Posts filed under 'Politics as UNusual?'
(CBS) Weekly commentary by CBS Evening News chief Washington correspondent and Face the Nation host Bob Schieffer.
This is not a commentary: It is a collection of facts.
598,000 jobs were lost in January. That’s the largest loss in thirteen consecutive months of decline.
Since December of 2007, 3.6 million jobs have been lost, half of them in the last four months.
More than eleven and a half million people are now unemployed. Unemployment stands at 7.6 percent.
The underemployed – that is, those who have given up looking for work and those who are working part-time because they can’t find full-time jobs – now stands at 21.7 million people.
More than thirteen and a half million Americans now owe more than their homes are worth.
Retirement accounts have lost more than two trillion dollars in a year.
The global economy is getting worse, which will make it harder to sell American goods abroad.
And the banking system is a mess.
The following is also not a commentary; it is a true/false test.
The process is underway, but in light of those numbers you just heard, wouldn’t it be better for all of us (and for them, as a matter of fact) if Congress – Democrats and Republicans – now put less emphasis on partisan games from here on in and more emphasis on trying to resolve all of the above?
February 8th, 2009
In 1800, our second president, Federalist John Adams, ceded leadership of this country to Thomas Jefferson and his Democratic-Republican party.
It was the first peaceful transition of power between two competing parties, a transition without historical precedent.
A couple of hundred years later, ours is now a tradition steeped in the peaceful transition of power. It’s our default mode, our factory setting.
In watching today’s inaugural, it was impossible to not be struck by the presence of every living former president and first lady – both parties – every living former vice president – both parties – and current leaders of every branch of government – both parties. It’s impossible to not be struck with what a difficult exercise it must have been for John McCain, for George Bush. Yet they were there to represent the consent of the governed to the results of this election.
Tomorrow, the conversation of democracy will continue with conviction (and possibly a rude word or two). But today… today is the day we can revel in the inexorable fact that – like the election result or not – we all believe in this democracy.
And that is no small thing.
January 20th, 2009
Last night Anderson Cooper asked David Gergen about Obama’s decision to ask Rick Warren to give his Inaugural Invocation: “Was this a mistake David?”
“No, not in my judgement… I think we have to look at the larger picture. Barack Obama is becoming president of one of the most divided nations in the industrialized world, one that has been almost been paralyzed in acting on a variety of fronts because of our deep, deep disagreements and the way we vilify each other and the people with whom we disagree. I think we should give this poor man a chance to try something new, to reach out across divides, to see if he can’t find common ground among people who disagree on some issues but agree on others and can find common ground…
I’ve known and talked to Rick Warren now for several years and we have our disagreements… But I’ve come to respect this man too because what I see as defining about Rick Warren is not his views on social issues, those are common to many many evangelical preachers. What defines him is the fact that he’s helped millions of people – he’s the best selling author on this planet with A Purpose Drive Life. He’s helped millions of people find religious refuge and strength and beyond that he’s fought very hard within the evangelical community to bring people over to a more progressive view of global warming, of poverty and especially HIV Aids – he’s worked very hard on that.
So I think we ought to give both these men a more generous understanding of what they’re attempting to do.
They’re attempting to build bridges.”
December 19th, 2008
President-Elect Obama on his decision to invite conservative pastor Rick Warren to give the Invocation at his Inaugural:
“What I’ve also said is that it is important for America to come together even though we may have disagreements on certain social issues and I will note that a couple of years ago I was invited to come to Rick Warren’s church despite his awareness that I hold views that are entirely contrary to his when it comes to gay and lesbian rights and when it comes to issues like abortion. That dialog is what my campaign has been about… that we’re not going to agree on every single issue but what we have to do is create an atmosphere where we can agree without being disagreeable.”
Rick Warren on the same:
“I commend President-elect Obama for his courage to willingly take enormous heat from his base by inviting someone like me, with whom he doesn’t agree on every issue, to offer the Invocation at his historic Inaugural ceremony.
Hopefully individuals passionately expressing opinions from the left and the right will recognize that both of us have shown a commitment to model civility in America.”
Apparently there are a lot of people on each side of the partisan divide who are very angry about this. Some think it’s not civil to be civil with people they think have uncivil views. Others think that by Invocating with Obama, Warren is giving a stamp of approval to something that shouldn’t be approved of.
I think I need to rest my brain. Civility really isn’t easy, is it?
Be sure to catch our similar exercise in civility on January 13th: “Of Ice Cream and Horse Manure: Faith in the Public Square.”
December 19th, 2008
“It’s important as I said on election night that we enter into the new administration with a sense of humility and a recognition wisdom is not the monopoly of any one party. In order for us to be effective given the scope and the scale of the challenges that we face, Republicans and Democrats are going to have to work together. I think what the American people want more than anything is just common sense smart government. They don’t want ideology, they don’t want bickering, they don’t want sniping. They want action and they want effectiveness.”
– President-elect Barack Obama in a news conference this week on the economy
November 28th, 2008
Back when The Village Square was just a gleam in a few of our eyes, the concept of “A Team of Rivals”, as described in Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book of the same title, was highly recommended to us as intellectual fodder by journalist, friend, thinker and all-around-smart-guy Neil Skene.
Perhaps our Village Square version could be best described as a “Team of Neighbors”?
We’re glad to see that President-Elect Barack Obama is finally falling in line behind our “Big Idea.” (Yes, it should be duly noted that we had this idea well before Barack Obama, although – to be honest – a few years after Lincoln.)
To be sure, Lincoln’s team contained a component of the adage “keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” But political calculation aside, a connection between divergent camps of prominent thought yields an expansion of creative thinking (even if difficulty comes in holding its hand), serving to improve the success of any solution chosen.
