Is this the country we want?

The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities offers the following statistics that should serve as a wakeup call to all Americans.  In 2009:

• 1.6 million people were homeless and spent at least part of the year in a shelter; nearly 325,000 of them were children.
• 15 million people were unemployed, 6 million of whom had been looking for work for more than half a year.
• 44 million people were poor, 19 million of whom had incomes below half of the poverty line (half of the poverty line corresponds to an income of $5,478 for an individual and $10,977 for a family of four).
• 50 million people lacked access to adequate food at some point because they didn’t have enough money for groceries.  Nearly 18 million people lived in households where one or more people had to skip meals or take other steps to reduce their food intake because of lack of resources.
• 51 million people lacked health coverage.

 Source: http://www.offthechartsblog.org/

Is this the kind of country we want?  We can change these numbers.  If we want to change them.  

Test your knowledge of politics

Pew Research has posted an online quiz that allows you to test just how much you know about current political issues and then compare your score on the quiz to other Americans.
Go here to take the quiz and see your results:  http://pewresearch.org/politicalquiz/

Yes, I took it.  I got 11 out of 12 questions correct.  Guess I need to spend more time reading about politics.

America-A house divided against itself

The Public Religion Institute and Brookings Institution have released the results of a Post-Election American Values Survey conducted earlier this month.  The survey findings demonstrate just how divided we are as a nation.  Here are a few of the key and most disturbing findings:

Result of the mid-term election:

50% said they were satisfied or excited about the results of the 2010 mid-term election. Only 9% of all voters were excited.  Only 22% of Republicans said they were excited about the outcome.

42% said they were either disappointed, worried, or angry about the election outcome.  3% were angry.

Health Reform:

34% of Republicans say the most important priority of Congress should be to repeal health reform

36% of Democrats say the most important priority of Congress should be to ensure the health care reform law is fully funded.

Values of Islam:

45% say the Muslim religion is at odds with American values and way of life.  (67% of Republicans think this as do 66% of Tea Party supporters.)

49% say the Muslim religion is NOT at odds with American values and way of life.

Government provision of social services:

45% say government provides too many social services.

52% say government provides too little or the right amount of social services.

Discrimination against women:

41% say discrimination against women is no longer a problem.

58% say discrimination against women is a problem.

Discrimination against whites:

44% say discrimination against whites is as big a problem as discrimination against blacks and other minorities.

54% disagree.

Gay marriage:

48% say gay couples should be allowed to marry.

49% say gay couples should NOT be allowed to marry.

Use of torture against suspected terrorists

50% say use of torture is okay.

48% say they don’t agree with the use of torture.

Barack Obama’s religious beliefs:

40% say Obama’s religious beliefs are very or somewhat similar to their own.

51% say Obama’s religious beliefs are very or somewhat different from their own.

God and America:

58% say that God has granted America a special role in human history.  (75% of Republicans and 76% of Tea Party supporters think this.)

38% disagree that God has granted American a special role.

Solving social problems:

56% say social problems would take care of themselves if enough people had a personal relationship with God.

42% disagree.

Other findings:

87% of voters who said Fox news was their most trusted news source voted Republican.

54% of mid-term voters were over 50.

70% of non-voters were under 50.

74% of voters were white.

Read a summary of key findings here:

http://www.publicreligion.org/objects/uploads/fck/file/AVS%202010%20Post-Election%20Topline%20FINAL.pdf

Or read the full report here:  http://www.publicreligion.org/objects/uploads/fck/file/AVS%202010%20Post-election%20report%20FINAL.pdf

“A house divided against itself cannot stand.”  Abraham Lincoln.

U.S. has officially declared that it is not a Christian nation

The Treaty of Peace and Friendship Between the United States and the Bey and Subjects of Tripoli of Barbary was approved by the Senate and signed by President John Adams on June 7, 1797.  It reads in part as follows:

Art. 11. As the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion; as it has in itself no character of enmity against the laws, religion, or tranquillity, of Mussulmen; and, as the said States never entered into any war, or act of hostility against any Mahometan nation, it is declared by the parties, that no pretext arising from religious opinions, shall ever produce an interruption of the harmony existing between the two countries.

