Cynicism for the day - Feb 29th 2020
Happy Saturday!
Cynicism, for the day. Leave it to a Brit to be cynical about Americans to their face. The entire Youtube video linked below is not worth your time. Therefore a couple of minutes or so from the time mark of the link provided suffices:
https://youtu.be/IAMkoA3Eyag?t=5053
Here is some background for this interview. Katie Halper is a Bernie supporter although I do not believe she is officially part of the campaign. Matt Taibbi is a Bernie skeptic and the Brit is non-partisan. What's telling in this sound byte is that the Brit flat out states that none of Bernie's programs will get passed, so let's just stop talking about how much they cost. Katie faced with this observation point blank admits this reality and states that Bernie's campaign is about popularizing the idea and not implementation. That is cynical. There is a fundamental cynicism built into a campaign that knowingly pretends to be about implementing something. As your resident cynic then allow me to elaborate.
Gay marriage is a perfect example of social change by concerted campaign. In the 1990s only 40% of the American public supported gay marriage. It took a steady campaign of over two decades to change public opinion and increase 40% to 60%. It was only after that support changed that gay marriage was adopted.
The cynical Bernie campaign is putting the cart before the horse. Bernie is not campaigning on someday making his big ideas publicly acceptable. Bernie is campaigning on making the attempt now. What can history tell us about any previous such efforts? Two such laws come to mind.
First, the Equal Rights Amendment that was almost passed in the late 1970s. The ERA is back in the news as it is finally back in Congress this month. There are now enough States on board to try again. A couple of observations. It has been decades since the original amendment was attempted. The bill only lost by a single vote. The bill failed to be passed by a single vote. After that it has taken decades to try again.
Second, Hillary attempted to pass universal healthcare in the 1990s. Again that bill failed to pass in the Senate by one single vote. It took decades until a watered-down bill called the ACA was passed.
These are two laws that lost by just a single vote and took decades before the ideas were ready again to be passed. This suggests that attempting to pass Bernie's platform and then those laws not passing, even by a singe vote, can mean decades before they are revisited. Therefore if indeed the strategy is to use the bully pulpit then one has no farther to look than the ERA and Hillary's healthcare plan to see this could easily backfire.
The correct approach would be to get both Congress and the public onboard with the ideas before attempting to pass these ideas. Bernie is putting the cart before the horse. Bernie doesn't have support of Congress and since we do not live in a direct Democracy then that's all that matters.
What's telling about the ERA and Universal Healthcare laws just mentioned is that they both failed by a single vote. That doesn't happen today. Obamacare passed with no Republican votes and Trump's tax cuts passed with no Democratic votes. Our representatives now live under Party authoritarianism rule of corruption. Our representatives must vote on party lines.
What does this mean for all of Bernie's big ideas such as free College education or Medicare for All?
There are three possible outcomes when a bill is voted upon as entire party blocks in 2020:
1. Zero votes. These laws will never make it to a vote. This happens when neither party supports a law. This will be the fate for all for Bernie's platform. He has no support from the Democratic party.
2. Ping Pong Politics. This happens when only one party votes on something like Obamacare. The law becomes a ping-pong ball because once the opposition party takes power then the bill gets rescinded. A good campaign question for Bernie would be about what happens to all his big laws when Republicans regain control? What guarantees are there that Republicans just won't repeal them? Further, Bernie has already said he will reverse 100% of all of Trumps Executive Orders once he's elected, thus exposing Bernie himself as a ping-pong politician.
3. Unanimous vote. This almost never happens. Good news would be that if indeed something like Medicare for All passed with unanimous support by Congress then that law is veto proof.
I guess the thing I find obnoxious about Bernie's campaign is the instant gratification appeal without doing the hard work. I want it and I want it right now cynically plays on America's worst character traits in 2020. The LBGT community spent decades of hard work campaigning for equal rights. The people who want Medicare for All and free college need to put in the decades of hard work making these ideas popular with both the American public and Congress. This notion that a Presidential campaign promise is sufficient defies human nature.
