Passion & Partisanship

Passions in elections across the nation ran high yesterday for many people, especially in Wisconsin. Just to make sure we kill this idea, right from the start today, the elections in Wisconsin mean nothing regarding this years' Presidential election. Even in the face of the GOP win - which may be temporary, as both state and federal investigations appear to show Walker violated major campaign finance rules - polls proved Wisconsinites still prefer President Obama to Mitt Romney by a double-digit margin.

What did mean something in yesterday's elections though, was the media and propaganda that many of those interested in politics absorbed over the last few months, before the elections. It's a fair bet that for those of our readers who lean to the right, you'll listen to right-wing radio today, which will brag about your successes on Tuesday - and completely ignore the failures of the right. Even if it makes you less intelligent, you'll also probably watch Fox 'News' today too, which will simply reinforce the same opinions.

For those of our left-leaning readers, we can almost guarantee you'll listen to progressive radio today, and probably some NPR as well. Both sources will likely do a bit more introspective analysis of both sides of Tuesday's races than their counterparts on the right. We also bet for you lefties that you've likely read at least one newspaper this morning, and if you watch any TV news today, you'll likely watch MSNBC or CNN.

All of these media choices shouldn't surprise anyone. That partisans on both ends of the binary political scale have become more polarized, and are singing ever louder to their own respective choirs, is simply what the latest data from the Pew Center confirms.

What might surprise some of you, on both the left and right, is that the amorphous group of voters known as "independents" couldn't really care less about politics right now - even yesterday, before heated political races across the country.

Whether you were an independent in New York, or Virginia - or in California, considering a traditionally passionate topic like marijuana legalization - most voters who consider themselves "Independent" have yet to emotionally invest in the 2012 elections, on any level - even that of the Presidential contest.

The results of the Pew Center survey also make it clear that most voters who label themselves "Independent" really aren't - something we've believed for quite some time.

If you think all the debates, the screaming, the ads, and all the rest of the political hoopla has been about nothing, though, you'd be terribly wrong.

If nothing else, these early elections have more thoroughly vetted candidates at all levels. These early contests have also proven, by checking what candidates have said, that Republican hopefuls this year have had an overwhelming tendency to lie and lie big. Democrats, on the other hand, have done some lying too - but the Democratic mendacity has been mostly positioning and obfuscation, not outright 'Pants on Fire' lying.

This early round of elections have also brought out the best - and worst - in some of our neighbors, friends, and readers.

Speech and money are not the same thing. If you are someone who is offended by the volume - and the actions - of the extremists who claim the same political label you champion, you need to stand up and say something about their offensive conduct. If you don't, you must accept the fact that you will be grouped in with the rest of the loudest and most vile mouthpieces from your party.

Voting - and politics, in general - are optimally about Americans putting voice to educated opinions. Some people will always lean left. Some will always lean right.

Sadly, as long as they have cheap entertainment to help them escape, some will never care - until it's too late.

Sisyphean Hostage Crisis

Since much of the media on all sides will be talking breathlessly - and endlessly - about today's political contests in Wisconsin, and a few more contests around the country, we'll leave our analysis on all those races until after all the votes are counted, like most ethical media organizations really should.

In our collective opinion, if you live in Wisconsin - or anywhere else voting is going on - it's your duty to make sure you're educated on the candidates and issues, and that you get out and vote today. Those who do not vote, should shut their mouths and not complain if they don't like the outcome of their respective elections.

Since we're not talking about the election in Wisconsin today we're turning our attention back to jobs and the economy - which has been a focus of ours, President Obama's, and many in Congress (especially on the Democratic side of the aisle) for several years now.

Frankly, the President's task in fixing the economy he inherited has seemed Herculean at times over the last few years - though a better description of his challenge may be "Sisyphean", thanks to the current Republican Party.

As we mentioned yesterday, there's been a great deal made of the May jobs numbers released last week, especially by those on the right. They've been gleefully jumping up and down on the numbers, stupidly attempting to compare them to those of President George W. Bush, as though that was a wise idea.

As anyone with half a brain could tell you, even though the U.S. economy in May only generated 82,000 new jobs - all in the private sector - that meager positive job growth is still positive. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities the economy under President Obama has been growing continually, since the first quarter of 2009, when Barack Obama took the Oath of Office.

Further, as Steve Benen points out, Obama added jobs in his second year as President, and in his third year more private sector jobs were created than in seven of the eight years Bush was in the White House. In fact, President Obama has had no month like the one immediately before he took office - the final month of George W. Bush's tenure - when the U.S. economy lost nearly three-quarters of a million jobs during that time.

