Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government; that whenever things get so far wrong as to attract their notice, they may be relied on to set them to rights.
-Thomas Jefferson, in a letter to Richard Price dated January 8, 1789
Democracy demands a well-informed electorate. As a citizen, I am expected to weigh in on numerous issues every year. Doing that effectively demands not simply that I know my feelings on the issue, but also that I understand, or can at least recognize, the perspectives of my fellow citizens. This is one reason we have a public school system in this country; not merely to familiarize our children with the Three Rs, but also to ensure that they are comfortable with their fellow students. Any child should feel secure in speaking her mind and be respectful when others are speaking theirs. Without that skill, a democracy can never fulfill its potential. Continue reading…
A word to Keith Olbermann:
Keith, I like you. I really enjoy your show. I think it’s a great shot-in-the-arm of liberal attitude and I think it’s necessary. Most nights, I’m pretty much right there with you. Tuesday night was different.
Barack Obama, in order to improve the environment, wants to, among other things, build new nuclear power plants here in the United States. To that, I say, “Huzzah!” Excellent. Thank you. I don’t quite understand the “We won’t store it in Yucca Mountain which was designed for exactly that purpose,” bit of the policy, but okay, fine. But Keith, you you ridicule the idea. You seem scared of the idea. And for no good reason. This is one area where I have never understood the environmentalist position. You pointed to Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, but did you take the time to think about and research those two events. I don’t think you did. Continue reading…
The political world is abuzz with stories of Republican ascendancy. Scott Brown’s come-from-behind victory in Massachusetts gives these stories considerable weight. Forgotten, it seems, is the Democratic victory in historically-Red up-state New York. And perhaps it should be. Both of these elections are single data-points (and small ones at that) along a trendline spanning decades in which the switching of a single seat by itself is almost meaningless.
The Scott Brown Problem
Yes, the Democratic Party no longer has a nominal super-majority in the Senate, but, let’s be frank, the party wasn’t doing anything with it anyway. Red-state senators like Ben Nelson, Mary Landrieu and Blanche Lincoln, and bat-shit crazy senators like Joe Lieberman made sure that the Democratic Party could never capitalize on it’s numbers. The recent election in Massachusetts has only functioned to quell unrealistic expectations. Continue reading…
Pragmatism is not about reaching an ideal solution. Instead, the pragmatist seeks to find the best solution possible given a set of circumstances. Ideology should play a role only in prioritizing certain problems over others. [...]
Are the Republican Party, and the two-party system, still headed for disaster?
Last April, I speculated about what the political landscape might look like after the dust has settled from battle within the Republican Party. I didn’t lay down any sort of time frame, but this seems as good an opportunity as any to take a look back at the last eight months and see how things are playing out. Continue reading…