Sorry, Conservatives, the Senate of the United States and two of our founding fathers, John Adams, who was President at the time and Thomas Jefferson, who was Vice President, agreed with the statement in the treaty that “the Government of the United States of America is not, in any sense, founded on the Christian religion.”  Enough said.

Read the treaty here: http://www.stephenjaygould.org/ctrl/treaty_tripoli.html

U.S.--Next to last in child care

The State of Working America report for 2010 from the Economic Policy Institute will be released in January.  Here’s a preview of one statistic that American’s should find both disturbing and embarrassing.  The U.S. is next to last in its level of public expenditure for child care.  And, we say children are our future.  How is it then that we are unwilling to invest in their care?  It’s a disgrace.  We should be ashamed.

Check out the chart below or here: http://www.epi.org/economic_snapshots/entry/state_of_working_america_preview_a_world_of_difference_in_child_care_f/

Set the record straight on the stimulus

The next time some Republican or Tea Party nut case starts telling you how the stimulus did no good and was just a waste of taxpayers’ money, pull out one of these charts prepared by the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities.  You can print their entire chart book that shows just how much impact the stimulus had and just how wrong the Republican Tea’ers are by going to this site:  http://www.cbpp.org/cms/index.cfm?fa=view&id=3252

Remember when a Republican or Tea Bagger walks in the door the truth and logic jump out the window.  It’s time to confront their lies with our truth.

Republican mandate? What mandate?

You’ve probably heard a lot about the message voters supposedly sent to Washington from the mid-term elections.  The Republicans say they have a clear mandate to cut taxes, decrease the size of government, cut spending, repeal health reform, repeal financial reform, etc., etc., etc.   Well, that’s not at all what the voters said.  Pew Research has released results of exit polls that sought to determine why the voters were voting the way they were.  Result—Voters are just about evenly divided on most issues.  For example, 39% say Congress should focus on reducing the deficit while 37% say No Congress should spend to create jobs.  48% want Congress to repeal the health care law while 47% say expand it or leave it as it is.  39% want the Bush tax cuts extended for all Americans including the rich while 37% want the tax cuts extended just for families under $250,000 and 19% don’t want them extended at all.  So much for a Republican/Tea Party mandate.  It just doesn’t exist.  Never did. 

Take a look at this chart:

or read the full report at: http://pewresearch.org/pubs/1789/2010-midterm-elections-exit-poll-analysis

Are politically active churches turning off the young?

My good friend from Oregon, Dick Van Ingen, offers the following insight concerning churches, politics and the current political environment.

Joe:

Well the election is over, we saw the damage done to the political balance of power.  Well, it's damage if you are of a Democratic persuasion.  I saved an opinion piece that appeared in the "Oregonian" newspaper on October 31 of this year.  The authors were Robert D. Putnam and David E. Campbell.  They are listed at the bottom of the piece as the authors of "American Grace: How Religion Divides and Unites Us".

The title is "Conservative Politics Turn Youths Away from Pews".  Their main thesis is that as churches became more politically active in pushing the conservative agenda they have disenchanted the younger generation.  Seventeen percent of Americans now claim no religion and the percentage is 25-30 % among twentysomethings.  The church's stand on homosexuality and same sex marriage seems to be the strongest issue that turns young people away from churches.  When put in a squeeze between conflicting religious doctrine and political positions many young people, particularly, are abandoning their religion and keeping their views of tolerance.  You might say it is right Christian of them.

It's ironic that Jerry Falwell and Ralph Reed may have done more to weaken Christian churches than anyone could imagine, in terms of reducing the numbers of the flock among the younger generation.  This leaves me wondering still about all the almost politically silent liberal Christians who have comfort among those who feel the same way.  And, I wonder if the politically conservative Bible Belt Christians, who are so vocal, really have much influence outside the Bible Belt.  They claim to represent all Christians but that is obviously, to me, not the case.

I just don't get it, but maybe I'm isolated up here in the northwest, spent my early years in Quaker Meeting all about peace, being nice to others and trying to be socially responsible.  Later I was hanging out with Unitarians, not a conservative soul among them.  They say Oregon has the lowest church attendance of any state in the nation.  I think that is something to be proud of, only because of the way churches have been acting in the last decade or two, make that three.

