Its a phrase you hear from certain politicians a lot, real Americans, and what they want.
Usually they conjure up an image of older white Americans who they claim espouse conservative values.
Obviously some of them do but many others do not.
Its also true that these same baby boomers are children of the 60s who set the course of this nation towards what it has become.
More sexual freedom for everybody.
More legalized marijuana.
More equality between the races, although hardly perfect.
A greater acceptance of religions and diversity.
So who are these real Americans?
They do exist but are hardly a majority of us.
They do tend to vote more and hold on to certain values that aren't the norm anymore.
Real America is much more than that.
It is all of us.
Tuesday, April 30, 2019
Monday, April 29, 2019
Getting out the Vote
When you consider how many voting age citizens don't bother to vote, even in Presidential elections, it should be no surprise we don't get the Government we want.
Over 90 million people didn't vote in the 2016 election. These are the same people who often argue voting doesn't matter. Well it does and so does not voting.
There are many people in this country who are terribly fearful that more of these people will actually vote and most indication are, it would fundamentally change our approach to many things.
In fact, while usually not stated as such, they are considered by many the uneducated masses who expect the Government to deliver services to them.
Roadblocks are erected to discourage them from voting.
How to get this large group of Americans represented is a significant issue. Some might argue that they are represented by those who do vote, but most indications are they are not really in favor of the establishment in either party.
Increasing voter participation should be an important priority for our Democracy, it just isn't.
Over 90 million people didn't vote in the 2016 election. These are the same people who often argue voting doesn't matter. Well it does and so does not voting.
There are many people in this country who are terribly fearful that more of these people will actually vote and most indication are, it would fundamentally change our approach to many things.
In fact, while usually not stated as such, they are considered by many the uneducated masses who expect the Government to deliver services to them.
Roadblocks are erected to discourage them from voting.
How to get this large group of Americans represented is a significant issue. Some might argue that they are represented by those who do vote, but most indications are they are not really in favor of the establishment in either party.
Increasing voter participation should be an important priority for our Democracy, it just isn't.
Sunday, April 28, 2019
Economies
There is the "official" economy but there are many other economies as well which are harder to measure.
For most of my life when I read reports of how the economy was doing it had almost no impact on my actual well being.
My personal economy seemed very different than what I saw reported. I was aware of higher or lower prices and interest rates but my personal economy was generally OK.
If you live like most of us and get laid off or fired you are in a recession. If you don't you aren't.
For millions of Americans who lost good paying jobs in factories the economy has never recovered. They may have a job or they may have left the workforce, but they are not earning what they used to.
They has been a significant trend in this country where workforce participation has been declining after a period of significant increase as more women joined it.
Some of this is related to people retiring but a significant part of it is related to people who live in the "get by" economy.
They may work "off the books" a bit, they may get disability or unemployment benefits, possibly food stamps, and may be selling of things that they have acquired over time. They also might work in the normal economy some of the time in seasonal or other work as it becomes available.
They possibly would like full time employment if it was available but many of them are becoming unemployable as they develop addictions, possibly to opioids or alcohol.
The following chart shows the dramatic reduction in workforce participation after the peak near 2000.
That drop is caused by many things, but the economy of the late 1990s employed many more people than we do today.
Simply a fact. Not the greatest economy of all time, unless you ignore the vanishing workers.
For most of my life when I read reports of how the economy was doing it had almost no impact on my actual well being.
My personal economy seemed very different than what I saw reported. I was aware of higher or lower prices and interest rates but my personal economy was generally OK.
If you live like most of us and get laid off or fired you are in a recession. If you don't you aren't.
For millions of Americans who lost good paying jobs in factories the economy has never recovered. They may have a job or they may have left the workforce, but they are not earning what they used to.
They has been a significant trend in this country where workforce participation has been declining after a period of significant increase as more women joined it.
Some of this is related to people retiring but a significant part of it is related to people who live in the "get by" economy.
They may work "off the books" a bit, they may get disability or unemployment benefits, possibly food stamps, and may be selling of things that they have acquired over time. They also might work in the normal economy some of the time in seasonal or other work as it becomes available.
