Out of Washington, we tend to hear the same old stories. Republicans want to cut spending and not raise taxes. Democrats want to tax the rich and not let Republicans touch the entitlement programs. Tea Party Republicans just want to defund the Affordable Care Act. In a divided government, it has managed to get us into one stalemate after another. This last time, it finally shut down the government and nearly brought us to the brink of defaulting on our debt.
Amid the shutdown-inspired talk of polarization and dysfunction in Congress, it is encouraging to see examples of real bipartisan cooperation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=db6Syys2fmE&feature=youtu.be
The American electoral system is highly dysfunctional. One of its most basic problems is that districts and states often have lopsided partisan preferences, meaning that general elections between the nominees of the two major parties are overwhelmingly formalities. Consequently, representatives may be effectively chosen in low-turnout partisan primaries that are paid for by all taxpayers, but are often limited to only a portion of the electorate.
Sacramento News & Review, October 17 – A growing body of 21st-century philsophical thought recognizes that the 98 episodes of Gilligan’s Island ask and answer all the Big Questions.
So, amid this recent flurry of mouth-frothing and hand-wringing over debt, it should be no surprise The Skipper and Mary Ann slice straight to the bottom line.
“Neither a borrower nor a lender be. Do not forget: Stay out of debt!” sings The Skipper’s Polonius to Mary Ann’s gender-bending Laertes in the castaways’ musical version of Hamlet.
Jeff Mapes of OregonLive.com covered the story of Mark Frohnmayer -- son of David Frohnmayer, an established member of Oregon politics, law, and academia -- pushing for a version of the nonpartisan top-two primary system. It is identical to California and Washington systems, but with a twist; approval voting.
Whenever there is a deadline in Congress, short-term considerations generally gain more importance than long term goals. Politicians have a tendency to focus on fixing whatever is broken through a piecemeal and temporary approach rather than taking a look at how the quick fixes will affect generations to come.
If the media coverage of shutdown politics is to be believed, House Republicans' fear of 'getting primaried' by a more conservative opponent was a major impediment to moderate GOP-ers reaching a bargain with Democrats on healthcare and federal spending.
Facebook announced Wednesday that it will yet again be updating its privacy settings, opening up the option to post publicly to teenagers aged 13-17:
In general, Stratfor deals with U.S. domestic politics only to the extent that it affects international affairs. Certainly, this topic has been argued and analyzed extensively.