"Some may rightly blame politicians in Washington for behaving badly, but in reality the clashes in the nation’s capital reflect conflicting attitudes and values held by politically active, rank-and-file Republicans and Democrats across the country. Add to that a faction of conservatives in the House who are determined to disrupt business as usual and the current stalemate in Congress becomes almost unavoidable. The bonds that once helped produce political consensus have gradually eroded, replaced by competing camps that live in parallel universes, have sharply divergent world views and express more distrust of opponents than they did decades ago. Many activists describe the stakes in apocalyptic terms." Dan Balz
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If I understand Balz correctly, his main point is that the increasingly separated thinking of the blue and red areas cause the re-districting into gerrymandered House districts and not the other way around.
If true this is an ominous portent for the future. pl
Richard,
I work in that industry and am well aware of the political games played with the tax code amongst other things. The complete lack of any industrial policy in this country, coupled with an ideological focus on 'free markets', for a couple of decades, were major factors. Lots of blame to go around, with allot of it at the top where the majority of ideas are generated or pushed into policy. The current approach to, amongst other things, wiping out pension obligations while maintaing multi-million dollar tax breaks for a trio of billionaires is one example of transactional wealth.
Posted by: Fred | 08 October 2013 at 10:13 PM
The Democratic Leadership Council, isn't that the Clinton's organization that has been around since the 90s? Then there are the multiple variations of Obama for America. I believe they are following the wrong strategy and are thus not as effective but still a force in politics.
Posted by: Fred | 08 October 2013 at 10:16 PM
Sadly all this technological change puts information at ones fingertips, which provides a heavy incentive to stop remembering. It equally makes easy the multiple choice testing and scoring that is so beloved by those selling tests. (GMAT/GRE/SAT). Then the 'rankings' of which little of meaning is measured. Teach and test trivia. Like rating a soldier by testing the number of pushups, sit-ups, timed runs and the like.
Posted by: Fred | 08 October 2013 at 10:20 PM
"Single Payer" may well have been impossible to pass. But the actions of Obama and Baucus and perhaps others in pre-emptively suppressing so much as a mention of it in so much as one hearing make me think that they and their private insurance company sponsors were afraid that it might well pass. Their actions make me think that was a chance
that Obama and Baucus and others simply did not want to take.
Letting Single Payer be discussed and fought for by the lefter side of the D Party might at least have created pressure and a space for legislating individual free-choice access to Medicare for those below 65 years old who would have wanted it. Of course the insurance companies, and therefor Obama and Baucus etc. did not want that either.
It seems to me that the ACA further strengthens the power and revenue streams of the private insurance industry. I suspect Obama has a long-range vision of Medicare itself being degraded and attrited in preparation for voucherising it and driving all "Vouchercare" recipients into the Market Exchanges at some point. (I wonder if there is a hidden agenda to try someday privatising and voucherising VA Medicine as well? If any such agenda becomes visible, I hope it can be beaten down completely.)
I don't believe ACA was meant to be the camel's nose under the tent. I believe it was meant to "suck the oxygen out of the room", "poison the well", etc. so completely as to deter revisiting the issue for several decades. But events could prove me wrong.
Posted by: different clue | 09 October 2013 at 08:04 PM