Archive for the ‘Election 2010’ Category

Arizona Supreme Court Reinstates Redistricting Chair

Posted on: November 18th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

The Arizona Supreme Court has stood up for fair elections today with a ruling that overturns the actions of Governor Jan Brewer and Republicans in the state senate. Arizona Republicans were upset that the map did not give them enough of an advantage. The map would have had four Republican-leaning districts and only two Democratic-leaning districts, while three would be competitive for both parties. The Republicans hoped for a gerrymandered map that would consolidate Democratic voters and give Republicans more seats.

The impeachment of the independent chairwoman was done in a rush without due process and any evidence that she acted in a way that merited removal. The problem of elected officials creating maps that work in their own interest is a serious problem and one of the reasons why the independent commission was created in the first place when voters approved it in 2000. Republican members of Congress were clearly distressed that they would face stiffer competition and lobbied for the state legislature to remove the chairwoman of the independent commission.

Thankfully, the Arizona Supreme Court stopped this purely political power grab. The constitutional requirement for removal is a high one: “substantial neglect of duty, gross misconduct in office or inability to discharge the duties of office.” The Arizona Supreme Court states that the requirement was not met and therefore is reinstating her to the commission. Kudos to the Arizona Supreme Court. More states should follow Arizona’s model and take the redistricting process out of the hands of politicians.

Demanding an Efficient Government

Posted on: November 17th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

Democrats and Republicans often get into arguments about the size and role of government. Liberals believe in a strong role to protect the most vulnerable in society while conservatives favor the private sector, stressing personal responsibility. Both sides should at least agree that fixing America’s broken economy is the country’s top priority and that an efficient government will be needed to accomplish that goal.

Unfortunately, too often the government has proven to be slow to respond to the needs of its citizens. The unemployment crisis is a good example of this. The Recovery Act (also known as the stimulus) was passed with mostly Democratic support in 2009. The result was over 3 million jobs created. Many Republicans will have you believe that it created no jobs, including elected officials that know better, especially since many of these same people (Michele Bachmann for instance) were lobbying for money to go to their districts.

Now that the stimulus has run out the economy has slowed. A new round of economic measures were proposed by President Obama and rejected by Republicans who control the House. Democrats should rightly condemn their obstructionism as purely political. Their top goal, as stated by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, is to defeat President Obama. The American people deserve better than that. But to ignore the Recovery Act’s mistakes would itself be a mistake.

Looking back at the Recovery Act there are a few things that we can say that today is obvious. For one, it was too small in size. The United States economy was nearly $15 trillion in 2010. The Recovery Act – extended over the course of roughly two years – pumped the economy with spending that equated to only 2.6 percent of GDP. Compounding this problem was the fact that the Recovery Act was a smorgasbord of spending that Democrats had sought for a long time after over 12 years of Republican rule in Congress, but was not necessarily the most effective way at reducing unemployment. Republican plans that focused solely on tax cuts were even less likely to cause a boost to the economy.

East Fork Bitterroot Road Recovery Act Project

We need more signs like this on the road.

As they say hindsight is always 20/20 yet it should have been clear at the time that what was being done would not nearly be enough. The federal government was essentially paying to fill the budget holes of states like Texas, which cut funding to schools only to replace that money with stimulus money. The stimulative result was minimal since they were essentially swapping state money for federal money. This could have easily been predicted and rectified, perhaps by adding provisions requiring the states to maintain current funding levels if they were to accept federal dollars.

Other problems included a high-speed rail network that gave out grants to states rather than directing the funding through the Department of Transportation. After Republican governors took control of states like Florida, Ohio and Wisconsin, they quickly rejected the money, putting major gaps in the future rail network. If President Obama really believed in the future of high-speed rail and the economic opportunities that come with it, why were the details left to the states? Like much of the Recovery Act this reliance on state government, often run by inefficient and politically hostile officials, hurt the prospect of job growth.

