Politics/Most Have Enough Information

SuperPac's and the candidates are set to spend millions to sway your vote. Contrast that to a survey by the Pew Research Center that says most of us already have enough information about President Obama and Mitt Romney. 92% of those surveyed say they have what they need to know about President Obama. 69% of those surveyed say they have what they need to know about Mitt Romney.

According to the survey results there's a wide partisan gap in what people want to know about Romney.



This is not a surprise. If you look at the results of the Wisconsin recall vote for Governor Scott Walker. There was not much movement in the results from the election to the recall election despite millions spent by sources outside the state to sway the voters. It is believed, through polling, that the voters had made up their minds in advance of the recall. The millions spent was aimed at the undecided which was a small percentage of the voters.

Previous Pew research shows the widening partisan gap between Republicans and Democrats. The money being spent will be aimed at the voters who have not decided... a portion of the Independents.

Since the advertising dollars spent will not be that effective...wouldn't it be nice if the money was spent to create jobs? I'm just sayin'.

Election Year Issues - Banking

Bank Reform

Eliot Spitzer: Clean Up The Banks 

Eliot Spitzer was the guest for On-Point on July 23rd to talk about "Clean Up the Banks."

Among the key issues...

• No significant changes in regulations since the failures of 2008.
• To Big to Fail...these banks are even bigger.
• Fiduciary responsibility is being ignored.
• Greed

Spitzer points out the ideology that got traction began in the 80's with the Reagan Administration when deregulation began in earnest. The checks on banking put in place during the Great Depression were stripped away. The breaks came off. The major crisis of the economic crisis were going through was only a matter of time. Proponents of deregulation assured us the bankers would regulate themselves.

Spitzer recounts a conversation he had with lawyers for Merrill Lynch. They admitted their guilt but, they said they were not as bad as their competitors. They viewed this as a defense! As if there is a sliding scale of unethical behavior. Spitzer calls it moral relativism. In other words, Merrill Lynch cheated their clients out of hundreds of millions while their competitors were cheating their clients out of billions.

Election Year Issues

Here's a list of election year issues.

• Distribution of Wealth.
• Growing poverty rates.
• Big Business - Monopolies.
• Banking Regulations.
• Big Business Influence in Politics
• Labor Laws.
• Public Health.
• Immigration.
• Environmental Issues.
• International Trade.
• Equal Opportunity Issues.

The list is from 1900. All of these issues were addressed in the period between 1900 and 1914 in what is known as the Progressive Era. They came about as issues because of changes in what drove our economy from agrarian to industrial. The changes were made to make the lives of average citizens better. In many cases, they did. We are going through a change again from national and regional to global. The issues above still have relevance. 

Etiquette and the Real Life Survival Guide

The Real Life Survival Guide is gathering for another recording this Sunday. The subject is Etiquette. I remember being taught etiquette by my parents. I also went to refresher course as an adult with my wife. The focus was proper etiquette at formal dinner occasions. I think my wife wanted me polish a few of my social skills. At the final class I made a mistake when cutting my meat. In my defense, I'm usually polite.

Because I help produce RLSG, I wanted to know more about etiquette. Was it something from the past? Had the rudeness of partisan politics and postings on the internet made it obsolete?

I found a few articles on talking about politics at social gatherings and at home. An article published by Reuters advises, "Know your goal. Think about the purpose of the conversation, and whether you should even be having it. Are you seeking information? Advocating a point of view in the hope of changing someone else's mind? Venting frustration?"
http://www.reuters.com/article/2010/10/04/us-etiquette-politics-idUSTRE6931O620101004
Despite knowing deep down that your opinion is truly enlightened, you might want to keep that thought to yourself.

Social Media has etiquette. Reuters published an article on the etiquette of Pinterest.
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/02/net-us-etiquette-pinterest-idUSBRE8610IU20120702

The News and Sentinel of Mobile has an article on intersection etiquette. Jim Parker wrote that for many, intersection etiquette was non-existent after last week's big storm.
http://newsandsentinel.com/page/blogs.detail/display/1106/Intersection-etiquette-non-existant.html

The focus of an etiquette class would seem to be important. NY State Senator Marty Golden wanted to teach some of his Brooklyn constituents proper etiquette. Golden's class was pitched as teaching the proper etiquette skills for women to get ahead in the business world. Among the skills the class would teach women to "sit, stand and walk like a model" and how to "walk up and down a stair elegantly,"  The class is being roundly criticized for focusing on the wrong issues. Golden cancelled the class.




You can find out more at CBS news.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57466407/n.y-sen-marty-golden-cancels-feminine-etiquette-class-after-outrage/

The Real Life Survival Guides program on Etiquette will air on WNPR in a couple of weeks. It airs Sunday at 4:30pm. The shows are also available on-line at the Real Life Survival Guide's website and wnpr.org.

Thank you for your time.

The Complexity of the Healthcare Debate

There are 50 million people in this country without healthcare insurance. Most simply cannot afford it. When the need for healthcare arises (It will for for all of us) the costs are astronomical.  Basic, affordable health insurance can solve many of these problems because the problems can and will be found before they go too far.
A thoughtful and insightful article in the New Yorker by Atul Gwande points out the three types of arguments being thrown in the path of Obamacare. Reactionary arguments take three basic forms. They are perversity, futility, and jeopardy.

The perversity argumnent is that the change will not only fail but, make the problem worse. The futility argument is that the change will not be meaningful. The jeopardy argument is that the healthcare law will result in unacceptable cost on our society. Part of this argument is the desire to exclude the "others." Healthcare is for the deserving. The deserving is narrowly defined.  Gwande writes,  "During the nineteenth century, for instance, most American leaders believed in a right to vote—but not in extending it to women and black people. Likewise, most American leaders, regardless of their politics, believe that people’s health-care needs should be met; they’ve sought to insure that soldiers, the elderly, the disabled, and children, not to mention themselves, have access to good care. But many draw their circle of concern narrowly; they continue to resist the idea that people without adequate insurance are anything like these deserving others."      

Read more http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/comment/2012/06/something-wicked-this-way-comes.html#ixzz1zQXaPulc

There's a moral imperative to caring about the fate of those who are less fortunate. It is key to the Christian Faith that we care for one another. It's the second half of the two great commandments given by Christ found in Mark Chapter 12. “The most important one,” answered Jesus, “is this: ‘Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.^[a] 30 Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind and with all your strength.’^[b] 31 The second is this: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’^[c] There is no commandment greater than these.” 

I once had sin described to me as seeing someone in need and turning away...not doing anything about it when I could.  We're in a position to do something about it now. Playing politics at the expense of 50 million people would be more than a shame. It would be a sin.