It's a yawn, Tom. It's the fourth time I've read this today and it just gets stupider each time. Calling this a "white rage" issue ignores the new Latina Governor of Arizona. Calling this a "white rage" issue ignores the new Latino Governor of Florida. Calling this a "white rage" issue ignores the fact that the Tea Party-backed House candidates were twice as likely to be a woman, a Latino/a, or a black than the standard GOP candidates.
What this election shows is that the folks voting in America are closer in philosophy to me in many ways than they are to you. They are reacting (as they did in 2008) to a Washington where corporate lobbyists sell them down the river under the disguise of "helping" them. A Washington where the President claimed that the reason voters didn't like his proposals was because they didn't understand them--because the message didn't get across or was misunderstood.
The exit polls done by CNN and MSNBC showed the opposite--that a large percentage of those who voted voted because they understood the situation and didn't like where it was going.
Hell, the polls showed that 40% of the supporters of the Tea Party were either Democrats or Independents.
Your other post, earlier today asked for solutions to the problems of this country. It sounds very similar to a rant that Rush Limbaugh made right after Obama was elected--in which he listed the problems of the nation but was, in fact, expressing hope that would fail.
In fact, the new Congress will make only a little difference unless they address the real issue. We're going through a "Technological Age" transition like the one between the Agricultural and the Industrial Ages.
When this occurred in the late 18th and early 19th, there was a huge dislocation across Europe and North America. To a large extent, it was the reason for the 19th Century European revolution and the invention of Marxism, and also played a large part in causing the American Civil War. The effects of this transition on the Modern World will be as significant.
The corporations and government divisions that existed in 2000 had, in my opinion, a forty-percent surplus in labor. The HR directors of that time didn't realize that many of their employees were surfing the web half the day because they didn't understand that technology had streamlined work to the extent they had.
What did happen, though, was that when the surge in gasoline prices burst the real-estate bubble, these HR directors realized that they could do the same amount of work with only 60% of the employees. Those jobs are gone and they're not coming back, period.
There is little that the government can do to fix this particular problem because it's not the result of human action--no amount of tax incentives or punishments can get businesses to hire people that they don't need and let them stand around all day. We've got about 17% of our work force desperately wanting jobs that are simply not there. They won't be until a new class of entrepreneurs and inventors come up with something to do.
[blink, blink].... "new Latina Governor of Arizona"? Jan Brewer has been Governor since Janet Napolitano became head of Homeland Security on 21 Jan 2009, and was born Janice Kay Drinkwine. And where did you hear Jan was Latina?
She might be American Mutt with some Latino bloodlines like I am, but she is not Latina.
The major thing I can see that can help is for the government to stop making things more uncertain for the businesses that are currently operating right on the edge of unprofitability. We're still at an economic saddle point where unexpected input can send us crashing back down to new lows. To use a historical analogy, we're at about 1932.
A secondary possibility might be to gradually re-institute tariffs on all foreign goods and services. Ross Perot may not have been right about much, but he sure as hell was about free trade not helping the nation that used to make the most money from the situation as it was. It will harm some mega-corps more than the small guys (you don't like Wal-Mart that much, do you?), but within a year or two, especially if they're not billed as a temporary measure, will tilt the economic climate more towards the job-creation situation, especially among the poor and middle classes.
Other than that, it's not up to Washington to fix things--it's up to us out here in flyover country.
Every dollar spent by Washington to "create jobs" right now has a multiplier of 0.7. This means that not only do we lose thirty cents of it in the collection and redistribution, we have to pay back the original dollar down the road plus interest to nation-states like China or Saudi Arabia that may not have our best interests in mind.
A lot of the readers of this blog are SF fans. What would Heinlein characters, Poul Anderson characters, or Isaac Asimov characters do if they were faced with a situation like this? Think! Innovate! Create!
Make America and our planet a better place. Jubal Harshaw wouldn't be interested in excuses.
I have to say, that while this piece may warm the cockles (whatever those are) of my liberal heart, I don't believe it. Demographics says that the Israelis will be compelled to stop their barbarity re: the Palestinians. I don't see that happening any time soon. Demographics isn't going to rescure the nation, unless there is an accompanying shift of wealth/power. And where were all the obama voters this election? He squandered them. It still requires leadership and power to change the fundamental infrastructure.
And that means not sitting back and waiting for the inevitable hand of history to change the world. Activism is required; getting out and manning the barricades, calling out the liars, forcing comfortable people to look at images of people in trouble, demanding better from left and right alike. Whistling past grave yards may be comforting, but it isn't going to stop the zombies from eating your brains.
