Sabotaging Education: Republicans Ensuring Their Future

Posted on May 31, 2012 by Tony Hymes

In the rapidly-paced world of capitalistic competition, business is fierce. Stellar employees are poached everyday for groups from their rivals, often with little regard for geographic borders. And talent is rewarded, just look at the amount of zeros involved in scribbling down some CEO salaries. It is more important than ever for the US to remain the world standard in education, so we can continue to lead — and not follow — the world markets.

Kids can't learn if they can't get to school!

Why then do Republicans, the self-labelled bastions of liberty and free markets, want to destroy America’s education system and reduce our students to mediocre levels? Because education liberalizes. Information is power, experience opens minds, and rational analysis leads to compassion.

Information today spreads at a rate that no one even two decades ago could have foreseen. It is harder than ever to shelter our youth, even if they are home schooled in a post-apocalyptic bomb shelter. There are few cracks that the internet cannot squeeze its way through. Once in, the light it provides continually questions the beliefs of a made-up, illusory system.

Republicans rely on sheltering and ignorance to drive religious, conservative, and hypocritical beliefs into their offspring. They choose what they teach based on what they are most comfortable with, usually disregarding science entirely. They abhor spending time with people who do not feel the same way, or who are different. They keep this grip on their youths until there is no turning back. Then the adult goes out into the world only to do the same thing when he or she has kids.

But this cycle will not continue forever; every society and generation before us has changed in remarkable ways. Information will open the doors that conservative leaders try to close, even as the Republicans fight tirelessly against improving the quality of our public education system. It might be the only way from keeping the Republicans from becoming extinct like the dinosaurs, if you choose to believe they existed.

So when Republican candidates rail against the need to go to college or complain about teacher’s unions and school funding, it is because they know that their rhetoric will carry less sway with the coming generations of students who have learned to question what they feel is not right.

Clash of the Senses: Political Campaign Advertising

Posted on May 30, 2012 by Tony Hymes

How do you like to be annoyed? Is it via television ads? Phone calls? Radio ads? What about planes in the sky? Protestors with signs? Little flyers dropped in your mailbox? Get ready, it’s going to get rough.

It used to be so simple

We’ve already seen some of the plans organized by our beloved super PACs to disrupt the national conversation. Those of you in states with early presidential primaries have already endured the first barrages. Hang tough soldiers, the war is only beginning.

Perhaps it is because we as Americans love our war terminology that we perceive any competition as a battle, or at least a fight to the death. Few competitions have more real importance than the presidential election, and few competitions employ as many people, or as much energy and money.

By the time that voters arrive at the polls they will have seen and heard countless ads designed to mangle impressions and shape mind sets. Some ads will achieve their desired goal, others will backfire. Computer modelling will try to limit the risk of unintended calamity, and ever more sophisticated PR experts will come up with better ways to reach people in eye-catching ways. What this means for the voter: it will be almost impossible to fairly judge either Obama or Romney.

The fundamental problem with campaign advertising is the need to educate the entire population about issues in order to correctly understand criticism. As so many people in the US lack comprehensive knowledge on economics, finance, international geopolitics, and security arguments must be reduced to their simplest, 30-second forms. Often, the information comes out completely incorrect, because the impression of the viewer is more important than what’s being said.

Understanding what the President of the United States does is impossible unless you sit in the Oval Office. Therefore, the only way to judge a candidate, especially if one is not the incumbent, is to go on moral convictions and perceived judgement. It is in this wet land of great artistic license that we find the dirtiest mud. After all, possibly a bigger problem than the lack of education might be voter turn out. Fire drives people out of their home who might normally secede their democratic duty. Either way, it gets worse every year.

Could Greece Decide the 2012 US Election?

Posted on May 29, 2012 by Tony Hymes

America’s presidents live and die by the economy, and 2012 will be no different. Right now the delicate recovery that the US is experiencing could still be susceptible to major jolts to the world economic system. Far from America’s coasts and Washington DC, Greece, the tadpole of democracy, may very well be that jolt.

Still the bad boy after all these years

Greece should never have been let into the euro in the first place, and later discoveries proved this by revealing that the Greeks had tatzikied their financials. Now the euro zone is paying for their mistake, and imbalances are becoming larger everyday in a system where they should be coming together. Today Greece looks unable to endure the pain necessary to stay in the currency union.

