A billion dollars

We often hear that the Koch Brothers are billionaires.  That’s a hard number to conceptualize, but there’s an ad on TV for H&R Block that says American taxpayers missed out on a billion dollars in refunds last year.  To illustrate what that looks like, they have a guy putting bundles of $500 on the seats of a huge football stadium.

Then the announcer says to get to a billion, the guy must place $500 on each seat in every professional football stadium in the country.

And that’s only one billion.

Austria's conscript army

Austria has no enemies.  It is difficult to think of why Austria even needs an army.  Nonetheless, a year ago, the Austrian electorate, by almost 60%, voted to continue to draft soldiers into the army rather than have a smaller professional force.

The vote to keep the conscript army was especially high in rural areas, where soldiers help to shovel out villages hit by avalanches or build sandbag dikes to protect villages from flooding.  

In addition, if conscription were ended, thousands of conscientious objectors would no longer perform jobs like elderly care givers or ambulance drivers.  

I was drafted in 1969 during the Vietnam War.  I was rejected because I had high blood pressure.  (I still have it, but it is kept in check by medication.)  If I remember correctly, my status was 1-Y, which was reserved for illiterates, homosexuals, and people who had a medical condition that could be overlooked in an extreme emergency.  

Now, of course, we have an all-volunteer army, composed of men and women from the bottom of the economic scale.  Imagine the opposition the the Afghan war if rich kids were dying there.  

I know that a draft is about the least popular position one can take today.  Nonetheless, I think it would have a major impact on our foreign policy, it would be fair, and it should be done.  I applaud the Austrian voters.

T/Top the N.S.A. turtle

N.S.A. has a website for children featuring a cartoon turtle wearing a backwards hat and purple sunglasses. The turtle touts the benefits of knowing what your enemies (and presumably Angela Merkel and every American who makes a phone call) are up to.

According to an article by Michael S. Schmidt (New York Times, Jan. 29, p. A10), N.S.A. has quite a few cartoon characters, including CryptoCat and Decipher Dog.  This is the kind of material I would expect to read in The Onion, but it is for real.  

Our tax dollars at work.  

State of the Union

Sometimes I am very disappointed in President Obama.  The Affordable Health Care Act implementation has been terrible, the N.S.A. revelations are an affront to my sense of American civil liberties, and I believe the drone strikes have done far more harm than good.

Then I watch the President deliver his speech and it all comes back.  I remember why I spent all that effort helping to elect him.  I remember the euphoria in 2008 and 2012 when he won.  I am reminded of why I think the House Republicans are not only obstructionist, but also stupid.  I am reminded of how bad off this country would be if McCain had won in 2008 or Romney had won in 2012.  

Health care, minimum wage, immigration reform, closing Guantanamo, climate change, education, foreign policy--on issue after issue this President is on the right side.  The Obama bumper stickers from 2008 and 2012 will stay on my pickup truck tailgate, and I am proud to have them there.

$2.13 an hour

The federal minimum wage is $7.25 an hour, unless you are a waitress.  Then the federal minimum wage is $2.13 an hour, an amount unchanged since 1991. Supposedly, if your tips are too small to reach the $7.25 amount, the restaurant owner is required to raise your pay to that level, but try negotiating that without a union to back you up.

I never liked the whole system of tips.  It puts the waiter or waitress in the position of supplicant.  It lacks dignity.  It is demeaning.  Why not pay people a wage they can live on, without depending on diners who may decide not to tip at all.

I also don’t get the whole percentage thing.  You eat in an inexpensive restaurant where the bill for lunch comes to $8.00--say Central Lunch in Weissport.  20% of $8.00 is $1.60.  Now let’s say you eat in a restaurant where the bill comes to $60.  (I can’t name one, but I’m sure there are some around.)  The tip comes to $12.00.  How is that fair?

Seven states, by the way, require waiters and waitresses to be paid the regular minimum wage.  Pennsylvania is not one of them.

