Progressive Movement

Alright, so it has taken me awhile to post this, but I wanted to think about this some. The Senate on Wednesday could not break the deadlock imposed by conservatives over the clean minimum wage bill. So in order to pass some kind of minimum wage bill, the Democrats capitulated and will offer a dirty version of the bill with tax handouts to the Republicans big money contributors.

The tax give away only amounts to $8 billion over the next five years, and it is offset by ending other subsidies elsewhere.

Because this is an attempt by Senate conservatives to kill the much needed wage increase. They are banking on the House and Senate not being able to agree on having the handouts, killing the bill, or agreeing to eliminate them from the final version of the bill, which Senate conservatives will filibuster again.

Proof of this comes from the fact that two Republican Senators introduced a bill to eliminate the federal minimum wage. There is no purpose for doing this. It makes no economic sense if you want to build up the economy and raise people out of poverty to decrease wages. It is a simple fact of economics that the more money you pump into an economy the better off everyone is, particularly if that money circulates. Poor people spend whatever money they have, so giving the poor a pay raise will immediately circulate that money back into the system. For more on this see the minimum wage issue page.

Conservatives want us to believe they are looking out for the small business owner, but in actuality, (more…)

Messaging, Democrats, Minimum Wage, Republicans, Analysis, Economy, Poverty | No Comments »

The January 22 and 23 shows had a few key moments, so I am combining them into one post.

On Tuesday 22’s show Russ Leiber was on, Colbert’s liberal paper foil. One great exchange had Lieber claiming the bumper sticker of his life was, “Fight the Power!” So when Colbert asked him whom he would fight now that the Democrats were in power, Russ replied “Myself.” How awesome is that, liberals fighting each other and being stymied by internal doubt! How true, how true. Luckily Lieber is meant to be the conservative’s worst liberal stereotyped nightmare, and not a serious proponent of progressive issues. Still, the satire hits home.

One other bit from that show I loved. On the threat down, Stephen warned against gay podcasts. Why? Because he did not need one more thing trying to turn him gay; he has enough problems with Brawny towels. Sweet! Colbert totally undercuts the main conservative argument, that there is a radical gay agenda to turn everyone gay, (more…)

Uncategorized, Immigration, Colbert Watch | No Comments »

My post on the State of the Union focused on what Bush said, not on what he omitted. As some have already pointed out, the biggest omission concerned the recovery efforts from Katrina and Rita. The region is still devastated and recovery efforts are lagging. And yet Bush did not take the time to even mention it in passing. Could it be that one of the great quotes of our time, “George Bush doesn’t care about black people”, could be true? It certainly seems that way.

One of the most disheartening aspects of the whole Katrina/Rita debacle was how the media, Congress, and the public have dropped the gut wrenching visions of poverty and racism from the narrative. Secondly, the White House smartly changed the debate about George Bush and Republicans not caring about black people to one of general incompetence, an incompetence they unfairly hoisted upon the Democratic mayor of New Orleans and Governor of Louisiana.

So now when asked about what went wrong during Katrina, most people would say incompetence at all levels of government. Poverty and race have been forgotten. The incompetence narrative actually helps the Republicans (more…)

Edwards, Katrina/Rita, Poverty, Racism, SOTU | No Comments »

Senator Jim Webb gave the Democratic response. Why him? Given that Iraq was the topic of the night, I am sure the Dems wanted someone who is perceived as pro-military. Webb certainly is that, with at least four generations of military service in his family. I am not sure I buy the piece of common wisdom that you can only counter a President when U.S. forces are engaged with someone who has been in the military, but it probably is beneficial if done correctly. My concern was that Webb hit us over the head with it, ultimately making it look like he was trying to hard.

But he did use the set up of his family traditions of service, honor, and duty to set up the big zinger of his rebuttal: Bush has violated the trust of service members by taking us into war recklessly.

I think this is a great piece of messaging. A military guy talking directly to other military families who believe military service is honorable, and telling them the basis for that belief – trust that their leaders will honor and respect their sacrifice – has been violated. This will do more than any specific policy to undercut the idea that conservatives and Republicans are more pro-military than the Democrats. Progressives may not use the military as often to pursue foreign policy objectives, but they will not send our troops into harms way willy-nilly like conservatives.

This is a message that should be repeated consistently around the country - Democrats honor and respect the sacrifices of our men and women in uniform more than Republicans.

