Conservative America - A Fable!

By Jeff Simpson

One of my favorite writers, David Sirota, has been documenting lately how the reality of America is that we are NOT a right leaning Conservative country(emphasis mine). 

Conducted by the University of California's David Broockman and University of Michigan's Christopher Skovron, the survey of nearly 2,000 legislators from across America documents politicians’ perceptions of their constituents' views on hot-button issues like universal health care and same-sex marriage. It then compares those perceptions with constituents' actual views.
The juxtaposition reveals a jarring truth: Both Republican and Democratic lawmakers hugely overestimate the conservatism of the very people they are supposed to represent. In all, the report finds that “conservative politicians systematically believe their constituents are more conservative than they actually are by over 20 percentage points, while liberal politicians also typically overestimate their constituents’ conservatism by several percentage points.” Ultimately, that has resulted in a political system inherently hostile to mainstream proposals and utterly unrepresentative of public opinion.
The first obvious question is why: Why do politicians - aka people who are supposed to be professional experts in representing others - so misunderstand their own communities?
Broockman and Skovron argue that one answer has to do with the prevalence of right-leaning mythology. Citing “Richard Nixon’s pronouncement that a 'silent majority' of Americans backed his policies” and “Sarah Palin’s suggestion that a latent 'real America’ supported her,” the researchers correctly note that there remains “a folk theory among conservative politicians that the American public is considerably more conservative than it seems at face value.” This theory is undoubtedly fueled by a Fox News-ified media that pushes such inaccurate fables.

 Then Sirota wirtes a case study on how the Colorado Democratic Party was able to turn the formerly red state - BLUE! 

 1. The first state in the Intermountain West to embrace serious gun control
 2. The home of Focus on the Family legalizes civil unions
 3. Rejecting Tancredo-style politics and allowing children of undocumented immigrants to pay in-state tuition rates
 4. An anti-fracking uprising in the middle of oil/gas country
 5. A historic victory for drug policy reform
 6. A major reevaluation of the death penalty and failed “tough on crime” policies
 7. Expanding funding for public education and healthcare
 8. A huge vote against corporate money in politics
 9. A decimated and demoralized Republican Party

 In light of those words, Americans should be looking at what’s happening here to know what could soon be happening all over the country. If “as Colorado goes, so goes the nation,” then this square state is a glimpse into America’s potentially much brighter political future.

There you go, a 9 point plan to turn the book title of Scott Walkers new book from "unintimidated" to One term wonder.   The question is will the Wisconsin Democratic Party embrace a progressive future or continue with the right leaning, consultant listening too, minority status?  


 

Wisconsin's Next Big Battle

H/T David Sirota for showing us what the fate of "School reform" in the last election, when the mainstream media ignored this story.  Not only did "education reform" fail in Colorado and Idaho(details in Sirota's column), but also in Indiana: 

In Indiana, the results were even more explicit. There, as the Indianapolis Star reports, Superintendent for Public Instruction Tony Bennett became “the darling of the reform movement” by “enthusiastically implement(ing) such major reforms as the nation’s most expansive private school voucher program; greater accountability measures for schools that led to the unprecedented state takeover of six schools last year; an expansion of charter schools; and an evaluation system for teachers that bases their raises, at least in part, on student test scores.” For waging such a scorched-earth campaign against teachers and public education, Bennett was rewarded with a whopping $1.3 million in campaign contributions, much of which came from out of state. According to Stateline, Bennett was underwritten by “some of the biggest supporters of education reform in the country, including Wal-Mart heiress Alice Walton, billionaire financier Eli Broad and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg,” and NPR reports that he also received big donations from private corporations that stood to profit off his school takeover policies.

Ultimately, he was able to grossly outspend his underfinanced opponent, local educator Glenda Ritz, by more than $1 million. Yet, in the conservative union-averse state of Indiana, he was nonetheless booted out of office in what the Star called “the Election Night shocker.” That was thanks not to some brilliantly vague personality campaign by Ritz, but to a substantive, laser-focused assault on Bennett’s corporate-driven privatization agenda. As the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette reported, she “attack(ed) Bennett for his school and district accountability system, voucher program and use of student testing data for teacher evaluations”; “criticiz(ed) Bennett’s policies as funneling taxpayer dollars to private companies”; and slammed Bennett’s corporate donors — all while she “advocated returning local control to districts, ending the current administration’s focus on standardized testing and spending more on early childhood education”; and pushed to “provide more support for low-performing schools instead of threatening them with sanctions.”

 This is going to be the next big fight in WI.  Unfortunately due to their unethical redistricting, we are powerless to stop it.  The only chance we have is if we have a republican who will fight his party and champion public education.  The prospects look bleek!     It was beaten back in very republican anti union states like Idaho and Indiana and yet the private education profiteers will be lining up in WI to loot our coffers and  fill their pockets. 

The next two years will decide who wins.  If convicted felon Scooter Jensen has a good two years that means education in Wisconsin has greatly suffered.  

Do we make our children a priority or this guy? 

Paul Ryan At 14,000 Feet

By now everyone is aware of Paul Ryan's incredible athletic feat's in terms of running marathons! Now we find out that the Physical fitness guru, is also an expert mountain climber.


Colorado has 53 mountains that are 14,000 feet or highers(fourteeners) and it turns out using Paul Ryan (R- Wall St.) math he has climbed 40 of the 53(no word on why he has not conquered the remaining 13).  The problem is(surprise surprise surprise),   Ryan has not climbed 40/53 of the fourteeners.  It turns out like everything he has said lately, that shortly after talking, his campaign needed to send out a press release "clarifying" his position on Mountain Climbing.

 Mitt Romney’s presidential campaign today released a statement, saying that vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan did not climb nearly 40 of Colorado’s fourteeners, but climbed nearly 40 climbs on 28 different peaks.

 Oops, of course his campaign has not released a single picture of Ryan's mountain climbing, however as has happened his whole career, some local liberals have released pictures of their climb with Ryan.

What do you call that when someone can not even be honest about the smallest details of their life?