Red Mountain Wine

Tonight I’m going to introduce you go Gib Guilbeau, who recorded an album of amazing songs way back in 1973.  Side A, Band 1 is entitled Red Mountain Wine.  Here are the lyrics.

I ain’t got no worries

I ain’t got no home

I ain’t got nobody 

to call on my own

But I’m satisfied with nothing to do

but bum for a dime for some Red Mountain wine.

Some people see me

some people don’t

some women love me

some women won’t

But I’m satisfied with nothing to do

but bum for a dime for my Red Mountain wine.

Got a house in Carolina

and a barn in Tennessee

boxcar in Virginia

and a jail in Waikiki.

Oh I’m satisfied with nothing to do

Just bum for a dime for some Red Mountain wine.

They don’t write them like that anymore.

The Handmaid's Tale

Margaret Atwood published a dystopian novel in 1985 entitled The Handmaid’s Tale.  The novel was set in the future when Christian fanatics had taken power.  Certain women were designated as “breeders,” and their function was to become impregnated and have children.  Now life imitates art.

In Fort Worth, Texas, a pregnant brain-dead woman was kept on life support because Texas law prohibits hospitals from suspending life-sustaining treatment for patients who are pregnant.

Yesterday a state district court judge said the life-support could be ended.  

Incidentally, the hospital said the fetus could not survive outside the womb.

The hospital, which is a public hospital, may appeal.

I am always amazed that people who call themselves “pro-life” can be so heartless.

The Man with the Golden Arm

After my last depressing post, I’ve decided to lighten up and tell you about the strange case of Nicholas Caputo, the Essex Count Clerk who conducted drawings for decades to determine which party would have the top ballot line.

Somehow he picked Democrats 40 out of 41 times.  In a 1985 court case, judges ruled 6-0 that the drawing procedure would have to be changed.  The court noted that the chances of picking the same name 40 our of 41 times were less than 1 in 50 billion.  The ruling stated, “confronted with these odds, few persons of reason will accept the explanation of blind chance.”

I forgot to tell you that Essex County is in New Jersey.

Being Cassandra is no fun

According to Greek mythology, Cassandra was given the gift of prophesy.  With the gift came a real downside--Cassandra’s prophesies would never be believed.

On January 17 an article in the Times, relegated to page 8, featured a UN study on climate change.  The subhead said:  “Waiting to Cut Carbon Emissions Could Outstrip Technology’s Ability to Preserve Planet, Report Warns.”

Today’s headline in the Times read “European Union Proposes Easing of Climate Rules:  Binding Goals May End.”

We are doomed.

Carlito's Way

In 1993 I was involved in an altercation in a Marysville, CA, movie theater.  Linda and I had gone to see “Carlito’s Way,” a reasonably good movie starring Al Pacino and Sean Penn, directed by Brian DePalma.  

There was this guy in the back row, probably drunk, who was talking during the entire movie.  I went out and told the manager about him, and the manager did speak to him, but as soon as the manager left, he started up again.  

I then went back and told the guy, who was with two girls, that my wife and I couldn’t enjoy the movie while he was talking.  He said, “Ok, man,” but as soon as I got back to my seat, he started up again.

When the movie was almost over, just before the credits, he came stomping down the steps.  I stood up and said, so the whole theater could hear, “Wait a minute.  You’ve been loud and rude through this entire movie, and you ought to learn some manners.”

I was wearing a watch cap at the time, and the guy said, “How’d you like me to knock your beanie off.”  

Linda was sitting with her hands in front of her face, and I was thinking, “I’m about to get the crap beat out of me,” when a very large man in a baseball cap stood up and said, “How’d you like to knock my beanie off?  I’m thinking, “Thank you, thank you,” because  by that time other patrons who had been annoyed were coming forward.

Linda and I slipped out by a side exit, and as we were heading for the car, we heard police sirens coming.  I don’t know what happened (I always try to leave before violence breaks out), but I do know that no one was killed.