They possibly would like full time employment if it was available but many of them are becoming unemployable as they develop addictions, possibly to opioids or alcohol.
The following chart shows the dramatic reduction in workforce participation after the peak near 2000.
That drop is caused by many things, but the economy of the late 1990s employed many more people than we do today.
Simply a fact. Not the greatest economy of all time, unless you ignore the vanishing workers.
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Health and Safety
One of the areas that is having a fairly immediate impact on Americans is the reduction of regulations meant to protect us from things like food contamination.
One of the things that gets limited coverage is when our current representative of big business cancels a regulation designed to protect the public.
Of course it costs money to comply with it but the tradeoff is the loss of human lives.
We live in a world where foods are farmed and processed remotely and in large quantities. We have always had some food that caused illness but when those happened we generally regulated the cause making our food safer.
It did cost money and to some extent was a bit of a tax, and maybe it wasn't needed in most instances, but the times it prevented illness or death would be in my opinion well worth the small cost of compliance.
Hundreds if not thousands of these regulations have been cancelled to help business make more profits, and while most of those businesses are not evil or trying to hurt us, the lack of the regulation means safety measures will be eliminated.
The predictable impact of that would be more contaminated food in the marketplace and coincidentally it seems like I read about more E-Coli outbreaks than ever.
Of course that's anecdotal, but the administration is OK with some of us being victims if it helps his business friends make more money.
I guess our survivors can sue.
One of the things that gets limited coverage is when our current representative of big business cancels a regulation designed to protect the public.
Of course it costs money to comply with it but the tradeoff is the loss of human lives.
We live in a world where foods are farmed and processed remotely and in large quantities. We have always had some food that caused illness but when those happened we generally regulated the cause making our food safer.
It did cost money and to some extent was a bit of a tax, and maybe it wasn't needed in most instances, but the times it prevented illness or death would be in my opinion well worth the small cost of compliance.
Hundreds if not thousands of these regulations have been cancelled to help business make more profits, and while most of those businesses are not evil or trying to hurt us, the lack of the regulation means safety measures will be eliminated.
The predictable impact of that would be more contaminated food in the marketplace and coincidentally it seems like I read about more E-Coli outbreaks than ever.
Of course that's anecdotal, but the administration is OK with some of us being victims if it helps his business friends make more money.
I guess our survivors can sue.
Friday, April 26, 2019
Constitutional Powers
We go through periods when either because of a crisis or war or simply because of an ineffectual congress that the presidential powers start to expand.
Of course once they expand it is hard to reel them in.
Eventually of course we get someone who overdoes it and congress tries to reestablish their constitutional role.
Our nation is designed to have a legislature the creates law, and a president who executes it. While of course the president can propose laws and policies, and can block legislation with his veto, he is supposed to run the government efficiently, similar is some ways to a CEO.
CEOs though generally have a lot more policy authority.
It is hard for presidents to resist expanding their authority, it often seems like the only way to get things done. However the legislative process is messy because it generally results in policies that are acceptable to most people.
Doing nothing is often preferable to doing something wrong.
Take the issues with our Southern Border.
There is significant disagreement about the solution that's needed and even about the extent of the problem.
Usurping legislative power by declaring an emergency which it clearly isn't is abusing the constitution.
We may have a significant problem on the border, we may not, but emergency implies some sort of imminent danger, which there isn't.
This will eventually be decided in the courts and lets hope the new nominees stick to the constitution. If they don't we may be on a dangerous road indeed.
Of course once they expand it is hard to reel them in.
Eventually of course we get someone who overdoes it and congress tries to reestablish their constitutional role.
Our nation is designed to have a legislature the creates law, and a president who executes it. While of course the president can propose laws and policies, and can block legislation with his veto, he is supposed to run the government efficiently, similar is some ways to a CEO.
CEOs though generally have a lot more policy authority.
It is hard for presidents to resist expanding their authority, it often seems like the only way to get things done. However the legislative process is messy because it generally results in policies that are acceptable to most people.
Doing nothing is often preferable to doing something wrong.