The rest of his Iraq message was what you would expect: (more…)

Messaging, Iraq, Bush, Administration, Democrats, Jim Webb, Economy, SOTU | No Comments »

Everyone else is doing it, so why not me? Here is my take on the messaging in Bush’s sixth State of the Union address. Overall Bush’s speech had a very conciliatory tone with very modest proposals. Most of the biggest applause was for initiatives that Democrats supported, like immigration reform and energy independence.

Domestic Policy

After starting by graciously praising Nancy Pelosi and the new Democratic Congress, smartly buttering up his opponents, he went into macho speak with phrases like “Decisions are hard” and “courage is needed.” Adding we “must have the will to face … determined enemies.” This reinforces the false notion that Republicans are tough and can make hard decisions.

He furthered this by claiming that we have to “guard America against all evil”. He used the evil theme a few times throughout the speech.

He touted balanced budgets, a typical Republican theme, even though they are terrible at it. Bush lied about his success in cutting the deficit, but conservatives have to maintain the incorrect idea that they are the party of fiscal restraint since the Democrats are beginning to steal that from them.

Bush pimped No Child Left Behind as improving educational standards while maintaining local control. None of this is true, (more…)

Messaging, Iraq, Immigration, Climate, Energy, Bush, Democrats, Republicans, Analysis, Terrorism, SOTU | No Comments »

I liked The Word, “Exact Words”, last night, although Steven was not at his satirical best. He was blasting Attorney General Gonzalez for testifying before the Senate that the Constitution did not explicitly guarantee the right of habeas corpus. Other than the asides on the screen, Colbert did not make his real position entirely clear, except for two things.

Gonzalez essentially argues that unless something is expressly laid out, you cannot determine the original intent of the authors. This is exactly the conservative viewpoint regarding Constitutional law, and Colbert imploded it by relating it to a scene from the Brady Bunch. Awesome. All of conservative Constitutional law theory can be summed up by a clearly absurd argument Greg Brady uses to get himself out of trouble. So much for the thinking conservative legal philosophy has any is erudite basis.

He closed by taking actual Constitutional text, “the accused shall enjoy the right of a speedy and public trial”, and claimed that if the prisoners in Gitmo are not enjoying their imprisonment, they should not get a speedy and fair trial. (more…)

Messaging, Elections, Colbert Watch | 2 Comments »

So I caught John McCain on Russert’s “Meet the Press” today. Is this guy on sedatives or what? How does he expect to be able to run for president sounding so dour? I expect it has to do with him trying to dispel his hothead reputation by sounding so zombie-ish. To whom is this supposed to appeal?

Not too mention that his ideas and messaging are not so hot these days. He is trying so hard to appeal to James Dobson and the fanatical right that he is out of his natural element, which is maverick libertarianism. So he seems very unconvincing and somewhat untrustworthy. One of Kerry’s major problems was not appearing sincere. People thought he was simply trying to appease whatever group to which he was speaking. McCain is sounding the same way. He is just not being himself and it is going to hurt him in his presidential run.

As I always say, go with your strengths. McCain is running away from his. And by doing so, it undercuts his independent and above the political fray persona. Not that I want him as President, but for the sake of the country he needs to snap out of it.

As far as the specifics of his comments, (more…)

Iraq, McCain | 1 Comment »

This is classic. As reported in The Carpetbagger Report, another high-ranking counterterrorism official has joined the mass exodus from the Bush Administration because they just could not take it anymore.

So the real story is that the top dogs running the show: Bush, Cheney, Rice, Rove, and previously Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Crouch, Bolton, Feith, Cambone, etc… were so extreme that the real experts felt they could not do their jobs properly and bolted to join the party that actually listens to their opinions, the Democrats.

And what does some low-level Republican staffer say to the Washington Times?

“Once again, people on the Bush White House staff turn on him while our soldiers and Marines fight to protect the rest of us.”

See, this is why Republicans do well. Some random staffer on the Hill can pull out the most succinct, deflective, dismissive, and effective statement imaginable on the fly. Democrats do not do this well.

This statement, based upon patently false assumptions, is not hedged or qualified. The subtext: People who do not support the President do not support our troops. Period. Bush’s way is the only way true patriots can think. Therefore, all Democrats are treasonous and hate the troops.

Of course, this is exactly the false assumption many people have about Democrats. (more…)

Messaging, Terrorism | No Comments »