That’s the difference between Marysville, CA, in 1993 and Wesley Chapel, FL, in 2014.  I probably would have said something to a guy texting, and he probably would have said something back, and somebody may have even gotten punched.  Nobody, however, would have gotten killed.

You know what makes me tired.  The N.R.A. saying “Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”  I have two words for that.  Bull Shit.

Aliens and Climate Change

Americans who believe that aliens have visited earth:  77%

Americans who believe that humans are causing climate change:  44%.

Like almost everything in the U.S., climate change has become politicized.  66% of Democrats say human activity is the main cause of climate change, 24% of Republicans think that.

This is why I drink.

The statistics are from a column by Nicholas Kristof entitled:  “‘Neglected Topic’ Winner:  Climate Change” in the Jan. 19 issue of the New York Times.

Patti Borger makes it official

Today in front of the Carbon County Courthouse Annex in Jim Thorpe, Patti Borger told a crowd of supporters and a Channel 13 reporter that she was running for the 122nd District of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  She noted that Carbon County is not well served by the incumbent, who takes his cues from Governor Corbett rather than the citizens of the County.  

Ms. Borger mentioned her ties to business and agriculture, her roots in the county, her commitment to education, her concerns about seniors losing their homes to property tax, her support for a clean environment, and her commitment to listen to the voters.  What a contrast to the incumbent.  His main concern is to get his picture in the Times News as often as possible.  

Candidates often say, “This will be a tough race, but we can win it.”  This will be a tough race.  Ms. Borger will need volunteers, funding, and motivated voters.  Her natural ability to relate to people and her commitment to work hard will put her over the top, but she will need help.  I’ll do what I can.

It's not the teachers, it's the parents

Here’s an excerpt from a speech that Secretary of Education Arne Duncan recently delivered:  “In 2009 President Obama met with President Lee of South Korea and asked him about his biggest challenge in education.  President Lee answered without hesitation:  parents in South Korea were ‘too demanding.’  Even his poorest parents demanded a world-class education for their children, and he was having to spend millions of dollars each year to teach English to students in the first grade, because his parents won’t let him wait until second grade.”  

I read this in a column by Thomas Friedman in today’s Times.  Friedman also quotes a number of teachers who discuss how difficult it is to teach in a climate where parents become angry if their children receive low grades.  One teacher quoted a student who said, “I know you’re a really good teacher, but you don’t seem to realize I have two hours a night of Facebook and over 4000 text messages a month to deal with.  How do you expect me to do all this work.”

We live in a society in which parents attend every sports event, video camera in hand.  They ask their school boards for bigger and better stadiums, and demand winning teams.  However, when it comes to academic work, they demand less, not more.  And our students fall behind, ill-equipped to deal with the modern world.  How did we get this stupid?

What Robert Reich missed

“Inequality for All” was a great documentary--entertaining, educational, and inspiring, and that’s a hard combination to achieve.  I do have one problem with the film, however, and it’s a biggie.

Reich said 70% of the American economy depends on consumer spending.  If the workforce is underpaid, less money is available for purchasing, layoffs and stagnation occur, and we enter a downward cycle.  Much of the movie was about how to raise the income of the people on the bottom by increasing their wages (stronger unions) or their productivity (better education).

One way to address inequality is to take from the rich and give to the poor, but redistributive policies are always difficult, especially when the Supreme Court in its “Citizens United” decision has given the top 1% a powerful ability to influence politics.  On the other hand, a healthy growing economy can benefit those of us on the bottom.

And here’s my problem.  Our current level of consumption is already killing the planet.  Not only that, but the rest of the world, all 7 billion of them, want to consume at our level, which will make matters far worse.  If the world’s economy and population keep growing, the next century will make the last one seem like a Sunday School picnic.  

How could we achieve some kind of income equality in a steady state economy?  A number of Green Party economists have wrestled with that problem, but so far they haven’t come up with any answers.  Unfortunately, most economists still take the short view--how can we make the economy grow this year.  