Take the issues with our Southern Border.
There is significant disagreement about the solution that's needed and even about the extent of the problem.
Usurping legislative power by declaring an emergency which it clearly isn't is abusing the constitution.
We may have a significant problem on the border, we may not, but emergency implies some sort of imminent danger, which there isn't.
This will eventually be decided in the courts and lets hope the new nominees stick to the constitution. If they don't we may be on a dangerous road indeed.
Thursday, April 25, 2019
Vote Value
Considering the upcoming 2020 elections, the most important races may be at the State level.
With the census, the states will revise their congressional districts.
Last time, the republicans managed to control a significant amount of the legislatures and they were able to create a fair number of "safe" republican seats.
The fact that despite this they lost so many seats in the last mid-terms is revealing.
The majority of people in this country support progressive values.
Remember that without the electoral college, we would have a different president.
Still, if you create districts that harbor disproportionate numbers of progressive voters, you can often control the other districts with small majorities.
So in a state where a majority vote for Democrats, you may have a solid majority of Republicans in the legislature.
Some of this may occur somewhat naturally but a lot of it is the result of gerrymandering.
While a time honored tradition, in the modern era we can do a lot better.
One person, one vote, and a vote that counts equally.
Wednesday, April 24, 2019
Human Nature
If you consider both ancient and more recent history, humans have been brutish to both the world around them and each other.
The history we are aware of demonstrates our thin veneer of civilization.
In the some of our great early literature, we see the Greeks, after they take Troy, systematically throwing the Trojans they didn't enslave off the walls of the city.
The bible itself is full of brutal acts, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the many wars where they were defeated by the Empires of the time.
Rome, conquered much of the known world, murdering and enslaving the lands they vanquished.
Of course we don't have to go back that far, we have the subjugation of many native populations by the Europeans, the World Wars, the Nazis, the Stalinist Gulags and the genocides in many parts of the World that are still happening.
We may think we are civilized, but all of these events were recorded because we had civilization. Its not hard to imagine brutality and bullying were with us from the start.
Many experiments have been conducted which show that educated, civilized people can inflict harm on others when authority figures tell them its OK.
The simple fact is that human nature reveals itself under duress and generally it isn't very nice.
Yes, we are also altruistic, we are nothing if not full of contradictions. If however you look at war zones and how we easily ignore the atrocities in them, at least most of us, you see that civilization is in fact paper thin.
We see a move in this country to hate and terror, not from outside extremists only, but native groups expressing hate against changes they don't like. Immigrants, refugees, minorities, and others are the victims of this hate and we as a nation need to combat it.
Unfortunately our leadership actually embraces it, it promotes their ideology.
We need to overcome hate and never forget it is always right there.
The history we are aware of demonstrates our thin veneer of civilization.
In the some of our great early literature, we see the Greeks, after they take Troy, systematically throwing the Trojans they didn't enslave off the walls of the city.
The bible itself is full of brutal acts, the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites, the many wars where they were defeated by the Empires of the time.
Rome, conquered much of the known world, murdering and enslaving the lands they vanquished.
Of course we don't have to go back that far, we have the subjugation of many native populations by the Europeans, the World Wars, the Nazis, the Stalinist Gulags and the genocides in many parts of the World that are still happening.
We may think we are civilized, but all of these events were recorded because we had civilization. Its not hard to imagine brutality and bullying were with us from the start.
Many experiments have been conducted which show that educated, civilized people can inflict harm on others when authority figures tell them its OK.
The simple fact is that human nature reveals itself under duress and generally it isn't very nice.
Yes, we are also altruistic, we are nothing if not full of contradictions. If however you look at war zones and how we easily ignore the atrocities in them, at least most of us, you see that civilization is in fact paper thin.
We see a move in this country to hate and terror, not from outside extremists only, but native groups expressing hate against changes they don't like. Immigrants, refugees, minorities, and others are the victims of this hate and we as a nation need to combat it.
Unfortunately our leadership actually embraces it, it promotes their ideology.
We need to overcome hate and never forget it is always right there.
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