How did we get here? Democracy was designed to use the States as experimental labs before going national. America seems to have undergone a lobotomy in this regard and completely forgotten about starting small and then scaling out. And its not just risk management starting small. There are multiple ways to implement something like Medicare for All or free College. Why not do the hard work of trying different ideas out at the State level?
Irreni is a massive political experimentation platform. Every nation has exactly thirty people, called MGOs. These MGOs, or micro-modular governing organizations, can then be grouped into any configuration size deemed worthy for an experiment. Our current Democracy experimental State system has no design. State sizes are arbitrary. Representation in Congress pits small States against large States and this design runs counter to running an experiment. Irreni's modular design is far superior.
Irreni's MGOs are not the only feature superior US Democracy for conducting political experiments. Irreni is designed to support long running experiments that take centuries. This has to be because evolution dictates that human nature on the whole changes very slowly relative to life-spans. Anthropologists were caught off guard and surprised by how fast gay marriage public opinion changed. Cultures change very slowly. Of course the Internet is changing the cultural change phenomena. Still though we must still assume that cultural changes can take centuries such as with racism due to slavery. The US Constitution has no provisions for collecting data and such required for long running experiments where Irreni does.
Americans like to pride themselves on a hard work ethic all the while living in a consumer, instant gratification society. This dichotomy is coupled with another where long-term social planning is stapled onto quarter-to-quarter corporate earnings. What could possibly go wrong? Climate change response will take decades, even centuries and this can easily be managed with corporate quarterly earnings reporting, right?
American politicians exploit a consumer mindset of off-the-shelf gratification as appropriate for promoting political ideas that in fact take hard work and years of time. Politicians also cynically exploit a consumer mindset when knowingly promoting political plans that span years far greater than any President's two terms where they only have the support of one party.
And that is your cynicism for the day.
Cheers!
Benefit of cooperation replaces rule of law!
Freethinkers unite!
Freedom!
Party On!
Let's get cracking!
Voluntarily Reject Demagoguery!
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
Cynicism, for the day. Leave it to a Brit to be cynical about Americans to their face. The entire Youtube video linked below is not worth your time. Therefore a couple of minutes or so from the time mark of the link provided suffices:
https://youtu.be/IAMkoA3Eyag?t=5053
Here is some background for this interview. Katie Halper is a Bernie supporter although I do not believe she is officially part of the campaign. Matt Taibbi is a Bernie skeptic and the Brit is non-partisan. What's telling in this sound byte is that the Brit flat out states that none of Bernie's programs will get passed, so let's just stop talking about how much they cost. Katie faced with this observation point blank admits this reality and states that Bernie's campaign is about popularizing the idea and not implementation. That is cynical. There is a fundamental cynicism built into a campaign that knowingly pretends to be about implementing something. As your resident cynic then allow me to elaborate.
Cart Meet Horse
Gay marriage is a perfect example of social change by concerted campaign. In the 1990s only 40% of the American public supported gay marriage. It took a steady campaign of over two decades to change public opinion and increase 40% to 60%. It was only after that support changed that gay marriage was adopted.
The cynical Bernie campaign is putting the cart before the horse. Bernie is not campaigning on someday making his big ideas publicly acceptable. Bernie is campaigning on making the attempt now. What can history tell us about any previous such efforts? Two such laws come to mind.
First, the Equal Rights Amendment that was almost passed in the late 1970s. The ERA is back in the news as it is finally back in Congress this month. There are now enough States on board to try again. A couple of observations. It has been decades since the original amendment was attempted. The bill only lost by a single vote. The bill failed to be passed by a single vote. After that it has taken decades to try again.
Second, Hillary attempted to pass universal healthcare in the 1990s. Again that bill failed to pass in the Senate by one single vote. It took decades until a watered-down bill called the ACA was passed.
These are two laws that lost by just a single vote and took decades before the ideas were ready again to be passed. This suggests that attempting to pass Bernie's platform and then those laws not passing, even by a singe vote, can mean decades before they are revisited. Therefore if indeed the strategy is to use the bully pulpit then one has no farther to look than the ERA and Hillary's healthcare plan to see this could easily backfire.
The correct approach would be to get both Congress and the public onboard with the ideas before attempting to pass these ideas. Bernie is putting the cart before the horse. Bernie doesn't have support of Congress and since we do not live in a direct Democracy then that's all that matters.
