Monday, February 02, 2015
2/3 In The U.S. Dissatisfied With Income/Wealth Distribution
During the Reagan administration, the Republicans tilted the economic playing field to favor the rich by instituting their "Trickle-Down" economic policy (which they then doubled-down on in the last Bush administration). This policy deregulated Wall Street & financial institutions, weakened labor unions, gave corporations tax breaks for exporting good U.S. jobs, allowed owners and management to hog all of growing productivity, lowered taxes for the rich and corporations, and cut social programs that helped hurting Americans.
The result of this policy is a shrinking middle class, stagnant wages for the bottom 80% of all workers, a minimum wage at far below a livable level, and millions of workers who no longer have jobs. But perhaps the most egregious effect was a huge gap in wealth and income between the richest Americans and the rest of America -- a gap that is still growing wider, and is turning this country into a nation of "haves" and "have nots".
To say this policy is a failure would be an understatement, but the Republicans refuse to allow any change. In fact, they want to continue it by giving the rich and the corporations even more tax breaks. They are still preaching the failed argument that giving more to the rich will benefit everyone in the United States.
But it looks like that may now be falling on deaf ears with the American public -- finally! A new Gallup Poll (done between January 5th and 8th of a random national sample of 804 adults, with a margin of error of 4 points) shows that around two-thirds of all Americans are dissatisfied with how wealth and income are distributed in this country. They want a fairer economic policy -- like we had prior to 1980.
Unfortunately, voter apathy in the 2012 election, which resulted in the GOP seizing control of both houses of Congress, means that cannot happen until at least 2017 (assuming the Democrats do well in the 2016 election).
New Iowa Poll Has Some Surprises On The GOP Side
The charts above represent the feelings of Iowa GOP caucus voters. The top chart is the current picture, and the bottom one is what those voters thought last October (just four months ago). One thing that is very apparent is the volatility of the Republican race for president -- at least at this very early stage. The two charts show some rather stark differences.
Another thing that is clear is that Jeb Bush is not a favorite of Iowa Republicans. Although he gained 4 points since October (going from 4% to 8%), there are four other Republicans that Iowa voters prefer over him (Carson, Huckabee, Paul, and Walker) -- and a fifth place finish in Iowa would certainly not be a great way to start a presidential campaign.
But perhaps the most significant thing about these polls is the rather remarkable movement of Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker. He has moved from only 4% support in October to 15% currently -- and is now the leader among all the candidates in Iowa. That 15% is not a prohibitive lead by any means, but it does show he may be a more significant player in the 2016 campaign than many have given him credit for.
That poll also looked at the preferences of Democratic caucus voters (and those results are shown in the chart below). There really hasn't been much movement among Democrats. Clinton had a prohibitive lead in October, and she is still maintaining that huge lead -- while Warren finishes a distant second and Biden third.
These charts all represent numbers found in a new Des Moines Register Poll -- done between January 26th and 29th. The survey questioned 402 registered Republicans saying they will attend their caucus, and 401 registered Democrats saying they will attend their caucus. The margin of error for both parties is 4.9 points.
Sunday, February 01, 2015
Most Admired Woman & Man (In The U.S. & Worldwide)
I don't know that this means much -- but I found it interesting, and I thought you might also. I have already posted about the most admired man and woman as shown by the Gallup Poll. Now the YouGov Poll has conducted the same kind of survey -- doing it both for individual countries and worldwide.
I show you here the results when people in the United States answered that question and when people worldwide answered it. I thought the differences were interesting. To be fair, the question was asked open-ended. In other words, respondents could name any person they wished (instead of having to choose from a list). The numbers represent the percentage of people who named that person as the most admired.
They also give the results for several other countries (United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, China, and Brazil). You can go to the YouGov website (link is above) to see those results, if you are interested.
Our Country & Constitution Are Not Based On Religion
There are those, especially in the evangelical christian community, who claim that this country (and the Constitution on which its laws are based) were founded on christian religious principles. That is just not true, and if it was, then those christians are not living up to their own principles.
The two charts above (from a Rasmussen Poll done on January 26th and 27th of 800 adults Americans, with a margin of error of 3.5 points) show that claim is a lie. One of the founding principles (actually the main one) of this country is that all citizens are to be equal under the law. That is even written in the Declaration of Independence, and was clarified in our Constitution with its Fourteenth Amendment. This is indisputable.
And yet, a significant portion of the christians in this country do not believe citizens should be treated equally in their own religion. About 16% say it is wrong for women to occupy the pulpit (be a minister) in their religion (and another 25% aren't sure). And 38% say gays and lesbians shouldn't occupy the pulpit (while 19% aren't sure). And those percentages are even higher among evangelicals -- the very group making the claim that our country is founded on their religious principles.
How can the country (or the Constitution) be founded on their principles, when they don't even accept the principle of equality in their own religion? It can't. This country was founded on secular democratic principles, and those who don't believe that are either lying or engaging in wishful thinking.