What happens with Greece matters to America for a number of potential reasons, but mostly because unlike the past year of EU beaureacratic procrastination, something will happen long enough before the US election in November to already start to be felt domestically when voters go to the polls. But will the effect be positive or negative?

There are two main outcomes, Greece gets backed by Eurobonds to stay in the euro or Greece drops out and back to the drachma, their pre-euro cash. If Europe gets serious and backs Greece, investors will keep their money in euros and the EU can move beyond the crisis, probably seeing a slight bit of growth across the whole zone through the year. As a big readjustment is avoided, world leaders can keep their heads up for other problems, relieving a little pressure on Obama in world affairs.

If Greece drops out of the euro because it’s voters can’t handle the austerity and want their sovereign government to default — or because the rest of Europe says enough is enough — most countries in the remaining euro zone will see contractions in GDP over the next year. Investors move around money, the euro’s value rises killing exports, and it is a huge distraction politically while other weaker countries consider following suit.

There are two ways that this could affect America. The first scenario involves global banks and companies sustaining very large losses. Since so many of the largest companies in the world are global, this will pinch resources world wide. Overall it means a large drop in demand. If the effect is felt in the US in time for the election, it could propel Mitt Romney to the White House.

The second scenario involves a rush from European assets to American ones, as the dollar returns to being the global currency standard. The stability of the US would prove welcomed to weary investors who are betting on a few rough years in Europe. This could prove a boost to the American economy. It would not be permanent, and much of it would move back out once the old continent’s troubles even out, but the boost could come just in time for the first Tuesday in November. In which case, Obama would have the final piece to his reelection puzzle.

The Mormon Mission and Success

Posted on May 25, 2012 by Tony Hymes

Not much talk has revolved around the faith of Republican nominee for President, Mitt Romney. Mormonism, or the Church of Latter Day Saints, is growing worldwide thanks in part to huge families and the grueling phenomenon known as the mission. At age 19 men, and women at 21, go on a mission abroad to sell their faith to people around the world for two years. When they come back, they have not only a broader world view, but they are laser focused.

"Is that a kite?"

Most of the youths of the United States at age 19 are busy learning to build beer bongs. They are either taking courses at a university or college, or are starting their careers and bringing home their first paychecks. Either way, there is an assumed wildness that the throws of adolescence, which have yet to be shed, excuse. Not so for Mormons.

A young Mitt Romney, son of a one-time Presidential hopeful and governor of Michigan, was sent to France to develop the religion there. Actually, Mitt Romney speaks fluent French, a fact that he has rightfully said nothing about during the campaign, due to Republican notions of France and the French (especially after the election of a Socialist President). But what is more important is the mission itself: try to convince people to join a faith that bars drinking alcohol and caffeine, and doesn’t allow smoking either. How Romney was able to make anyone convert shows that the man can be persuasive.

The rigors of the mission may explain why so many Mormons are successful in business and government. Orrin Hatch, Harry Reid, Jon Huntsman, Jr, are all examples of Mormons who have risen to the top, with Romney being the latest to try for it all. Deeply conservative but with consistent values, Mormons normally vote Republican. However, a liberalized worldview made possible by the missions and time away from America also means that some break out of conservatism and side more with the left.

With all of the funny talking points aside about their beliefs and traditions (saying other religions’ beliefs and traditions out loud can sound pretty crazy too) there is no reason that Romney’s religion should enter into the conversation during the election, and Obama does not seem like the one to bring it up. Some of the nation’s electorate who are deeply Christian and view the Church of Latter Day Saints as heretical might not accept Romney’s bid on religious grounds, but it is doubtful that these same people will ever vote for Obama. America has entered into a period of religious tolerance without even knowing it.

Escape Hatch: Out With The Old

Posted on May 23, 2012 by Tony Hymes

It always seems like a democracy is being governed the way it should have been 30 years ago. This is because it takes so long to get into a position of power. The fiery ideals and mettle that bring candidates to the stump in the first place are put on hold as they navigate the whitewater of national congresses after their first elections. Separated from the reality of their constituencies, politicians eventually reach a height where action is possible. The problem is, they tend to want to stay there.

Another Tea Party victim?

Orrin Hatch, the lovable Ute owlet and primary pillar of the GOP, is now finally facing a challenge to his supremacy. Hatch has been in Washington DC since America’s bicentenary in 1976, when he launched a campaign to unseat a long-serving Democrat senator from Utah. His message, like Obama’s in 2008, was change. Riding a tide of unease that was flaring up across the nation, Hatch broke out of his egg shell and directly into the Senate on a conservative platform.

