whole board another color. The McCain campaign has been looking for this for a while now, but the Obama campaign has been hoping that ignoring the move is the right move. The campaign has been hoping that Obama ignoring/rising above it and preaching platitudes about unity, togetherness and working hard together to make things happen will be enough to get people out to the polls. Some years, this would be totally wrong, but this year it seems to be working. In a lot of other years, rallying the far right the way Palin has would make it all competitive, now that appears to have driven off many of the independents. The tea leaves readers all tried to predict what would happen, and everyone thought Clinton would be slugging it out against Huckabee or Romney or even Giuliani and the biggest issue would be the war in Iraq. Point? Predictions are pointless and trying to read the minds of the American voting public is problematic at best and in this year, like trying to count grains of sand in the Sahara.
So, with a lack of real options, the game plan is down to attack. It was a great military leader who "in lieu of other orders, attack the enemy" and it was James Carville who said "If it's about us, we're losing." meaning that if you side is on defense, you're losing. It was his entire theory of how to take the White House for Bill Clinton. It was his idea for how to win a political fight: don't make it about the fight, make it about the person you're fighting and you win. Note, he was surprised when Newt Gingrich did this to take the Congress in 1994. Now, after lots of other failed attempts, they have attempted to paint Obama as a communist and socialist for doing little more, really, than George Bush has done. One sweeping bill that allows the Secretary of the Treasury to buy banks at will, and raising upper income taxes is socialist? It's the ultimate in the idea of "You can't tell people what to think, you can tell them what to think about". With all of this, we're not talking about Ted Stevens. We're not talking about the high chance that Palin will have to take over the presidency. We're not talking about how McCain helped shepherd de-regulation that led to banks doing things they probably shouldn't have been. We're not even talking about the fact that Biden has been putting his foot in his mouth. We're seriously discussing whether or not Obama is a socialist because his tax policies are aimed at the top less than 1% of Americans. Even Warren Buffett, who is the richest man in America, has even called for this kind of thing, with his famous million dollar bet to any CEO who gets taxed at a higher rate than his or her secretary. But, here we are, talking about whether or not one comment out of context is enough to convince America Barack Obama is a socialist, and therefore less American.
But this is what campaigns have become and what this one has truly devolved to. This campaign has gone on now for the better part of two years and now we're all down to one week left and we're ALL going insane. We have no idea what we're going to do after all this is over since so many of us have let this define our lives. There are a lot of people I know smart people, rational people, educated people who are going irrational about all this. So many people are not just fans of one side or the other they've started really hating the other side, whichever side that may be. The other side is going to destroy America, they're less American, they'll tear us all apart or whatever crap we are spouting out at any given moment. This was perhaps the thing Palin tapped into when she was addressing big crowds. She knows how to read people, and she clearly read anger there and decided to stoke the fires. Obama saw this same phenomenon and has tried to focus the energy elsewhere. This is infuriating to both sides since they're arguing about two totally different things and accusing the other of not understanding the issues at hand. One is arguing about the present, one is arguing about the future. One is arguing about the future that could be and the other is about the future that should be. The only thing these sides agree on is the other should not win. The supporters have now started to go too far especially these two. These two are not what campaigns are supposed to be about and yet, here we are, given them too much attention.
And the race only gets crazier from here.
So it is written, so do I see it.
PS I was up too late writing this, kill me.
PPS comments now disabled. you have all proven my point.
PPPS OK, fine, fucking re-enabled. But again, this proves my point, we've lost the true capacity for reasoned debate in this society and I'm going to the bar.
We're a week out from the elections, weeks into a bailout rescue package for the banking industry that will end up costing about 750 billion dollars and has so far led to the government buying up banks or at least equity stock in them to effectively nationalize them. McCain came up with his own plan, that was also oddly socialistic, in the sense that now THE GOVERNMENT would hold most mortgages in the US, which is a step further than the current plans call for. Governor Palin, during her brief tenure as governor, aside from single-handedly holding off Russians and killing wolves, also took the opportunity to re-distribute some wealth in her state when the oil prices went up, and instead of letting the people who earned the money keep it, she chose to keep it and give it out to people regardless of their income or what they had earned. Of course, this is part of Alaska Permanent Fund and has long been part of the Alaska budget, but if it were portrayed in a different light, it could be seen as socialism, depending on how you define it all. People are calling Obama's tax plan communism or socialism or what have you because he wants to let the Bush tax cuts expire and send us BACK to the socialism that led us to the dot com tech boom under Clinton. Under the Obama plan, the top income tax rate would go from the nadir it is now at 35% to the oppressive and massive 39%. Note, under Carter, this same rate was close to 70%. But yes, 4% is the difference between communism since McCain and Palin have declared it so.
