A Political Marathoner

Thank you, George. It was good to hear the Governor again.

But what Obama Administration is he talking about? Ken Salazar! And it "takes awhile to turn things around"? How much did Reagan and Bush II turn things(on their heads) by 18 months into their terms?

And Bill Clinton as some sort of egalitarian. . . LOL Looking back 20 years, a very good argument can be made that the man who beat Dukakis was a significantly more progressive President domestically than was the Arkansas Pimp.

I don't get it. He left politics long ago, so he must really believe this stuff.

Still, very interesting. Thanks.

[I think you're pointing out the loyal Democrat talking. But on the issues he's reasonable. g.]

EJK:

I'll do a knee-jerk retort here: What the current administration is not doing fast enough for you (particularly where you use Reagan and Shrub for efficiency comparison) is fix things that were broken. It's a lot easier to smash good policy than make it. The difference is even bigger when you are trying to fix it.

I am at times frustrated and impatient with Obama's administration. I do wish he'd sort of smash things up a bit. And knock heads. But to see the china shop he's the new manager of allows me to be more patient.

As for who he picked for his team. Well, I'd like to think I'd have done different, but I don't know who was available and who said no, for instance.

Dukakis sounds very reasonable and fairly progressive to me. Let's take what we can get, shall we?

Hi George,

Mike Dukakis sounds like an intelligent fellow; unfortunately, he was not quite ready for prime time (the sneaky Republican smear team). I suspect he evaluates the Obama administration as he would expect another Democrat to treat his imaginary/would be administration; i.e., he is a team player.

To change the subject a bit, my impression is that it would be desirable to consider the fact that the American public has been exposed to such effective propaganda over the past 50 years so that now it is almost beyond the point of no return. I have been sort of on the look-out for some residual signs that there is some intelligent life which has not been captured by the super-rich. Interestingly enough, I have found a few that appear to be worth mentioning.

Following, are links to a couple of ideas, some of which I alluded to in an earlier comment:

Convention USA: Confronting Unconstitutional Inaction by Congress by Joel S. Hirschhorn
Posted on May 29, 2010 by dandelionsalad

As Joel Hirschhorn writes in the following article:

http://dandelionsalad.wordpress.com/2010/05/29/convention-usa-confronting-unconstitutional-inaction-by-congress-by-joel-s-hirschhorn/#more-81027

many USA citizens would like to do something to counteract the inaction/mischief characteristic of our elected representatives, however, most intelligent citizens realize that it will take some sort of concerted, legal effort to force the hands of their elected, mischievious 'representatives' to do something which might be of use to society as a whole. The people at Friends of the Article V Convention

http://www.foavc.org/

and, at Convention USA,

http://www.convusa.com/

are offering options to address the problem of attempting to get the US Congressional dregs of humanity to do their 'Constitutional-prescribed duties'. For those bright, enthusiastic readers/podcast listeners of ElectricPolitics.com, the prospect of engaging is a positive sort of activity may have some appeal.

To follow up on a comment I left a couple of weeks ago, the presentations given at the Fiscal Sustainability Teach-In held at GWU in Washington D C on April 28 are available at the following link:

http://www.netrootsmass.net/fiscal-sustainability-teach-in-and-counter-conference/

An audio recording of each of the presentations may be coordinated with PowerPoint slides of the information offered by each speaker. IMHO, this sort of information presentation seems preferable to that of a video presentation during which slides are simultaneously presented. The Teach-In was organized by Dr Joe Firestone and associates; I think he did an excellent job of getting economists (Bill Mitchell, Marshall Auerback, Randall Wray, Stephanie Kelton, Warren Mosler and Pavlina Tcherneva) to offer their insights into how Modern Money theoretical/practical (B Mitchell defines this as MMT) macroeconomic policies could provide a framework to solve most of the economic difficulties which are so devastating at the present time. I found Dr Randall Wray's book to be quite helpful in explaining how to perform money/currency regulation with the objective of facilitating full employment:

'Understanding Modern Money. The Key to Full Employment and Price Stability' 1998 Edward Elgar.

In searching for some sort of strategy which might actually work to get around our current economic disasters (which result from bankster manipulations which have been off and on repeated in a recognizable pattern throughout several centuries), I have concluded that the MMT (or an appropriate variant) would work if competent, realistic decision-makers were made a prerequisite; of course, other constructs might also work in a theoretical context should the people running the show be honest rather than fundamental opportunists. During a few intervals of American history, government printed and controlled the currency; however, the clever opportunists have managed to convince most people to accept the even more clever advertising and control methods which are hallmarks of today's banksters (perhaps, their constant messages are appealing because each of us would like to think that he/she would also enjoy being wealthy). Thus, while we are aware of the appeal of greed and avarice to facilitate individual wealth accumulation, it is clear to most rational people that when the whole system comes under the thumb of the crony capitalist banksters (facilitated by government enforcers at the present time), there is a very high likelihood that the entirety of American culture/government will degrade to something on the order of that tolerated by the citizens of Sicily, the former governments of Nazi-controlled Germany or totalitarian-'communist' Russia, or the like.

It is difficult for many people to argue with/comprehend/dispute the official USA government propaganda regarding fiscal matters, however, the following final paragraph of Joe Firestone's web blog at seminal.firedoglake.com may help:

Fiscal Sustainability and the American Future
By: letsgetitdone Saturday April 10, 2010 10:52 pm

http://seminal.firedoglake.com/diary/40175

'The theoreticians, mavens, messengers, and prophets of Government austerity, including this President of the United States, talk about the need for toughness, realism, and sacrifice for the good of the country, while they are by-and-large very well-off people who will make very few, if any material sacrifices, to achieve their version of “fiscal sustainability.” Sacrifice is fine for other people, but they are entitled to avoid it, while they feel just a touch morally superior to the rest of us who are resisting the need for accepting the inevitable. This is all well and good, except for the fact that there is no inevitability about the retreat from economic and social progress they are calling for. There is only their own stubborn adherence to an economic world view that was dated in FDR’s time, and that became completely irrelevant when Richard Nixon ended the gold standard in the early 1970s. The adherence of these “realists” to an ideology that has been illusion for the past 40 years, is one of the best demonstrations one can imagine that those who most trumpet their realism are often people who are most caught up in fantasy and who are most strongly committed to shaping the real world according to their fantasies. We must not let them do that at our expense. We must stop them from destroying our economy and our futures because they are incapable of understanding that a Government, sovereign in its own currency, is not at all like a family, or any other entity that is operationally limited in its ability to spend for its purposes. When the private sector suffers a collapse in demand, and when its desire to save increases, then the Government must take up the slack in aggregate demand that is created. For the Government to behave in any other way is to betray its public purpose.'

George, thanks for the fine interview of Gov. Dukakis. I think he represents as well as anyone the most liberal political view within the Democratic Party mainstream — and that's very sad.

Over and over, I kept hearing the same tired attacks on the opposition and the same tired excuses for Democrats finishing with the "get out there and elect more Democrats" mantra. Unfortunately we now have living proof in the White House (again) that electing a Democrat won't help and just might make things worse.

I am no longer impressed by the "take what we can get" mentality. It's simply not enough. I don't buy the idea that Obama is a great guy who wants to do the right thing, but is stymied by others. Obama is doing exactly what he wants to do — shred the Constitution, bail out the banks, kill Social Security, and turn the demand for health reform into a massive payoff for the insurance industry.

If this is what electing Democrats does for us, it's time to stop voting for them. Our political system is totally broken and continuing to pretend it isn't is counterproductive.