Ultimately, fixing America’s broken economy will take cooperation. Republicans will have to assume responsibility instead of sitting on the sidelines and attacking the president. Democrats will have to demand more efficient programs. A bipartisan coalition of left-leaning unions and the right-wing Chamber of Commerce came out in support of infrastructure spending. This would be a good start. Providing tax credits for small businesses that hire workers would also be a good idea that should win broad support. I would even advocate reducing America’s corporate tax rate, making American business more competitive, if it were met with an increase in the tax rate for the top 1% to offset the lost revenue. It’s time to get smart and efficient with government.

Voters Reject GOP Bills in OH, ME and MS Personhood Amendment

Posted on: November 8th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

American voters soundly defeated a series of extremist measures that looked to take away collective bargaining rights for public employees (including police officers, firemen and teachers) in Ohio, same-day voter registration in Maine, and legally defining personhood as beginning at conception in Mississippi. The Ohio and Maine laws were passed after Republicans took control of all levels of state government in the 2010 elections. The Mississippi referendum was pushed by Christian groups, but opposed by even more moderate Republicans like Jon Huntsman. Voters in Arizona also recalled the sponsor of last year’s anti-immigration law.

The Ohio collective bargaining law went down to defeat with 61% of voters electing to repeal the law. It signals a clear opportunity for President Obama and Democrats to fight for the state in 2012 on a pro-worker, pro-middle class message. Republican candidate Mitt Romney, who at this point is a favorite for the nomination, signaled his support for the law last week. After initially hedging on the issue, Romney flip-flopped within a day to “110 percent” support. Clearly his enthusiasm is a stark contrast with the reality on the ground in Ohio.

The Mississippi amendment would have defined personhood as beginning at conception into the state constitution. The results would have been devastating for women in the state. It would have effectively banned the morning after pill and other forms of birth control and prohibited abortions in all cases. No exceptions were given for cases of rape, incest, or if the life of the mother was at risk. Simply put the law would have allowed women to die and forced rape victims to have their rapist’s baby. Even in ultra-conservative Mississippi this was seen as going too far. The measure was rejected by a surprisingly large margin with 55% voting against the amendment. The group that sponsored the bill is hoping to put it on ballots in other states next year, but if they can’t get it passed in Mississippi, I doubt it can pass anywhere.

In one final positive note for the night, voters in Arizona recalled the state senate’s president Russell Pearce – a first in the nation’s history. The far-right Pearce has called himself the “Tea Party President” of the Arizona Senate. He was the sponsor of last year’s SB 1070, which gave the state broad powers on immigration enforcement, including requiring police officers to ask the immigration status of people that they suspect are undocumented immigrants. It also imposed harsh fines on undocumented immigrants and up to six months of jail time. His challenger, Jerry Lewis, won by 8 points in the Republican district on a platform opposing SB 1070.

Democrats Win By Defending Middle Class

Posted on: August 18th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

President Obama is holding up remarkably well against his potential Republican challengers, despite low approval ratings. The economy is in a state of disarray with wild swings in the stock market and evidence that we may be heading into a second recession. Politically, it could not happen at a worse time for the president as he gears up for re-election.

However, history shows that when Democrats stand for middle class voters, they win elections. Franklin D. Roosevelt won four consecutive terms as president in the 1930s and 40s, despite entering during the Great Depression, which did not completely end until our entrance into World War II. A lot of this had to do with the public’s trust in the president that he was looking out for their interests against a Republican Party that looked out for big-business.

Wisconsin is a prime modern-day example of this. Republicans rode into office in 2010 with a message about economics and jobs. They quickly turned towards dismantling unions, a traditional protector of the middle class, despite the fact that they never even ran on it. The result: a historic six Republicans in the state senate faced recall elections. Two of them were defeated and the other four were all under 60% in traditionally Republican districts. Democrats moved from a 19-14 minority with little power to a 17-16 minority that will effectively stop radical legislation.

Rick Perlstein, author of the new book Nixonland, writes about how defending the social safety net helps Democrats to win elections:

…there’s also a story in Nixonland about how the Democratic Party wins, why it loses and the good things that happen when the party gets the formula right. I surely hope Obama did not miss it.