Utah is a strange place. Aesthetically it is stunning. Deep colorful valleys like Zion National Park and rock formations like Arches proliferate across the state. But politically, it is about as dull as Kansas. Utah is so Republican it makes Texas look like San Francisco. Hatch, who is Mormon, conservative, and white, is the natural choice to represent the Utes. So natural, in fact, that he has not faced serious competition for his seat until today, when he is 78 years old and looking for that final, seventh term.

There are two sides to the Hatch commemorative coin. At face value, he is hypocritical. He first ran on a platform against incumbents getting too comfortable in office. In this regard he is a giant, overstuffed armchair. It is easy to forget things after 36 years, but regardless, his challengers have a valid point. Thousands of miles away from Utah, and at almost 80 years old, it would make sense for him to retire. He is clearly no longer a representation of Utah’s population.

However, Hatch is experienced. In a district where compromise is being tread on and young larynxes scream about impossibilities, Hatch is a voice of reason. Though conservative, he supported the bail out, debt ceiling increases, and proposed the DREAM Act, which would allow the children of illegal immigrants to gain citizenship through military service or university education. Perhaps most importantly, he is not part of the Tea Party movement which prefers terrorist methods to hold our nation hostage to their radical ideas. Hatch is an establishment Republican, there is no doubt about it, but he is also a politician who is willing to work with the government to make things better. Whether we agree with his positions or not, at least he is someone who can be reasoned with, unlike the groups that are supporting his challenger, Dan Liljenquist.

It would be unfair to criticize Liljenquist before he has had time to serve in office, but his endorsers are starting to cast a black cloud over his head. In fairness, the Tea Party is after Hatch because of their success with ousting Dick Lugar from Indiana. They would support a gila monster if they thought it could beat Hatch in a primary. The way the race is looking — as of right now too close to call — Hatch might be sent into retirement six years earlier than he anticipated, but for all the wrong reasons.

Winners and Losers: Welfare in Capitalism

Posted on May 22, 2012 by Tony Hymes

Republicans are firm believers in false realities. One of their preferred tenets is that the free market will save everyone, or at least provide them with the opportunity to succeed. While in theory this might be true, in practice it is much less realistic. The problem is: to have winners, there must be losers.

Just looking for a handout

It is not a matter of grammatical correctness, it is the fundamental basis of competition. For every Bill Gates there are thousands of people who lost their wealth trying to grow companies. There are huge risks involved in entrepreneurship, and the system of credit involved is complicated and biased. Even if firms pop up, many of them will decline when it comes to consumer choice and demand. But this is the very top of the ladder. Not often does a person who starts a business worth millions of dollars end up on welfare. It is the bottom of the ladder where the situation is more dire, and where Republican disdain is clearer.

In a capitalist system, as any economist will tell you, there is a certain amount of unemployment that is necessary to keep the bottom of the labor market from dropping out on productivity. There must be an incentive for minimum wage earners to keep their jobs. As the world saw in the failed USSR, giving everyone a job meant that no one could lose their job. With no incentive to work, there was a major decline in productivity and innovation.

There must always be the chance of losing one’s job to someone else who wants it more in order to keep those in their positions hard working. But for this to be the case, there must be some way to enable the unemployed to eat, feed their kids, pay their rent, and receive medical care. Republicans are so hostile to the poor that they are disregarding this necessary fact of capitalism in general. However, their belief in self-success is particularly harsh when dealing with uneducated laborers.

Republicans love the phrase: “well, it’s not my fault” when confronted with the example of a single mother with two kids who loses her job and can’t find another one. “She shouldn’t have had those kids.” This is only the beginning of the insensitivity. Republicans actually believe that people like her are incentivized to stay on welfare, instead of finding a job. This could not be further from reality and reveals a disconnect between the Republican establishment and the people of our nation, including some of those in the Republican party that are too ignorant to see beyond the Bible-waving and fear-mongering.

For all the hot air that Republicans spew about free markets, it sure appears to anyone with a brain that they are trying to dissect the very features that keep our economy capitalist. So the next time a republican complains about an imagined welfare state, ask him why he hates capitalism so much.

NATO Draws Down, End To The War In Afghanistan

Posted on May 21, 2012 by Tony Hymes

At the NATO summit in Chicago this past week the leaders of the nations involved in scouring Afghanistan for the remnants of the Taliban discussed the ways to exit the landlocked central Asian country. After a decade of fighting, thousands of deaths, trillions of dollars, and infinite political capital, every NATO nation wants to get out as soon as possible. The question now is how many security experts can we leave in Afghanistan while still being able to call it a withdrawal and an end to the war. No matter what is decided by Obama, Republicans will be against it.