John Maynard Keynes was once asked,”What about the long run?”  He glibly replied, “In the long run we’re all dead.”  I once thought that was so clever.  I don’t anymore.  I think about our grandchildren and our great-grandchildren.

Harper's

Each month Harper’s Magazine runs a column entitled “Harper’s Index.”  The columns are always interesting and sometimes amazing.  Here are a few examples from the Feb. issue.

Portion of Democratic women who think it would be a good thing if more women were elected to Congress:  7/10.

Portion of Republican women who do:  1/4.

Number of days former Texas District Attorney Ken Anderson spent in jail for withholding evidence in a 1987 murder trial:  4.

Number of days spent in prison by the innocent man Anderson helped to convict:  8995.

See what I mean by amazing.

"Inequality for All"

About 60 people attended Carbon County’s premier showing of Robert Reich’s film “Inequality for All” at the Mahoning Cinema.  The film looks at economic trends in the U.S. since the 1920s in an entertaining (and rather disturbing) mixture of graphics, interviews, and classroom lectures.

The audience learned that 70% of the American economy depends on consumer spending.  If the middle class shrinks, people will not be able to purchase consumer goods, and the economy will contract further.  We learned that wages have been stagnant for years, while the top 1% takes a greater and greater share of the wealth.  We also learned that that top 1% spends very little on consumer goods.  We learned that the decline of unions has corresponded with the decline of the middle class.  And Reich presented graphic evidence of how the entire democratic system is being perverted by the campaign contributions of wealthy individuals.

One of the depressing items in the film was the data on income inequality and upward mobility.  The United States is near the bottom of countries with income inequality, although if I remember correctly, we are ahead of Uganda.  As for upward mobility, almost every industrialized country does better than we do. We still have the belief that anyone can move up, but it really is a myth.

By the way, the movie has a local connection.  One of the people mentioned in the credits as helping to fund the film was our own Carbon County resident, Jeremy Haloskie.  Thanks Jeremy.

Good News on the Koch Brothers

Today’s New York Times carried an article on the millions of dollars the Koch Brothers are putting into races for the U.S. Senate to defeat Democrats.  The Democratic candidates, of course, can’t match this.  Last night I posted that the Koch Brothers are pushing a “right to work for less” law in Pennsylvania.

It is just amazing to me that in a country, purported to be a democracy, that two billionaires can have that much influence.

So what’s the good news.  The Koch Brothers, if I am correct, are in their seventies.  Let’s say they live to a ripe old age.  That means in about 25 years both of them will be dead.  

Paycheck Protection Bill. Say What?

Tonight the Palmerton Area Democratic Club heard from Mike Morrill of Keystone Progress.  He told us about HB 1507, an ALEC and Koch Brothers inspired bill that has been introduced into the Pennsylvania House.  Republicans know they will most likely lose the Governor’s race this November, so they are going all out to privatize the Wine and Spirits stores, gut the endangered species act, and most importantly, break unions.

HB 1507, called the Paycheck Protection Bill, would eliminate automatic union dues.  This is also known as “Right to Work for Less” legislation, and it is simply a way to weaken and ultimately eliminate unions.  Mr. Morrill says that over a million dollars is being dumped into the campaign, and every Republican voter in Pennsylvania will be receiving mailers touting the legislation.

Since only about 16% of Pennsylvania workers are union members, the legislation has a very good chance to succeed.  The results:  The WalMartization of the workforce, further hollowing out of the middle class, and Republican legislative dominance far into the future.  I would like to say I’m optimistic that HB 1507 can be defeated, but I’m not.  

Nonetheless, we must not give up.

