Today is primary day and 3.5 million Flori

Monday, March 01, 2010

Broken Government: Independents Speak Out

Don Lemon's CNN interview of Dr. Omar Ali, Joe Gandelman and Nicole Kurokawa aired at 10:30pm Eastern Time Sunday night, the 7pm show having been postponed because of the Chile earthquake coverage. Here's the VIDEO.


Just came across this post from E.J. Dionne "Mindful Partisanship" on The Moderate Voice:
The point is not that Republicans are heartless and Democrats are compassionate. It’s that Democrats on the whole believe in using government to correct the inequities and inefficiencies the market creates, while Republicans on the whole think market outcomes are almost always better than anything government can produce.
That’s not cheap partisanship. It’s a fundamental divide. The paradox is that our understanding of politics would be more realistic if we were less cynical and came to see the battle for what it really is.
Yes, the country is divided. Yes, it's a two-party system. Yes, there's a difference between the two major parties. My objection to partisanship isn't that it's mindless, quite the contrary -- it's very very mindful! Partisans miss the fact that so many Americans are getting turned off by partisanship for that very reason. And speaking of which, here's Jackie Salit and Fred Newman on "Broken Government, Unscientific Psychology" in last week's Talk Talk:
Salit: Then we watched a discussion on CNN about the Conservative Political Action Committee meetings. They’re doing their thing. There’s a parade of presidential wannabes and leading lights, including Dick Cheney. John Avlon, CNN commentator and author who is an independent, said that the conservatives and the Republican Party need to be careful here. They can build a bridge to independents on fiscal conservatism and, insofar as that’s their rhetoric, they will connect with independents. But if they go beyond that, in his words, ‘If they go to making this a battle with socialism, independents won’t buy that.’ That will be a bridge too far in terms of trying to coalesce with independents.
Newman: I was telling you about Pat Choate’s new book “Saving Capitalism” where he says that insofar as the central ideological battle between conservatives and liberals is framed as a battle between capitalism and socialism, the fight is badly framed. Because it’s not really a fight between capitalism and socialism. It’s a fight, as he says – and I think he’s fundamentally correct about this – between state capitalism and free market capitalism. But I don’t think it’s seen that way, by and large.
Here are the news headlines for independent voters from across the nation:


OPEN PRIMARIES


TEA PARTY

  • Fisher Ahead In Ohio Dem Primary, But Trails Portman (Quinnipiac University Poll) -- Tea Party Scores Better Than Dems, GOP  -- But voters have a 32 - 23 percent favorable opinion of the Tea Party movement, with 43 percent who haven't heard enough about it to form an opinion. Democrats view the Tea Party unfavorably by 42 - 7 percent, while Republicans are favorable 53 - 8 percent and independent voters like it 36 - 20 percent. Men like the Tea Party 40 - 25 percent, while women like it 25 - 22 percent. 

No comments: