A Cheer for Congressional Paralysis

It's too bad that politicians do not have their version of the Hippocratic Oath governing Medical Doctors where the first rule is to do no harm. Political ideas take a long time to gestate. At the Federal level they are bargained over to the lowest common denominator by lobbyist favoring rent seekers. The final result is usually more harmful than the ailment to be cured. There was a lot of self serving patting on each others political backs recently because Congress was able to pass the Farm Bill in a bipartisan effort. What a hideous compromise that was of giving millions to rich farm interests and crumbs to the poor folk. With such result let's cheer paralysis instead of bemoaning it.

Yes global warming is a reality, but let's not put the innumerates in charge of developing solutions. Europe's green energy policy subsidized solar and wind projects that make no economic sense. Energy costs in Germany are roughly ten times higher then they need be and most damming is that carbon emissions are high as well because coal power is needed to cover during green power's down time! Surely we understand that we must sacrifice for the common good, but let's not make it a pointless sacrifice. The enumerates refuse to understand just how the low density of green energy scales, which is terribly, to the point of having to wind farm the entire Atlantic Ocean and solar panel up the North American continent to replace our total carbon burn. (I haven't done the math on this claim so go ahead and call me the innumerate, but I bet I am within the right factor.) European legislators have done great harm to their constituents with their activism and thanks to our paralysis we are fracking our way to a cleaner more independent energy environment without any help from our misguided Departments of Energy, Environment and Agriculture.

One particular activist solution here in the U. S. was the mandating of ethanol to supplement gasoline for auto transport. Unfortunately it is an innumerate's solution that just can not be discarded now that it has a following in Washington among those lobbying for Agribusiness. That this mandate grossly wastes power with its many energy conversions and contributes to world hunger by dedicating farm land to feed our cars and not our bodies means nothing to the rent seekers it benefits and the public whose attention is focused elsewhere.

As a believer in open source computer programming my Libertarian inclination is toward a crowd sourced wiki form of governance that is more like the techie petri dish that is Silicon Valley and it's many other hot beds of our economic progress. The paralysis we see today is a rejection of sweeping dumbed down mandates from Washington because with today's networks there is power for the people to act intelligently and at a more granular level.

Start-Up America

Thomas Friedman's editorial today showcases Silicon Valley's energetic idea machine and laments Congress's inaction as if the two are related. The problem is that tech ideas are promoted, tested and discarded in short order.  On the other hand, political ideas get traction over a long slug where they are compromised to a point of solely benefiting rent seekers.  Unfortunately ideas converted to legislation never get discarded, no matter how discredited.  Converting corn into fuel for autos is one particularly egregious example.  No wonder Tom observes that Libertarians techies approve of the current stalemate.

The Stupid Wooing the Wired

The March 2013 Republican “Growth and Opportunity Project” was an accurate self critical analysis of the what had gone wrong for the G.O.P. in the 2012 Presidential election. Scaring away the young, immigrant and female are big concerns for the party but let's not overlook the intelligent. A recent article in the New York Times describing Republican efforts to recruit tech savvy teams to help with future campaigns illuminates the problem, which is that many techies would describe themselves as conservative, but such a person would be a difficult recruit for a candidate championing creationism as science.

The Project noted a theme where the RNC must foster an environment of “intellectual curiosity and a culture of data and learning.” Since many of the party prescriptions are Authoritarian rants to stamp out that much needed intellectual curiosity the proposal is doomed to the recruitment of second tier practitioners working in a dumbed down environment with desultory result.

Without curiosity and learning Republican candidates lose the peer to peer conversions. Democrats won the majority of the electorate in the last election where both sides made personal contact with the same voter. They are repeating with the “Bannock Street Project” just reported on recently which is expected to do more of the same in 2014. Republican's, on the other hand, without the recognition that voters are too polite, women especially, to disagree in a face to face discussion are doomed to promulgate misbegotten Fox News tag lines preaching to the radicalized.

Finally it is the silos engendered by “Right Wing” fundraising that separates the intelligence of the G.O.P. collective. There has been a lot of hand wringing on the left with the unfair advantage given to the wealthy in promoting their agenda in the Citizens United Supreme Court decision of 2008. But the silo effect of the decision made the media buys for those groups supporting but not directly communicating with the Romney team during the 2012 campaign particularly expensive and inept. Karl Rove got a hard dressing down from the likes of the Koch brothers accusing him of raising more money than he had brains to spend it with. Without a collaborative intellectual effort in this field the Republicans are going have a difficult time. The future is not good for them in this regard as more and more conservative interests bifurcate into their own little money raising tax dodging free speech silos.

Until Libertarians understand that a combination with Authoritarians is unworkable then both are doomed to an unsustainable arrangement. One can not accommodate the other. Either you are libertarian or authoritarian. Bright or stupid. You make the choice.

Another take on the latest Employment figures

Construction jobs are up and Government employment down.  This would be a Tea Party Administration's dream result but since Obama is in charge it has got to be a lie.

Democrats Aim for a 2014 More Like 2012 and 2008

The Stupid Old Party is setting itself up for a disastrous 2014 midterm election.  It appears the Democrats are taking the Obama playbook for 2012 where they truly informed themselves on the electorate in a granular and nuanced way leading to effective get out the vote and advertising campaigns versus the Fox News delusions directing the opposition.

Delusional GOP

Paul Krugman has hit on the Republican delusions of repealing Obamacare but if they are not careful and if they keep on believing their Fox news generated in-house propaganda machine on all subjects, the economy included, then they may get an awful lot of egg on their face. Currently some states are generating surpluses, including Governor Moonbeam's.  The federal deficit is closing and could reach a surplus level by 2016 when Hillary will remind the electorate that the last time the Government was in surplus was when her husband was in charge. Frankly, Democrats could make the charge to their Republican opponents in this year's congressional races that they want the economy and Obamacare to fail to better position themselves with the voters.

Us versus Them

New Jersey Governor Chris Christies' Bridge-gate is so aptly named because it is the same morality play which was Watergate. In each instance it was an extreme “us versus them” mentality which failed to recognize that asking for forgiveness early and quickly is what was required because it signals an understanding by the administration that the public was not well served. The election arena of victors and vanquished creates a partisan element that brooks no concession, because conceding is for losers. Winners of that game can turn into losers at governing.