It concerns the two major axes upon which major national elections get fought. Sometimes they become battles over the cultural and social anxieties that ordinary Americans suffer. Other times they are showdowns about middle-class anxieties when the free market fails. Normally, in the former sort of election, Republicans win. In the latter, Democrats do—as we saw in 2008, when the tide turned after John McCain said “the fundamentals of the economy are strong.

I hope that the president learns a thing or two from Perlstein’s book. His move towards what he perceives as the political middle with incessant talk about deficit-cutting has hurt his standing among middle class voters. There is no doubt that the country faces long-term deficit issues, but the jobs picture is far more serious and urgent. President Obama should pivot towards jobs by unveiling a bold and detailed jobs plan while at the same time defending programs like Social Security and Medicare that the middle class rely on. Take it to the American people. Dare the Republicans in Congress to rebuff your plan. Not only would it be good politics, it would be good for the country to see real economic leadership. We need it.

Who’s Actually to Blame for America’s Debt?

Posted on: July 27th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

Have you heard ads on TV blaming the country’s deficits on President Obama? You likely have if you’ve watched cable news in the past couple weeks. They are being blanketed nationwide in a $20 million effort by a conservative group known as Crossroads GPS. Working behind the scenes is Karl Rove, the former political mastermind for President Bush’s successful 2000 and 2004 campaigns. The organization is backed by corporate donations to undermine President Obama and Democratic candidates.

The latest ad specifically claims that “America’s economy is hanging by a thread” thanks to “reckless spending, a failed stimulus and a $14 trillion debt.” The ad goes on to say that it is time to stop giving President Obama a blank check. The message of the ad is clear: Obama is the reason that we have a beleaguered economy, a large (and rising) national debt, etc.

The only problem, of course, is that it is not true. President Bush and Republicans in Congress racked up $5.07 trillion of debt from tax cuts for the rich, wars, a Wall Street bailout, Medicare prescription drug bill, and other spending. During the eight years of George W. Bush’s presidency, the federal budget increased by an average of 3.81% per year.

The nation’s debt is not a product of President Obama. The 2010 budget passed by a Democratic Congress and signed by President Obama was an increase of only 1.4%. Emergency measures that he did take were only temporary. When he entered office the nation was losing nearly a million jobs a week and he took action by passing the Recovery Act, which created as many as 3.6 million jobs. This is his largest contributor to the debt to date.

The healthcare reform bill that passed in 2010 was paid for, despite repeated lies by Republicans that it added to the deficit. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office has estimated that the “Affordable Care Act”, which Republicans love to call “Obamacare”, will reduce the deficit by $1.3 trillion over the course of the next two decades. Again, that is a reduced deficit thanks to the actions of our president and a Democratic Congress.

Republicans might not like the numbers, but they don’t lie. The bulk of our country’s debt problems lie on the shoulders of George W. Bush and a Republican Congress that went on a spending spree at the same time that they unloaded the Treasury Department with tax cuts for the wealthy. Now they hold our economy hostage, claiming that President Obama is spending too much money, when they themselves are the main reason that we have a deficit problem.

Dismantling an Entitlement, and a Majority

Posted on: May 31st, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

A political scientist would tell you that the first lesson to learn for a politician is to know their constituents. It seems basic, but it is a fundamental part of constructing a winning electoral strategy. If you don’t get this right, you have no chance of holding on to power, let alone passing meaningful reforms once you attain it. The Democrats saw this firsthand in 2010 when they lost control of the House after failing to motivate their winning coalition from 2006 and 2008 to go to the polls. Republicans risk repeating the same mistake with a push for radical legislation that independent voters will find hard to stomach.

The Democratic and Republican Party are comprised of many, sometimes conflicting, constituencies. Labor unions, minorities, and blue-collar workers are just some of the Democratic Party’s base. Big business, evangelical Christians, and white-collar workers largely comprise the Republican Party. While this is a bit of a simplification, it largely holds true from one election to the next. The people who do not rigidly identify with one party or the other, independents, will decide who wins Congress and the White House in 2012. They largely sit out midterm elections, which are low turnout elections driven more by partisans.

