What I’m looking For In a Government

Hello, all.  Sorry for the long pause- I’m hoping to get back on the Wednesday track.  My effort to attract other writers hasn’t sustained, though I’m hoping to restart it soon.

Watching the scores of elections up and down the country, some in which genuine progressives may win, some in which the Democratic Party shows its willingness to favor bland centrism over bold ideas, and some in which truly decent public servants will struggle to hold on to their positions.  It’s hard to see anything good coming on November 4^th (with the possible exception of a Susan Happ victory in Wisconsin).

That said, I’d like to lay out what I’d like to see from candidates, and mention the ones I’m watching who have made these issues and positions part of their campaigns.

Health Care- no one is talking about public option health insurance, but Medicaid expansions are on the table in practically every state with a Republican governor facing reelection.  Millions of people are waiting for a chance to claim the government health insurance which is their right under the law, thousands of them suffer from illnesses whose treatment will either escape them or bankrupt them without Medicaid.  This is an issue where we can make Attlee and LBJ proud; even if only a few GOP governors lose, it’ll mean a lot.  Maine, Florida, Wisconsin, and Kansas are all reasonably likely to switch to the Democrats, and while I can only really support Michoud of Maine, all the Dems are supportive of Medicaid, and this is really important.

Environment- This has been a sore spot this fall- here in Wisconsin, our Democratic gubernatorial candidate took a long time to decide if she was for or against the unsafe mining deregulation and has said almost nothing since then, still less on emission control.  Meanwhile we continue damaging our climate apace- one bright spot (aside from the prices of solar and to a lesser degree wind energy being in free fall) is the late conversion of Charlie Crist against off-shore drilling, and his dedication to expanding solar power.  Here, as in many cases, the best candidate is up north and rather unlikely to win- Shenna Bellows deserves all the support we can give her.  This also dovetails nicely into the next category

Foreign Policy- The issue posing the greatest long-term danger to our environmental health, economic stability, and national sovereignty is the Trans Pacific Partnership, a treaty favored by the Obama administration, which, until Harry Reid heroically delayed it earlier this year, promised to invalidate and punish any regulation by any signatory country which can be shown to negatively impact the profits of a corporation in another signatory country.  Think about that for a minute.  Our food safety laws make it harder for foreign companies to ship lead-laced food over?  The regulation is suspended pending trial and our government is fined the difference.  Our emissions standards for vehicles hurt oil-producing countries?  They’re gone.  And then there are the labor laws- American companies relocating could sue our government for even maintaining a minimum wage!  Shenna Bellows is the only candidate I’ve seen who is talking about this and why it needs to be stopped.

As for Syria, few candidates are talking about the need to arm the Kurds, and none are talking about working with the PKK (we still label them as a terrorist organization, apparently out of deference to Turkey).

Taxes- few are talking about carried interest, inversions, and other cheats used to shield corporate and investment wealth from the people.  There does seem to be some general support for the Buffet rule which would in principle call for fixing some of these problems, but the Republicans won’t allow it.  Time to get serious and negotiate on this one again, though this reallyshould have been done leading up to the election. 

And finally, the issue that gets more press for not being talked about than for being likely to change- immigration.  The Democrats continue taking Hispanic votes for granted while their president deports record numbers of undocumented Workers, and the Republicans are openly petrified of accepting the presence of People of Color in this country, let alone granting more of them citizenship.  This really should be front and center, legalizing these critical workers is a matter of economic justice, social justice, and just good policy.

Of course, I oppose any and all restrictions on abortion, and I’m thrilled to see Susan Happ putting that out in the open in her campaign for attorney general. 

Got to get to bed- working an event with Secretary of State La Follette tomorrow!

Solidarität, Genossinnen und Genossen

RINGO!

Sorry for the late update.  Henceforth, I think I'll be writing on Sundays, rather then the previous Wednesdays

I went to the Ringo Starr concert in St. Louis last Friday, and I was just blown away.  I've never seen a Beatle before, and he did not disappoint.  I've heard he has arthritis, and I know he had a quarter of his intestines removed in the 1980s due to recurrent illnesses.  That makes his range of motion all the more impressive- the man can really dance!  This came as a surprise because all the concert footage I've watched was of him drumming, not in front.  He did drum on a few numbers, though he was working with someone else- their coordination was superb- you could actually see them mirroring each other's movements in perfect time, but more on that later.

His drums are now emblazoned with a red star motif, which pleased me greatly.  The only disappointment I had was the lack of Octopus' Garden and Good Night, but he closed with "Give Peace a Chance" which was a really nice tribute, I thought. 

Ringo did a good number of Beatles' songs, but he especially drew form the covers they did in the early days- he opened with Matchbox, and continued with Boys and Honey Don't throughout the evening.  The cover he did best was probably "Act Naturally"- his voice hasn't slipped a notch since 1965, and he even knelt on stage in mid-song, just to show us he can still bend.  It was terrific.

His second song was "It Don't come Easy"- one in a series of hit singles he co-wrote with George Harrison in the early 70s, and this was a flawless rendition.  I was also interested and pleased to see Yellow Submarine performed live for the first time, and it was really engaging- more sax here.  I'm still partial to Gerry Marsden's version from 2010, but this could not be beat.

Some songs from the 2012 album made it onstage- not too thrilled with Wings, but Anthem (which, as I interpret it, contains his little shoutout to the Occupy movement with the line "No man ever made it on his own, no man ever made it all alone- we've got to help out and we've got to shout..." was done too, and it worked really nicely.  The crowd roared throughout most of the show, including during these, which was a nice touch after the album wasn't reviewed terribly well. 

It's a true testament to his showmanship that he can make even so simple and wanting a song as "I wanna be your man" engaging, and he did.  I wanted to scream with the rest of them when he announced it.

He of course got us singing along during "With a little Help From my Friends", which was the penultimate number. 

This was a fantastic evening, the Beatles mean so much to me, and Ringo has produced some impressive work during his solo career, and I finally got to see it live.  I may try to analyze it more later and make this more than just a puff piece but last Friday was seriously fun.

Peace and Love, Genossinnen und Genossen.