Party Authoritarianism
What's telling about the ERA and Universal Healthcare laws just mentioned is that they both failed by a single vote. That doesn't happen today. Obamacare passed with no Republican votes and Trump's tax cuts passed with no Democratic votes. Our representatives now live under Party authoritarianism rule of corruption. Our representatives must vote on party lines.
What does this mean for all of Bernie's big ideas such as free College education or Medicare for All?
There are three possible outcomes when a bill is voted upon as entire party blocks in 2020:
1. Zero votes. These laws will never make it to a vote. This happens when neither party supports a law. This will be the fate for all for Bernie's platform. He has no support from the Democratic party.
2. Ping Pong Politics. This happens when only one party votes on something like Obamacare. The law becomes a ping-pong ball because once the opposition party takes power then the bill gets rescinded. A good campaign question for Bernie would be about what happens to all his big laws when Republicans regain control? What guarantees are there that Republicans just won't repeal them? Further, Bernie has already said he will reverse 100% of all of Trumps Executive Orders once he's elected, thus exposing Bernie himself as a ping-pong politician.
3. Unanimous vote. This almost never happens. Good news would be that if indeed something like Medicare for All passed with unanimous support by Congress then that law is veto proof.
Hard Work
I guess the thing I find obnoxious about Bernie's campaign is the instant gratification appeal without doing the hard work. I want it and I want it right now cynically plays on America's worst character traits in 2020. The LBGT community spent decades of hard work campaigning for equal rights. The people who want Medicare for All and free college need to put in the decades of hard work making these ideas popular with both the American public and Congress. This notion that a Presidential campaign promise is sufficient defies human nature.
How did we get here? Democracy was designed to use the States as experimental labs before going national. America seems to have undergone a lobotomy in this regard and completely forgotten about starting small and then scaling out. And its not just risk management starting small. There are multiple ways to implement something like Medicare for All or free College. Why not do the hard work of trying different ideas out at the State level?
Irreni Word Scale
Irreni is a massive political experimentation platform. Every nation has exactly thirty people, called MGOs. These MGOs, or micro-modular governing organizations, can then be grouped into any configuration size deemed worthy for an experiment. Our current Democracy experimental State system has no design. State sizes are arbitrary. Representation in Congress pits small States against large States and this design runs counter to running an experiment. Irreni's modular design is far superior.
Irreni's MGOs are not the only feature superior US Democracy for conducting political experiments. Irreni is designed to support long running experiments that take centuries. This has to be because evolution dictates that human nature on the whole changes very slowly relative to life-spans. Anthropologists were caught off guard and surprised by how fast gay marriage public opinion changed. Cultures change very slowly. Of course the Internet is changing the cultural change phenomena. Still though we must still assume that cultural changes can take centuries such as with racism due to slavery. The US Constitution has no provisions for collecting data and such required for long running experiments where Irreni does.
Back to cynicism
Americans like to pride themselves on a hard work ethic all the while living in a consumer, instant gratification society. This dichotomy is coupled with another where long-term social planning is stapled onto quarter-to-quarter corporate earnings. What could possibly go wrong? Climate change response will take decades, even centuries and this can easily be managed with corporate quarterly earnings reporting, right?
American politicians exploit a consumer mindset of off-the-shelf gratification as appropriate for promoting political ideas that in fact take hard work and years of time. Politicians also cynically exploit a consumer mindset when knowingly promoting political plans that span years far greater than any President's two terms where they only have the support of one party.
And that is your cynicism for the day.
Cheers!
Benefit of cooperation replaces rule of law!
Freethinkers unite!
Freedom!
Party On!
Let's get cracking!
Voluntarily Reject Demagoguery!
Politics as Science!
Demand Irreni World Scale!
Anti-theism is feminism!
Think disruption!
Empathy for all!
Moral relativity: think it, breath it!
Prove it or lose it!
Conversations equal consensus!
Welcome to the 21st century!
Scale your empathy, scale the world!
Find your tribe!
Be sexy people!
The future is coming!
Innovate at a rapid pace!
Slow speed ahead!
Well come! and well met!
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