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branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-03 07:37 pm (UTC)Part I
Date: 2010-11-03 08:00 pm (UTC)What this election shows is that the folks voting in America are closer in philosophy to me in many ways than they are to you. They are reacting (as they did in 2008) to a Washington where corporate lobbyists sell them down the river under the disguise of "helping" them. A Washington where the President claimed that the reason voters didn't like his proposals was because they didn't understand them--because the message didn't get across or was misunderstood.
The exit polls done by CNN and MSNBC showed the opposite--that a large percentage of those who voted voted because they understood the situation and didn't like where it was going.
Hell, the polls showed that 40% of the supporters of the Tea Party were either Democrats or Independents.
Your other post, earlier today asked for solutions to the problems of this country. It sounds very similar to a rant that Rush Limbaugh made right after Obama was elected--in which he listed the problems of the nation but was, in fact, expressing hope that would fail.
In fact, the new Congress will make only a little difference unless they address the real issue. We're going through a "Technological Age" transition like the one between the Agricultural and the Industrial Ages.
When this occurred in the late 18th and early 19th, there was a huge dislocation across Europe and North America. To a large extent, it was the reason for the 19th Century European revolution and the invention of Marxism, and also played a large part in causing the American Civil War. The effects of this transition on the Modern World will be as significant.
The corporations and government divisions that existed in 2000 had, in my opinion, a forty-percent surplus in labor. The HR directors of that time didn't realize that many of their employees were surfing the web half the day because they didn't understand that technology had streamlined work to the extent they had.
What did happen, though, was that when the surge in gasoline prices burst the real-estate bubble, these HR directors realized that they could do the same amount of work with only 60% of the employees. Those jobs are gone and they're not coming back, period.
There is little that the government can do to fix this particular problem because it's not the result of human action--no amount of tax incentives or punishments can get businesses to hire people that they don't need and let them stand around all day. We've got about 17% of our work force desperately wanting jobs that are simply not there. They won't be until a new class of entrepreneurs and inventors come up with something to do.
...to be continued
Tom Trumpinski
Re: Part I
Date: 2010-11-04 02:15 am (UTC)She might be American Mutt with some Latino bloodlines like I am, but she is not Latina.
Re: Part I
Date: 2010-11-04 02:23 am (UTC)Re: Part I
Date: 2010-11-04 04:56 am (UTC)I got no sleep last night--spent time consulting on the 'Net.
I promise to be more alert tomorrow with fewer factual errors.
Tom Trumpinski
Re: Part I
Date: 2010-11-05 02:16 am (UTC)Part II
Date: 2010-11-03 08:01 pm (UTC)A secondary possibility might be to gradually re-institute tariffs on all foreign goods and services. Ross Perot may not have been right about much, but he sure as hell was about free trade not helping the nation that used to make the most money from the situation as it was. It will harm some mega-corps more than the small guys (you don't like Wal-Mart that much, do you?), but within a year or two, especially if they're not billed as a temporary measure, will tilt the economic climate more towards the job-creation situation, especially among the poor and middle classes.
Other than that, it's not up to Washington to fix things--it's up to us out here in flyover country.
Every dollar spent by Washington to "create jobs" right now has a multiplier of 0.7. This means that not only do we lose thirty cents of it in the collection and redistribution, we have to pay back the original dollar down the road plus interest to nation-states like China or Saudi Arabia that may not have our best interests in mind.
A lot of the readers of this blog are SF fans. What would Heinlein characters, Poul Anderson characters, or Isaac Asimov characters do if they were faced with a situation like this? Think! Innovate! Create!
Make America and our planet a better place. Jubal Harshaw wouldn't be interested in excuses.
Tom Trumpinski
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-03 08:44 pm (UTC)Tom
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-03 11:24 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-04 04:57 am (UTC)I don't see a lot of tribes over there.
I care because I consider the large number of non-white Tea Party-backed candidates to be proof that the movement, as a whole, is not racist.
Tom Trumpinski
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-04 07:30 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-05 05:22 am (UTC)"Tom Trumpinski--Pissing and Moaning about Government Oppression since 1968."
I owe you a beer. Show up at any of my appearances at Windy, Chambanacon, Duck, or the next two Worldcons and you can collect.
Tom Trumpinski
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-04 12:39 am (UTC)And that means not sitting back and waiting for the inevitable hand of history to change the world. Activism is required; getting out and manning the barricades, calling out the liars, forcing comfortable people to look at images of people in trouble, demanding better from left and right alike. Whistling past grave yards may be comforting, but it isn't going to stop the zombies from eating your brains.
(no subject)
Date: 2010-11-04 02:45 am (UTC)"We've had worse... Come on, ya PANSIES!"