No One Is Born Believing Racism Is Right
I love the picture above (found at imgur.com), because it illustrates a reality about human existence -- the fact that no human is born a racist. Racism (like misogyny, homophobia, and other forms of bigotry) must be taught, and it is usually taught by parents or other close family members.
I was lucky, in that I was never taught by my family to hate others for their race or skin color (or anything else they had no control over), but others weren't so lucky. I don't say that to excuse them, but to point out that there is a reason for their sickness -- and that whoever taught them such nonsense must share the blame for any actions they now exhibit. Racism is a perversion that could be eliminated simply by ceasing to teach it, and it is to this nation's great shame that it hasn't already been eliminated.
Henry Rollins recently wrote a column on this for the LA Weekly. He wrote:
On Jan. 19, some of us took a moment to honor the memory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. You’re probably well aware of the multidecade struggle to have “MLK Day” recognized as a federal holiday and make all the states stick to it. To this day, it is still argued over. Some say there are so many people in the civil rights movement who are not being recognized, it is a travesty to award a day to only one man.
But I think MLK Day is about much more than the great man himself. It is indeed honoring people such as Medgar Evers, Clyde Kennard and countless others who risked everything.
I remember when Martin Luther King was assassinated. It was the first time I can remember ever hearing the word “assassination.” It was on television and I was with my mother in her apartment. She went berserk, yelling and crying. I was young but I remember it clearly. I knew she wasn’t mad at me, but seeing her so out of control, it was like the world was flying apart.
After Dr. King’s death, my daily experiences with other kids became scarier than they already were. I was one of only a few white kids at my school, and there was an artificial divide that we were too young to understand. How could we? It wasn’t ours. I was different, nervous and easily intimidated, a perfect go-to for teasing and whatever else.
There were times when a black kid, who would be friendly enough in class, would turn on me in the schoolyard at lunch. A push or a slap and suddenly, I was hyperventilating and trying to hold my bladder as I shook uncontrollably.
It’s real-time panic where you have absolutely no idea what will happen next. One kid starts with the first word of the chant, “Fight!” Then a loose, collective chorus, voices lining up by the second “Fight!” Then the rest: “Nigger and a white! Beat him, nigger, beat him, ’cause the white can’t fight!”
The level of confusion, anxiety and pure fear that this treatment can produce is truly awesome in its power to transform. It changed my life completely. I would wake up hours before school, unable to sleep. I would get to the classroom early to avoid the gauntlet. I learned to be as invisible as my surging hyperactivity would allow me to be. Food was hard to hold down; my nose would just start bleeding. Not a good time.
We were all young kids, cute little idiots embroiled in the ignorance of a time we had little or no understanding of. I am quite convinced that this transfer of discrimination from one generation to the next, absorbed at the same time as basic reading skills, with no sense of history or context, is one of the biggest impediments to progress in America to this day.
By the time you are old enough to know better, it is hard to get your head beyond what you have known all your life. Add 50 years to that and you might become, “Well, you know, he’s a man from a different time in America, so…” That guy. I was raised by one.
So, is there that moment of clarity where all racists and bigots in America suddenly just drop it and move on? That would be cool, right? But obviously, it’s not nearly that simple or we would have done it decades, maybe centuries ago.
Humans are dynamic creatures and come with a lot of stuff. To paraphrase the great Mark E. Smith of The Fall, “People drag their past around, it gets passed around.”
For some, their prejudice is part of who they are. It allows them to define and distinguish themselves. A lot of racial supremacists will insist that they are not racist but just doing their best to maintain the highest levels of racial purity, for the good of everyone, of course. Your best interest is at the heart of their efforts!
I don’t think there is any line of logic you could utilize to move any of these people from their beliefs. Like Dave Chappelle’s brilliant African-American Klansman, it would be a blow to their integrity and totally unacceptable.
To the present day, there are those who think all this MLK Day business is just a damned nuisance because “there’s no more racism — look who the president is!” But it would be foolish to think that just because of the Obama administration, all is well.
I think in 1865, America could have actually put the genie back in the bottle. Post–Civil War, 13th Amendment added to the Constitution. That was a moment, perhaps the moment, had President Lincoln not been killed at the outset of his second term, when things could have gone differently.
What you got instead was Jim Crow laws and the institutionalizing and corporatizing of prejudice. Now it’s a money maker. It should be a national shame that the prison industry is so profitable.
If there weren’t so many unresolved matters yet to deal with, MLK Day would not still have so much heat attached to it, almost 50 years after Dr. King’s death. It is a reminder of the brutal, despicable conduct of our ancestors and the work yet to be done.
“Someday, things will be better” is so much low-temperature, defeatist crap. How do you think Americans who literally died for freedom and equality would react, to see so many of us still slugging this out? Can you imagine how punishing that verbal beat-down would be? We would deserve it, too.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)