The perfect candidate found

Last night I listed the qualifications for the perfect candidate to run against Rep. Heffley.  Today, amazingly, that candidate has announced her candidacy for the 122nd district in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives.  She’s a woman with Carbon County roots.  She has business experience, having operated her own home interior business for years.  She not only has ties to agriculture, she was the first female president of the Pennsylvania Christmas Tree Growers’ Association.  She hunts; we have a picture of a ten-point buck she shot.  She likes other people, and people like her.  And she is NOT an atheist, a former college professor, or a left-wing blogger.  

She is Patti Borger of Mahoning Township.  She and her husband Kevin operate a Christmas tree farm.  She is not a toady of Governor Corbett.  She does not believe that legislators should be in the room when a woman and her doctor make reproductive decisions.  She is not beholden to out-of-state fracking companies.  She understands that cutting school funding will put Pennsylvania further behind other states.  She knows that seniors can can lose their homes because of rising property taxes.  She actually listens to people.  

I think she will beat Rep. Doyle Heffley like a drum.  She’s really one of us.

The Perfect Candidate

It’s no secret that Carbon County Democrats are looking for a candidate to run against Rep. Doyle Heffley.  Here’s what we are looking for:

1.  a woman.  Kathleen Kane did very well in Carbon County, as did Hillary Clinton in 2008 in the primary.  Rep. Heffley does not really respect women; he thinks the Pennsylvania legislature should be in the room when a woman and her doctor make reproductive decisions.

2.  a person with Carbon County roots.  I’d fit that one, but I lived in CA for 32 years, so that kind of taints me.  Plus I don’t meet #1.

3.  someone with business experience.  Republicans are always touting business experience, so it would be nice if the Democratic candidate at some time had run a business.  

4.  someone with a connection to agriculture.  In the recent past, Democratic candidates have not done well in the more rural townships.  I’d actually be ok here, but see #1 and 

5.  someone who hunts.  The ideal would be a hunter who is not a member of the N.R.A., which is really an agent of the gun manufacturers.

6.  a person who likes other people.  Again, that lets me out.

7.  someone who is not an atheist, a former college professor, and a left-wing blogger.  My candidacy is doomed.

Democratic Information Center

After the November 2012 Presidential election, a group of Obama volunteers decided that we liked our headquarters so much, we were determined to keep it open.  The HQ was located in downtown Lehighton at 110 S. 1st Street, across from the park.  Rent was $400 a month, and for $35 a month more, we had the front window.  

The County Party, understandably, was not keen on renting a space when no major positions were up for election.  A small group--Carol, Patti, Sandra, and I--decided we would keep the HQ anyway.  We formed a group called the “Community Outreach Association,” opened a bank account, and asked our friends to contribute.  The four of us run the HQ.

We now have been open for a full year, and today we had our annual meeting (and brunch).  Carbon Democratic County Chair Billy O’Gurek spoke and noted that while we have been open for a year, we still haven’t embarrassed the County Party.  

This year should see an increase in activity.  We have a gubernatorial election, a state legislative race, and a congressional race.  If you would like to contribute to keep the HQ open, email me at <hiramc@ptd.net> and I’ll tell you what to do.  

Our ultimate goal is to build a political machine that makes Mayor Daley and Boss Tweed look like Cub Scout leaders.

Running for County Committee

In Pennsylvania a voting district is called a precinct.  A precinct usually has between a 100 and a 1000 voters.  Carbon County has 51 precincts.  (I’m pretty sure that’s the number.)

Each precinct in Pennsylvania is entitled to elect one Committeeman and one Committeewoman in the primary election when parties choose their gubernatorial candidates.  These committee members make up the County Committee.  The Committee meets after the election to pick the County Chair and other officers of the County Party.  Committee members are also expected to register voters, help elect Democrats, and build the party.

I am one of Carbon County’s Committeemen, and I will be running again on May 20.  Here is how easy it is.  You get a nomination petition from the County Registrar of Voters on February 18.  (Or I can send you one.)  You then get the signatures of 10 Democrats in your precinct.  You have to be careful here, since your friends, who don’t want to disappoint you may say they are Democrats and sign your petition, but then you find out they aren’t registered. 