The independent vote, by all accounts, is up for grabs in 2012. There is no doubt that they were dissatisfied with the slow pace of the economic recovery and perceived overspending by Washington. The Republican Party did a great job of characterizing, vilifying even, the Democratic healthcare plan as “socialized medicine”, despite the fact that it essentially left the structural system unchanged. Near universal healthcare? Yes, but far from the single-payer systems of Europe and Canada.

Whatever the case may be, Republicans have gone in the opposite direction and pursued a far more radical agenda than the Democrats could ever imagine. The Republican plan to end Medicare, replacing it with vouchers for seniors that would result in over $6,000 a year in out-of-pocket expenses, is just one example of their overreach. It has long been a wet dream of Republicans to dismantle Medicare and Social Security. George W. Bush attempted a similar approach in 2005 with his failed plan to privatize Social Security. Voters rejected that and they are going to reject this Republican Congress’s plan as well.

As far as building coalitions goes, though, the Republican Party is in a real bind. Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich displays this quite well when he called the Republican plan “right-wing social engineering”, only to backtrack the next day when he was met by outrage on the right. A Republican presidential or Congressional candidate will find it difficult to win a primary without supporting the Republican plan to end Medicare, but at the same time, this makes them virtually untenable in a general election. It’s a catch-22 that could very likely end the Republican majority in 2012.

The bottom line of this is that the Republicans in Congress, with the exception of only four in the House and five in the Senate, voted for a plan that is toxic to a majority of their constituents. Even Republican voters have reservations about dismantling a program that they have invested in throughout their entire lives. Elections are won with coalitions and the Republicans just gave the middle finger to the two largest and most reliable voting groups in the country: Baby Boomers and seniors. Unless Republicans can distract voters away from their vote to dismantle Medicare, they can kiss their majority goodbye.

Republican Bill Would Strip College Students of Voting Rights

Posted on: March 8th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

There are some pretty wacky proposals out there from the Republican Party, including attempts to redefine rape, ban Sharia law (which if they didn’t know, was never law in the first place), and now out of New Hampshire, a law to prevent college students from voting in elections. Yes, we are essentially re-debating the 26th Amendment to the Constitution. You know, the amendment that extended voting rights to citizens between the ages of 18 and 21. At the time the common thought was that if you could fight in the Vietnam War, you should be able to vote. It was supported by Republican presidents Dwight Eisenhower and Richard Nixon.

That was then. Today, the Speaker of the House in New Hampshire, William O’Brien, is calling young voters “foolish”. I would imagine that Mr. O’Brien would view the young men that made the decision to go off and fight for their country in Afghanistan and Iraq to be just naive as well, since they clearly aren’t capable of voting, at least in his mind. His motivation, of course, is political. President Obama won college students 2-to-1 in 2008 and will be key to his re-election strategy. But denying people their right to vote so that your party can win an election? Well, I guess you can say that is Republican tradition these days, or as O’Brien was quoted in the Washington Post:

“Voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do,” he added, his comments taped by a state Democratic Party staffer and posted on YouTube. Students lack “life experience,” and “they just vote their feelings.”

New Hampshire House Republicans are pushing for new laws that would prohibit many college students from voting in the state – and effectively keep some from voting at all.

One bill would permit students to vote in their college towns only if they or their parents had previously established permanent residency there – requiring all others to vote in the states or other New Hampshire towns they come from. Another bill would end Election Day registration, which O’Brien said unleashes swarms of students on polling places, creating opportunities for fraud.

That’s their crime: not voting for Republicans. It’s a sad commentary on the state of the Republican Party when their electoral strategy is based on crushing unions and denying the right to vote to college kids (which would also affect veterans that come back home from war and attend college). They have basically given up on winning votes of their non-core voters and are instead hoping to buy elections with corporate dollars and disenfranchisement of voters.

Half Off All Titles for Read an E-Book Week

Posted on: March 6th, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

The annual Read an E-Book Week is upon us. As I did last year, all of my titles will be offered at a 50 percent discount. You can get some quality reads for as cheap as $1.50!

