Some Stuff

• Those who have read this blog from the beginning (not many, I know!) may recall that it started partly as a watchdog of the increased politicization of my former church body--The Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS). The drift toward political activism started with the Affordable Care Act (they were against it), then on to gay marriage (against), gay wedding cakes (against), and the right to disobey any law they felt like (for). But the icing on the cake is that they are now firmly in the camp of the right-wing Religious Right Evangelical Movement (for) and Donald Trump (for). I am glad I am not there anymore. I only say this because, although WELS was always theologically conservative, they took great pains to (usually) keep a solid line between theology and politics. Now they are in the full-monty Fox News, alt-right cult.
• The afore-mentioned Religious Right is not a Christian organization. (1) It is a big business, from which lots of people make lots of money. (2) Its business is hate. (3) Business is very good.
• This whole "leftists-are-dividing-the-party" thing is really pissing me off. It's not very historical either. The first election I was able to vote in was the 1972 Nixon/McGovern race. Who abandoned the party that year? It wasn't the left wing of the party who voted for the war monger and criminal Richard Nixon. It was the centrists who abandoned the party. (The country would have been much better off with a President McGovern.) It's not the leftists in Maryland who seem to be supporting the Republican governor instead of their own Democratic nominee, Ben Jealous. It's the centrists and right-leaning labor unions. I have been voting for the establishment candidates my whole adult life. It's time for the Third-Way types to suck it up and support (enthusiastically) those candidates who happen to be to the left of them.

Blaming the Greens

With the apparent results in the OH12 special election, the favorite pastime of the Democratic Party establishment--blame the Green Party--has once again reared it's ugly head. I know, I know: I am definitely in the minority among those who are left of center, but I still take a more contrarian view of this. (Elizabeth Bruenigs's column today in The Washington Post had an interesting take on this as well.)

For one thing,  so much of the discussion about this tends to drag Bernie Sanders into it, and this is bullshit. It makes me tend to dismiss other parts of the argument that might be worthwhile. But in the context of, say, the 2016 election here is a much-abbreviated list of reasons Hillary lost:

1. James Comey
2. Jill Stein voters
3. Hillary chose a boring and uninspiring running mate (aka "safe")
4. Hillary largely ignored the Rust Belt and didn't campaign there enough

One could say that all of these played a hand in the election results. My problem is that laying the blame primarily on #2 (as well as #1) makes it too easy to ignore #3 and #4 and other equally plausible factors. (I happen to think #4 was crucial. If Hillary had worked harder there, the Stein vote may have been moot, but that's just me.)

I am also just generally skeptical about deciding what are valid and invalid reasons for how someone votes. Or to even assume I know why someone voted as they did. It makes it too easy to construct straw men, which then make it easy to prove whatever you want to prove.

There have always been third and fourth party candidates. There is also a third to a half of voters that don't vote at all. Insulting the Greens or the Bernie Bros might make some folks feel better, but I'm not sure it's the way to earn votes.

August 1st Thoughts

Haven't posted anything for awhile. so thought it was about time.

• How do we pay for Medicare for All? Stephanie Kelton and other economists have better and more thorough answers to this, but as a layperson my explanation is that we pay for it by paying for it. Just like everything else we pay for on the federal level.
• Somebody I know shared something on Facebook, showing a graphic of the number of votes for Stein in Wisconsin, Michigan, and Pennsylvania, next to Trump's margin of victory in those states. The meme was something like "But you just didn't like Hillary did you? Well, are you happy now?" Don't get me wrong, I wish they'd voted for Hillary, too. But I also think that you have to earn somebody's vote. You're not entitled to it. Maybe they didn't feel like she earned their vote. (There are other things wrong with this argument, but this is my main issue.)
• Conventional wisdom seems to be that Trump supporters believe whatever he says is the truth, no matter what the facts. I have come to believe something different. I think that (1) they know he is lying and (2) they want him to lie. That's why if you engage them about it, they invariably don't address the issue, but just change the subject. Trump's lies are kinda beside the point. Giving the libs the finger is what's important to them. The more he lies to do it, the better they like it. (For example, Me: Trump just lied. Trumper: How's your 401(k) doing?)
• I just read in The Washington Post that some centrist Democrats in Maryland are withholding their support and/or endorsement of Ben Jealous, the Democratic nominee for Governor. Okay, does somebody want to give me one more of those tireless and endless lectures about how "the Left" is disloyal and tearing the party apart. Bleh!