Johnny drop your gun

Republicans seem to forget that in the aftermath of September 11th, W Bush pushed hard to go after Osama Bin Laden. He pushed so hard that the Taliban, Bin Laden’s supposed shelterers, became the prime target. Just like that, the USA was plunged into the steppes of Afghanistan, an area that history has proved essentially unconquerable. Flush with American weapons provided to fight the Soviets during the 80′s, the Taliban had heavy advantages; mountains, caves, and most importantly, time.

Democracy is at best a messy roommate who never seems to clear all his dishes from the sink. There is never enough time to balance the decisions needed for the future and fixing the problems that arise today. It has gotten so paralyzed in the United States thanks to the Republicans who are rewarded for never compromising that sites like The Wrong Wing were created. For war efforts without a clear finish line, the effect of domestic politics becomes particularly dicey. Everyone has their own opinions, and the leaders have to think about what the general population believes in order to get reelected, which is not how wars should be fought.

Yet we are in the mess that we are thanks to W Bush. Obama has done an admirable job of cleaning up the debris that W Bush left in his wake. Obama ended the war in Iraq, got Osama Bin Laden, and is now ending the war in Afghanistan. Imagine what the man could have done if W Bush hadn’t left America in ruins when he departed office. Imagine how many more of us would have jobs if W Bush didn’t waste trillions of dollars on two campaigns, one in anger and one completely under false pretenses, that cost the lives of hundreds of thousands of people, both soldiers and civilians. There probably would not have been a recession.

After a decade of indecisive war, it is time for NATO to leave Afghanistan. The question now becomes, how much force is necessary to keep the Karzai government propped up? There is no answer to this question, since the Taliban and their allies are patient. They can wait until the west’s eyes are diverted to another troublesome area before mounting a new attack. This may come during the next few months, or the next few generations. Either way, the best that we as America can do now is to pledge our support, our aid, and continue to offer or broadest apologies for not being able to rid the country of the Taliban. For there is another group who wasn’t able to oust the Taliban either, the Afghans themselves, at least in this sense we have some solidarity.

Ricketts The Racist: Super PACs In The John Roberts Age

Posted on May 17, 2012 by Tony Hymes

A big story broke this morning about an incredibly racist and misguided attack from an old businessman named Joe Ricketts, the founder of TD Ameritrade and the current owner of the Chicago Cubs. He is planning a gigantic advertising effort during the Democratic National Convention that includes TV ads, outdoor advertising, and even planes carrying banners in the sky to point out Obama’s questionable character, and his connections to Preacher Jeremiah Wright, whose comments in the past rubbed Republicans in the wrong way. This is naked racism, and is an issue that should have died a long time ago. It will do nothing but backfire on the Republicans.

"I don't hate Obama because he's black, I hate all black people because they're black!"

Even though no one right of center will admit it, Obama is a pretty cool cat. His collected manner and leveled rhetoric chafes at the Republicans’ fiery pulpit stances. His calm, deliberate way of finding compromise goes against the Tea Party demands that we hold our nation hostage in order to get what we want. His record of spending and taxes is more conservative than Republican soft-core porn star Ronald Reagan, and his foreign policy record is spotless. There is really no reason for people to hate the man. So why the huge anger and push to get rid of Obama in November? He’s black.

If all the super-PACs have one thing in common, it is that they are each funded by one primary donor, and a collection of smaller donors. Therefore, super-PACs are essentially a directive of one man. Since the John Roberts Supreme Court threw open the doors to unlimited slander and libel in an attempt to protect free speech, the super-PACs are hitting their jackpot, and we don’t yet know how big that jackpot is.

The Ricketts group is exactly the same. Ending Spending, their name, would imply that Ricketts was upset about the bail-out, which was orchestrated by a Republican, W Bush, and then implemented by a Democrat, Obama. The group has, in the past, spent money to unseat Democratic incumbents who they feel have spent too much on ear-marks. But that is not the point of this ad campaign. The aim of this summer’s efforts are to highlight Obama’s relationship to his old pastor, who is also black, to criticize our President’s worldview. There is no connection to spending here.