I have a list of registered Democrats in every precinct in Carbon County.  After you gather your signatures, call me at 610-377-0235, and we will make sure that all of your signatures are valid.  You need to do that by March 11.  Then you go to the Prothonotary’s office and have your petition notarized.  You take the notarized petition to the Registrar, and you will be on the ballot.

This procedure is the same for all Pennsylvania counties.  If you live in Illinois or Belgium or somewhere else outside of the Keystone state, I can’t help you.  If you live in a Pennsylvania county other than Carbon, I don’t have those lists, but I urge you to run.  

Love and Death in a Hot Country

Shiva Naipaul published Love and Death in a Hot Country in 1983.  The theme of the book is the abandonment of democracy in a small Latin American country.  Here’s a passage from the novel:

The surprising thing about the imminent abandonment of the Constitution--that lengthy charter so top-heavy with ringing preambles, so glutinously coated with abstract principles of right and justice and obligation, so ribboned with guarantees to minorities and special interests, so honeycombed with promises of life and liberty and happiness for all, so stiff with austere legalism, so sweetened with the codes of civility, that Constitution painstakingly fabricated and assembled over several weeks in panelled, chandeliered halls and flourished in triumph at the climax--the surprising thing was not that it was about to be unceremoniously tossed out of the window, but that it had taken such a comparatively long time for that to happen.

Societies could not be created on sheets of parchment.  They could not, even with the most golden of fountain pens, be signed into existence.  Inevitably, men will succumb to their own reality.  They will sink to the level of being where they feel most at ease with themselves.  They would always act in conformity with their own natures and remake the world in their own image.

Think Iraq.  Think Afghanistan.  Think Egypt.  Think voter suppression, N.S.A. taps, government shutdown, efforts to derail the Affordable Care Act, abortion restrictions, campaign finance.  

Eight Brave Souls

Five of the eight young men and women who stole files from the FBI office in Media, Pennsylvania, in March 1971, have now come forward.  The statute of limitations has run out--they can no longer be prosecuted.  

What a favor they did for our country.  J. Edgar Hoover’s paranoia and his efforts to stifle anti-war dissent were exposed to the press and to the American public.  The F.B.I.’s Counterintelligence Program (or Cointelpro) was revealed as an attempt to destroy lives and ruin reputations of innocent Americans.

Senator Frank Church, Democrat of Idaho, later held hearings on the F.B.I.’s abuse of power.  The Church Committee’s final report said this:  “Too many people have been spied upon by too many government agencies, and too much information has been collected.”  Not much has changed in the past 40 years.

Incidentally, the F.B.I. had over 200 agents assigned to the Media burglary.  None of the eight burglars were ever caught.

Candidates

Someone forwarded the following to me years ago.  It is so old that I had printed it out on a “dot-matrix” printer.  I thought it was timely, given that some of us are searching for a candidate to run against Rep. Heffley.

It’s time to elect a world leader, and your vote counts.  Here’s the scoop on the three leading candidates.

Candidate A:  associates with ward heelers. He’s had two mistresses.  He chain smokes and drinks up to 8 martinis a day.

Candidate B:  was kicked out of office twice, sleeps until noon, used opium in college and drinks up to a quart of brandy every evening.

Candidate C:  is a decorated war hero.  He’s a vegetarian, doesn’t smoke, drinks an occasional beer and hasn’t had any illicit affairs.

Candidate A is FDR, Candidate B is Churchill, and Candidate C, of course, is Adolf Hitler.  

The conclusion:  you don’t have to be perfect in your personal life to be a good political leader, and conversely, just because you are a nice guy personally doesn’t mean you should hold office.  Think about throwing your hat into the ring.

The 5000-year-old earth

To me evolution is like gravity.  It just is.  67% of Democrats accept the idea of evolution.  That means that 33%, or 1/3 of Democrats, don’t accept a concept that is basic to biology and medicine and has universal scientific support.