Better discover the weaknesses of your “side” with an “opponent” before finding out in blood and money.
November 17th, 2008
Call me silly, but when I go to the doctor, I want him or her to listen to my symptoms, perhaps run an appropriate test or two, then make the diagnosis.
I DO NOT want my doctor to make the diagnosis before I walk in the door, then hunt for a symptom that might support his pre-diagnosis.
So why is it that so many of us listen to biased commentary on right wing talk-radio or on the new liberal media offerings?
Their job? To find whatever fact or half-quote supports what they already thought, what they’ve always thought, and what they’ll think forever no matter what REALITY is.
Clearly because we’ve made our decision too – as they have – and we’re just looking for someone to agree with us.
Good for entertainment. Bad for democracy.
Cocaine. When we need cod liver oil.
November 13th, 2008
More from Peggy Noonan, author of “Patriotic Grace”, on Meet The Press yesterday:
We may in our country may face difficult days ahead. And even immediately ahead. When you keep your mind on that you release, whoa, this whole partisan gamesmanship is OVER, it’s yesterday. What we need now is grace. We need real patriotism in which patriotism isn’t used as a weapon in a campaign. Patriotism actually needs grace in order to function. We need to be our best selves right now, we’ve got to hit our game in a higher way. We’ve got to be forbearing. We’ve got to be adults. I sometimes think one of the problems in America is there are too many people who don’t want to embrace the role of a grownup.
October 6th, 2008
… in exchange for taking their hands off our country?
Peggy Noonan, who has just written the book “Patriotic Grace”, on Meet The Press this morning:
“Part of the reason why this is going to get so rough in the next month… is that we live in the age of the political strategist, we live in the age of the guys on the plane. We live in the age of the Blackberry guys saying we’re going to get them this way or that way, it exists on both campaigns. The instinct that we have nothing to do now but go for the juggler. I have the sense sometimes that these guys on the plane think that history is their plaything. History is not their plaything. This is big. This is a nation having two ground wars and an economic recession. This is not a time for playfulness and mischief. It ain’t right. “
October 5th, 2008
Required Village Square election year reading, from The Onion and courtesy of Vita:
BOSTON—According to an eye-opening report released Tuesday, 60 million people whom you would never talk to, would never be in a position to talk to, and wouldn’t even be able to talk to if you tried will be voting for the other candidate in this year’s presidential election, and there is nothing you can do about it.
The 110-page document reveals that these strangers share a fundamental vision of our nation’s future, a vision that shockingly runs completely counter to your own and is furthermore embodied by the candidate whom you could not in a million years fathom being the leader of the free world. Even more frightening, the report says, is that their votes count just as much as yours.
Just by looking at them, it’s clear to you that your guy is the only sane choice.
“While you are 100 percent certain that your preferred candidate’s stance on issues such as foreign policy and the economy would appeal to any human being with half a brain, there is, in this very same country, an equally large voting bloc which believes that you and your candidate of choice are absolutely insane,” the report’s co-author Dr. Mark Grier said during a press conference. “Every single thing you love about your candidate’s personality, vice presidential pick, and family, 60 million other registered voters absolutely deplore.”
“What you consider to be this country’s ruin,” Grier added, “these other people actually consider to be this country’s savior.”
The report also confirmed that even if you were able to communicate with these other citizens, your passion and conviction would never be enough to convince them not to vote for their candidate, just as they would never be able to convince you not to vote for your candidate, and just as nobody can convince anybody else that what they believe to be right is wrong, regardless of how clear the evidence to the contrary may be.
The report maintained that, during your purely hypothetical discussion, both of you would come off as smug, narrow-minded, or downright ignorant if you tried to criticize the other candidate’s positions on key issues such as abortion and gay rights. The ensuing argument would only further cement both of your feelings of disgust toward the other candidate.
And yet incredibly, sources said, neither one of you would technically be wrong.
Because—and this is reportedly the most maddening part—even though these people’s unwavering support for their candidate completely dumbfounds you, you cannot even get angry at them, since they are not voting for him because they are idiots or because they want to spite you, but rather because they actually believe that he is the better choice to run our nation.
The study, which comes as a result of 20 years of research conducted in America’s cities, suburbs, and rural towns, indicates that residents living in places you “wouldn’t be caught dead in” have never even once considered voting for your candidate at any point during the campaign, and never will, and this is just the way it is always going to be.
The report confirms that this frustrates you.
“The mere fact that you and these 60 million strangers actually live in the same country and salute the same flag seems to defy all reality, yet it’s completely true,” University of Pennsylvania sociology professor Dr. Marie Stratton said. “And what’s even more incredible, there is no indication that you will ever talk to these people about your differences, because you prefer conversing with those who validate your opinions and give you a sense of self-satisfaction.”
According to the report, based on the social and cultural trends in the nation, over the next 20 years the number of people with whom you would never speak is only expected to increase. By the 2032 election, there will be an astonishing 150 million people you will never meet who will hate you and your candidate with the same fervent passion with which you will hate them and their candidate.
“I’m voting for [the other guy] all the way,” Ohio resident Ethan Washburn said in a statement Monday. “I think that when it comes to foreign and domestic issues, he is best suited for the job. And anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.”
“I’m voting for [the candidate opposite of Washburn] all the way,” Florida resident Tom Redman said in a statement Monday. “I think that when it comes to foreign and domestic issues, he is best suited for the job. And anyone who thinks otherwise is an idiot.”
Remarkably, the one thing you do have in common with these 60 million other people is that you both know several assholes who are actually planning to vote for a third-party candidate, if you can believe that shit.
September 30th, 2008
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