An Election to Remember – $7.99 $4.00
The James Bond Movie Guide – $7.99 $4.00
International Political Economy: Free Trade or Fair Trade? – $2.99 $1.50
Detroit: A City on the Brink – $2.99 $1.50
The Slavery Debate in 19th Century America – $2.99 $1.50
The Sanctuary Movement – $2.99 $1.50

Also, don’t forget to check out the Game Freaks 365 Video Game Guide series:

Game Freaks 365’s Video Game Guide 2011 – $7.99 $4.00
Game Freaks 365′s Nintendo DS Review Guide – $7.99 $4.00
Game Freaks 365′s PS3 Review Guide – $7.99 $4.00
Game Freaks 365′s Wii Review Guide – $7.99 $4.00
Game Freaks 365′s Xbox 360 Review Guide – $7.99 $4.00
Game Freaks 365′s PSP Review Guide – $4.99 $2.50

Scott Walker Threatens Layoffs If Union-Busting Bill Doesn’t Pass

Posted on: March 3rd, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

In the ultimate sign of a temper tantrum, Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) has threatened the jobs of 1,500 state workers if his plan to crush labor unions is not approved by tomorrow. Democratic lawmakers in the state walked out two weeks ago as tens of thousands of protesters have decried the plan that would strip collective bargaining rights from public employees. The public employees have already agreed to pay more towards health care and pension benefits, but Walker will not have any of it. He is dead set on destroying the unions.

Walker has refused to negotiate or form a compromise position, even after the unions said that they would offer concessions. Part of collective bargaining is that both sides given and take. Walker is coming from the position that he will get everything that he wants or else people will start to lose their jobs. The most amazing thing about this is that his plan was never discussed during last fall’s election, even though he has repeatedly lied in interviews saying that it was. As the non-partisan PolitiFact rates his claim of having campaigned on the issue as purely “false”.

Not only did he not campaign on the issue, but Walker’s position is extremely unpopular with the public at large. Poll after poll has shown that voters support the unions over the governor. An NBC News poll asked the question: “Do you think public employees who belong to a union and work for state government, city government, or a school district should have the same right to bargain when it comes to their health care, pension and other benefits as employees who belong to a union and work for private companies?” The results are unbelievable:

Yes – 77%
No – 19%
Not sure – 4%

Granted, the poll was taken from a nationwide sample. It is safe to assume that Wisconsin, as one of the more union-friendly states, probably has even higher levels of support for the unions than the nation at large. The support for the unions in this issue breaks party lines. Democrats and independents overwhelmingly back the right to collectively bargain. Even some Republicans have to support it, since their share of the electorate is greater than the 19% that oppose collective bargaining rights. The opinion of the public is unambiguous: they do not want union-busting to take place. Governor Walker has over-stepped his bounds by trying to destroy a political foe of his in the name of deficit reduction. The American people do not want any part of it.

GM Sales Up Over 45 Percent

Posted on: March 2nd, 2011 by Kyle. | No Comments

Big news from Detroit today. General Motors has announced that sales for February 2011 are up big from the same period last year:

“The consumer is back to the showrooms,” said Brian Johnson, an analyst with Barclays Capital.

Certainly that was the case for General Motors Co., which on Tuesday said its February U.S. sales rose 45.8 percent compared with a year earlier to 207,028 vehicles.

The automaker said its retail sales grew by 70 percent over February 2010 and that its sales to car rental companies and commercial users were about even with the same period a year earlier. The gain in the retail market was the highest year-over-year jump in GM’s history.

Critics of President Obama’s auto industry rescue take note. It worked. Americans are going back to work at GM and other auto manufacturers. Those that never lost their job in the first place would not have a job today if the auto rescue never took place. Some estimates have indicated that over a million people would have been put out of work (including dealers, suppliers, etc.) if the Obama auto rescue never took place, which would have resulted in GM and Chrysler going out of business. As it happens, GM is now profitable and Chrysler has been revived thanks to a merger with Fiat.