I happened to go to a Catholic Mass a few weeks ago to take friends who were visiting.  The whole sermon was about Social Justice.  They may not be big supporters of same sex marriage, but ignoring the theology, I saw more convergence with my social views than I do in the Evangelical Christian movement.

Dick

Biased polls

All polls and polling organizations are not created equal.  In fact, some pollsters appear to have a definite bias, usually in favor of Republicans.  Here are the results of an analysis by Five Thirty Eight of the polling accuracy of eight major polling firms during the mid-term elections.  The least biased were Quinnipiac and SurveyUSA.  Rasmussen (including Fox news commissioned polls) was most biased.  Lesson:  Never accept the results from a single poll or polling organization as accurate, particular if the results vary significantly from those obtained by other polling organizations at about the same time.  The poll results you are seeing may, and probably are, biased.

http://fivethirtyeight.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/11/04/rasmussen-polls-were-biased-and-inaccurate-quinnipiac-surveyusa-performed-strongly/

Get prepared for four party super gridlock

The voters have spoken and may have made a real mess of things.  For at least the next two years we will have not two but what will amount to four warring parties in Congress.  In addition to mainstream Democrats and Republicans, we are going to have a small contingent of Tea Party newbies on the far right and a small contingent of Progressive Democrats on the left.  Mainstream Democrats will fight with mainstream Republicans, Tea Party newbies and Progressive Democrats.  Mainstream Republicans will fight with mainstream Democrats, Progressive Democrats and Tea Party newbies.  The Tea Party newcomers will fight with mainstream Republicans, mainstream Democrats and Progressive Democrats.  Progressive Democrats will fight with mainstream Democrats, Republicans and Tea Party newbies.  Fur will fly all over the ideological map and nothing whatsoever will get done because no group will be able to muster a majority much less a supermajority to push legislation through the senate.

Prepare for four party super gridlock for two years at least.  What a mess. I wish there were a short term way out of this but that would take some true leadership and I don't see anyone from the President on down who is likely to step up to the challenge.

Long term I think Progressives can have greater success if they heed lessons from some major progressive legislative accomplishments in the past such as the passage of the Food and Drug Act, Medicare, and Civil Rights legislation.  I've been doing a lot of research about that. I'll have more to say about that topic in a new book I'm just finishing entitled Getting Things Done in Washington.  Look for it.  It should be sometime next year.

In the mean time, as Betty Davis might say fasten your seat belts it going to be a bumpy ride.

Final Senate predictions

Looks like Republicans will pick up eight or nine seats but fall just short of taking the Senate.  Election Projection has the Senate evenly divided between the Democrats and Republicans at 49 seats each with 2 Independents caucusing with the Democrats and giving the Democrats control just barely.  Five Thirty Eight gives the Democrats 50 seats with 2 Independents and 48 Republicans.

Eight states are expected to flip to Republicans.

Arkansas—Boozman beats Lincoln by 16 points

Colorado—Buck barely beats Bennet by 2 points

Illinois—Kirk takes Obama’s seat beating Giannoulias by 1 to 2 points

Indiana—Coats beats Ellsworth by 19 points

Nevada—Angle beats Reid by 2 to 3 points

North Dakota—Hoeven beats Potter by 41 to 47 points

Pennsylvania—Toomey beats Sestak by 3 to 4 points

Wisconsin—Johnson beats Feingold by 6 points.

Note that the race is very, very close in Colorado, Illinois, and Nevada and fairly close in Pennsylvania.  If these races went to the Democrat, which is possible, then Republicans would be held to a pickup of just 4 seats.

Other interesting races:

California—Boxer expected to beat Fiorina by 5 to 6 points.

Delaware—Coons should easily beat O’Donnell by 15 to 17 points.

Kentucky—Paul will defeat Conway by 9 to 10 points.

In two states the Republican is expected to win but by less than 50% of the vote:

Florida—Rubio is expected to win but with 45% of the vote.  Crist will come in second at 31% with Meek trailing at 22%.

Alaska—Miller is expected to beat Glassman but Murkowski might get as much as 33% of the vote through a write in.  If that happens, and it’s likely, Miller would become Senator with just 38% of the vote.

Caution:  Many of these projections depend upon turnout.  For example, in Nevada about 6,600 more Democrats than Republicans have voted early in Nevada, the Las Vegas Review-Journal reports.  That could be a good sign for Reid.  We’ll see.