I take little comfort that only 43% of Republicans accept evolution.  I expect them to deny science.  They do it all the time.  But 1/3 of the Democrats?  That’s amazing.

The data comes from a recent survey by the Pew Research Center’s Religion & Public Life Project. 

Help us out here, Sarah Palin

This past October Dick Metcalf, a columnist for the magazine Guns & Ammo, wrote an opinion piece entitled “Let’s Talk Limits.”  Mr. Metcalf said, “all constitutional rights are regulated, always have been, and need to be.”  Two arms manufacturers (and major advertisers), Remington and Ruger, demanded Mr. Metcalf be fired. He also received death threats. The magazine did fire Metcalf, and he was taken off a tv show about firearms.

When the “Duck Dynasty” guy made homophobic and racist remarks, Fox “News” and Sarah Palin and Ann Coulter started yelling about First Amendment rights.  I am sure we will be hearing from them about Mr. Metcalf’s First Amendment rights any day now.

Social media as time suck

My friend Chris keeps telling me I need a Facebook page.  She says I could post on it, and expand my readership.  She says I need to get social media savvy.  She can’t believe that I don’t have a cell phone, let alone a smart phone.

Now I read in the latest issue of Rolling Stone in an article entitled “Snapshot of a New Generation,” that 31% of people ages 18-34 spend 4 hours or more a day on social media.  Only 14% of the same group think the electoral college works.

I’ll bet you that fewer than 5% of that group could give you a rudimentary explanation of how the electoral college works.  

I know that it is popular for old curmudgeons to decry the ignorance of the younger generation, but 1/3 of the millennials spending four or more hours watching cat videos and texting inane messages?  I mean, come on.

Health care on the agenda

In Public Administration classes students learn that policy-making generally follows a certain sequence.  An issue enters the political agenda.  Resources are mobilized for and against proposed changes.  Legislation action may then occur, followed by implementation of the policy.  Implementation results in feedback, which in turn brings about adjustments to the policy.  Policy-making, therefore, is often diagrammed as circular loop.

The most difficult part of the whole process is getting on the political agenda. Here are just two examples.  We were polluting the coal fields of eastern Pennsylvania for 150 years before acid mine drainage, air pollution, and mountaintop removal became a public issue.  Blacks were segregated for 75 years after the end of Reconstruction, but civil rights did not emerge as a national issue until the 1950s.  

Health care was on the national agenda during the Truman administration, but it never ever reached the legislative stage, and it died out as an issue.  Briefly revived during the Nixon and Clinton administrations, it again disappeared.  This didn’t mean the absence of problems--children and adults died every year from lack of affordable health care, but it wasn’t discussed.

This time the issue will stick.  I’ve written about flaws in the Affordable Health Care Act, and I’ve discussed some ways it might adjusted, but here is something I’m certain of.  Even if the Democrats lose big in 2014 Congressional races, we will not see a wholesale dismantling of government activity in providing health care.  We might see all sorts of adjustments and tweaks, but this issue will remain on the American political agenda.  We will not go back to 2008.

Laboratories for democracy

When we discussed federalism in my American government class, I would point out that one advantage of a federal system is that states can experiment.  If one state adopted a policy that worked, other states would follow, and eventually the national government might adopt the policy as well.  Right now we have Colorado experimenting with legal marijuana, and gay marriage is spreading as states discover it has no downside.

In an article entitled “The Obamacare We Deserve” in today’s Times, Michael Moore discussed another state experiment.  Vermont is starting a single-payer system beginning in 2017.  Moore points out that the Affordable Care Act is a pro-insurance law.  He also notes that if Vermont’s plan works, other states will be following its example.

He points out that in Montana, the governor has set clinics to treat state workers with no co-pay and no deductibles.  Doctors are salaried.  He says that Cisco, Google, and Pepsi are doing the same thing for their employees.

Let a hundred flowers bloom.