Socialism over 4%. There are arguments about whether or not this is part of a redistribution of wealth scheme that is blatantly anti-American, to hear other people tell it. This is somehow massively unAmerican that one candidate has ACTUALLY COME OUT AND SAID HE'LL RAISE TAXES, and not try to be George H. W. Bush who made his famous read my lips pledge, that he ended up eating his pledge hard. Now, it was a Democratic Congress that made him do it, and then they beat him up with it in 1992. So what does all of this mean? NOT A DAMN THING. Yeah, read that again. Bush raised taxes, that doesn't make him a communist or socialist. Other presidents raised taxes, they're not communists. Other presidents increased social programs, they're not communists. After all, the GI Bill didn't care about income or what was earned, just military service. To take it a step further, there are non-social programs that take in lots of tax money to make an equal, public good for all. For example, President Eisenhower took a lot of tax money, billions of it, and made big roads all across the country that don't always charge tolls that anyone with a car can use. This is not communism, yet people who didn't pay in federal income taxes benefit as much as people who paid in at the top percentage. This is the nature of our Republic. We started with Jefferson wanting a big public library (the Library of Congress), we added in a progressive income tax with the 16th Amendment (which was voted by the elected officials and the people, not a random decision of the Supreme Court). But what does this have to do with the campaign? Not much.
But that's been the tone recently. Each side trying to dig up the ONE last bit of "evidence" that will prove to the entire American electorate that their opponent is not just a political opponent but a threat to all of America and will change the election from being close to being a landslide for their candidate. The singular Holy Grail of evidence that will, like the winning move in a game of Go be the one piece that turns the whole board another color. The McCain campaign has been looking for this for a while now, but the Obama campaign has been hoping that ignoring the move is the right move. The campaign has been hoping that Obama ignoring/rising above it and preaching platitudes about unity, togetherness and working hard together to make things happen will be enough to get people out to the polls. Some years, this would be totally wrong, but this year it seems to be working. In a lot of other years, rallying the far right the way Palin has would make it all competitive, now that appears to have driven off many of the independents. The tea leaves readers all tried to predict what would happen, and everyone thought Clinton would be slugging it out against Huckabee or Romney or even Giuliani and the biggest issue would be the war in Iraq. Point? Predictions are pointless and trying to read the minds of the American voting public is problematic at best and in this year, like trying to count grains of sand in the Sahara.
So, with a lack of real options, the game plan is down to attack. It was a great military leader who "in lieu of other orders, attack the enemy" and it was James Carville who said "If it's about us, we're losing." meaning that if you side is on defense, you're losing. It was his entire theory of how to take the White House for Bill Clinton. It was his idea for how to win a political fight: don't make it about the fight, make it about the person you're fighting and you win. Note, he was surprised when Newt Gingrich did this to take the Congress in 1994. Now, after lots of other failed attempts, they have attempted to paint Obama as a communist and socialist for doing little more, really, than George Bush has done. One sweeping bill that allows the Secretary of the Treasury to buy banks at will, and raising upper income taxes is socialist? It's the ultimate in the idea of "You can't tell people what to think, you can tell them what to think about". With all of this, we're not talking about Ted Stevens. We're not talking about the high chance that Palin will have to take over the presidency. We're not talking about how McCain helped shepherd de-regulation that led to banks doing things they probably shouldn't have been. We're not even talking about the fact that Biden has been putting his foot in his mouth. We're seriously discussing whether or not Obama is a socialist because his tax policies are aimed at the top less than 1% of Americans. Even Warren Buffett, who is the richest man in America, has even called for this kind of thing, with his famous million dollar bet to any CEO who gets taxed at a higher rate than his or her secretary. But, here we are, talking about whether or not one comment out of context is enough to convince America Barack Obama is a socialist, and therefore less American.
But this is what campaigns have become and what this one has truly devolved to. This campaign has gone on now for the better part of two years and now we're all down to one week left and we're ALL going insane. We have no idea what we're going to do after all this is over since so many of us have let this define our lives. There are a lot of people I know smart people, rational people, educated people who are going irrational about all this. So many people are not just fans of one side or the other they've started really hating the other side, whichever side that may be. The other side is going to destroy America, they're less American, they'll tear us all apart or whatever crap we are spouting out at any given moment. This was perhaps the thing Palin tapped into when she was addressing big crowds. She knows how to read people, and she clearly read anger there and decided to stoke the fires. Obama saw this same phenomenon and has tried to focus the energy elsewhere. This is infuriating to both sides since they're arguing about two totally different things and accusing the other of not understanding the issues at hand. One is arguing about the present, one is arguing about the future. One is arguing about the future that could be and the other is about the future that should be. The only thing these sides agree on is the other should not win. The supporters have now started to go too far especially these two. These two are not what campaigns are supposed to be about and yet, here we are, given them too much attention.
And the race only gets crazier from here.
So it is written, so do I see it.
PS I was up too late writing this, kill me.
PPS comments now disabled. you have all proven my point.
PPPS OK, fine, fucking re-enabled. But again, this proves my point, we've lost the true capacity for reasoned debate in this society and I'm going to the bar.