Of all the Republican super-PAC super stars, none are black; in fact all are white, and all have lost their natural color in their hair due to age. The super-PAC push is the remnants of an older era, one that fought against black civil rights and modernization, and that fought continually against progress. Since the Supreme Court struck down any control on what these people say, they are spending their last days liquidating left-over cash to try and steer America back to a time in the past when white people ruled and black people shined shoes.

Ricketts is no better, and his naked attack on the character of a man that the world has seen for four years will be rebuffed and criticized around the world. It is one thing to speak the truth, it is another to make completely false, slanderous connections. Though the Supreme Court has opened the floodgates, they could at least take the time to hear the counter-lawsuits as the Republicans slander and libel their way to the bank. At least then there will be some semblance of justice, and media agencies will think twice before writing any copy.

The Bain Of Romney’s Existence

Posted on May 16, 2012 by Tony Hymes

Volleys are already in the air. Team Obama has begun to use its advantaged position to hang out all of Mitt Romney’s past laundry, whether clean or not. Primarily, they are focusing on his work at Bain Capital, where the other Republican nomination candidates tried to label Romney a “vulture capitalist.” He has weathered these attacks before, and it is distracting from the point.

Turning pink to green

It says a lot about how misguided and hypocritical the Republican establishment is when they can essentially be comprised of two groups: rich white people, and poor, religious white people. Those who run for political office, i.e. the wealthy ones, are supposed to be rugged, free market capitalists who will squeeze the life out of a baby to see if a nickel drops out (just not an unborn baby). They believe that there should be less government assistance to the poor, who should work harder to pull themselves up. They don’t want to tax the rich, who deserve the money that they earned or inherited. So following these assumptions, they should love Romney.

A cross section of Obama’s supporters is dramatically different. Bolstered by rich people who believe strongly in civil rights and higher taxes, the middle class and youth that support Obama are skeptical of someone with Romney’s money. This may not have been much of an issue before the crisis, where businessmen could be seen as visionaries who brought great wealth to our nation. But after witnessing the arrogance, carelessness, and greed that spurred our country to recession, kicked hard working people out of their homes, and brought a level of government intervention unseen for generations, it seems that the electorate will have little sympathy for someone like Romney.

It really does not even matter what Romney did at Bain Capital, it just sounds wealthy. Obama will combine the public sentiment and their notions to portray Romney as someone who cut jobs in the pursuit of profits. Romney will say that in sometimes cutting jobs he saved entire companies and their other employees. He clearly made a lot of money at his job — not something that he wants to blast out across the airwaves — but a legitimate point. You don’t make that kind of money if you don’t know what you’re doing. If only he could put that into words that don’t make him sound like an insensitive Republican.

Romney & Adult Bullying

Posted on May 15, 2012 by Tony Hymes

Small tornadoes of dust were whipped up when allegations emerged that Mitt Romney had, in his days at upscale Detroit private school Cranbrook, been a bit of a bully. There was even a story of him, with a group of friends, holding down a student to cut off their longer — and we are to believe — more liberal hair. This is the wrong way to judge the Republican presidential candidate.

Why won't the Republicans just leave me alone?

Bullying in grade school is never acceptable, and should not be condoned. We have seen the frightful consequences of hazing and bullying taken too far. It hits a sore spot with parents because it happens in a place where students should be safe. Especially when the tuition tag has more zeros than the number of workers in Detroit’s auto industry. Sometimes though, kids are just dumb, and they are responding to social pressures that make them do things they normally wouldn’t do.

Mitt Romney should not be judged for his actions in high school. Who knows, the event might have been traumatic for him too, where his buddies led the craziness and he was also, in some way, a victim. The point is, nothing that came out about Romney had him acting alone. Nothing had him plotting to bully less fortunate kids, and if at anything, it reveals a side of life to him that he has been trying so unsuccessfully to portray: that he is not a robotic machine focused on profits.

Mitt Romney should be judged on his actions and achievements in his adult life. This is not the selection for the Dali Lama, it is a political competition. What we should be judging MItt Romney for is adult bullying.

Romney didn’t stand up for those with long hair in high school, but now he has a chance to stand up for groups that have been bullied constantly for their entire lives. He has the position to push forward civil rights, improve tolerance, and eradicate bullying on the adult level. To do this he has to take on his own party. Romney is better than the Republicans, this he knows. What remains to be seen is whether he will refuse to raze another’s head when there is a group of goons around him egging him on.

The Wrong Wing

Modern American Political Morality

Monthly Archives: May 2012