The problem is that the President can only do so much - and this appears to be exactly what the opposition has been counting on all along.

As Ezra Klein pointed out Monday - and indeed, Joe Weisenthal at the Business Insider pointed out earlier this year - many prominent Republicans seem to have no shame in making their feelings about the 2012 election known.

For them, it isn't going to be a choice about who will do the best for America, or will give Americans the best chance to improve our economy.

For them, it's become yet another hostage crisis, where they get to hold the entire nation - and really, the entire world - prisoner.

If the infantile Republicans get what they want, and Romney wins, then they'll cram their anti-growth, Bush-like austerity policies down the throats of every American, while carving out exemptions for themselves, and putting off paying down the debt until the next Democratic occupant of the White House.

If Romney loses, those same Republicans will become economic and political terrorists within our own government. They will go on the attack against everything President Obama wants to accomplish - and if America is destroyed, that will just be collateral damage in their eyes.

This choice, that both Klein and Weisenthal make clear is what we've been saying all along: the elections this fall - and truthfully, to some extent, the elections today - are not a referendum on the performance of President Obama.

The 2012 elections are a choice.

The question being asked is this: Will you choose to side with other rational Americans? Or with the terrorists?

Pick your side - and then go vote.

Some Things Never Change

After a week of traveling, conferences, and a small bit of vacation, we returned to piles of e-mail, snail mail, old newspapers (many of which we'd already read online) - and a few story lines in the news that you might also have missed.

The May monthly jobs numbers came in lower than expected, but the private sector still had job gains, for the twenty-seventh month in a row under President Obama. However, the Republican policies of austerity continued to rob the economy of jobs from the public sector - meaning government. Meanwhile, the GOP continued to blame Obama for the jobs problem - even though the Republicans in Congress still have done NOTHING with the multiple versions of jobs bills President Obama sent them LAST YEAR. Many are speculating that the Republicans are purposely trying to sabotage the economy for their own political gain - speculation that may very well be true.

Mitt Romney and his campaign attempted a political stunt with protestors - but were blown out in the media cycle by former Senator John Edwards being acquitted of campaign finance violations (although the man is still a cad). Mitt Romney wouldn't repudiate Donald Trump and his insane birtherism - and Mitt also couldn't stop lying about Obama, Solyndra, or many other things. Meanwhile, an energy company Mr. Romney used Massachusetts taxpayer dollars to subsidize went bankrupt - meaning any critique Romney has of Obama on Solyndra has no validity.

Overseas, the Queen of England and the U.K. began celebrating 60 years of her reign, while a plane crashed in Nigeria. Syria's leader killed more of his people, and tried to blame the massacre on someone else, while Egyptians have returned to protest their current military-led government in Tarhir Square.

Meanwhile, back home, the state of Florida is being slapped - hard - by the Department of Justice, on its illegal voter purge, while the bigots in Nebraska look like they'll be forcing Lincolnites to vote on the rights of their fellow citizens.

Of all the stories you may have missed this last week, it's those last two that really stick with us the most, in the wrong way.

In Florida, the Republican Governor and his cronies have been attempting to purge the state's voter rolls of horrible people like a 91 year old WWII veteran, or a 40-year small businesswoman - not to mention an overabundance of blacks, hispanics, and Democratic voters. The Dept. of Justice stepped in at the end of last week and told Florida's governor to stop - or else.

In Nebraska, after Lincoln's City Council voted 5-0 to enact a "fairness ordinance" that would protect LGBT citizens, the area's bigots managed to gather enough signatures on a petition to put the issue on the fall ballot. While the petition itself may not be legal, according the city's lawyer, Lincoln's mayor has decided to follow through with the wishes of a small but vocal group of citizens anyway, by putting the idea on the fall ballot anyway.

The idea that the rights of other human beings should be put to a vote of the general population is, to many people, insane. If you put up a vote today in many parts of the United States, blacks and other minorities might be thrown back into slavery - and women would likely be relegated to second class status as well. The idea that a person - especially an American - should not have the same civil rights as his/her fellow citizens because of sexual orientation is as despicable to any sane person as the ideas of re-instituting slavery or re-subjugating women would be. The idea that only the votes of rich white men should be counted are equally offensive.

This fall's elections, across the nation, will be a CHOICE, not a referendum, and the choices are VERY clear this year.

You will get the choice between moving forward past the mistakes of the past, or pitting us versus them - American against American - going backward and repeating the same social and economic ideas that have failed many times previously.

We hope that whenever you go to the polls, you remember history - and choose to go forward.