Comments on: The Muscular Wilsonians: What do They Believe?

By: Edgar Kmiec

Edgar Kmiec — Tue, 26 Oct 2010 20:28:21 +0000

That was a outstanding article. I don’t agree with every single single thing that you said but still excellent nonetheless. On a side note, I am so thrilled that the NFL is back. It seems like I been patiently waiting forever. This has to be my favorite time of the year. Sorry, I’m rambling. lol

By: muscular system blog u comment i follow closed

muscular system blog u comment i follow closed — Tue, 27 May 2008 03:08:42 +0000

[...] in Public Policy, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University. comment trackback …http://www.radioopensource.org/the-muscular-wilsonians-w [...]

By: Potter

Potter — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 12:17:59 +0000

aarott: I don’t think people vote for a “genuine coherent program for governance”. Nor do I think they voted for Jimmy Carter because of such a program. They saw in Jimmy Carter a decent man who was intelligent and could lead. Who reads programs? Democrats, most recently Gore and Kerry had plenty of programs and plans. In fact Kerry was ridiculed for saying “I have a plan” about every issue. But what people did pay attention to was ( apparently) the swiftboat lies and tacking from one side to another in the windsurfing ads. Remember Kerry won the debates on substance and still he lost the election, it was so close.

Paul Krugman makes a good point in ” Questions of Character” http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/101405K.shtml

“The 2000 election would have ended in a chad-proof victory for Al Gore if many reporters hadn’t taken a dislike to Mr. Gore, while portraying Mr. Bush as an honest, likable guy. The 2004 election was largely decided by the image of Mr. Bush as a strong, effective leader.”

So one problem for Democrats is the more well endowed and effective propaganda machine that Republicans have. Krugman points the effective use and rewarding the news media to acheive Republican goals. This also goes to Zendog’s Nov 2 10:52 post ie people are too busy with their own lives to focus on plans- so they take the shortcuts and depend on the media to portray, and thereby judge, character for them. Republicans are way ahead of Democrats in their ability to understand and use this apparent truth.

Now, after so much damage, people are beginning to see a different picture. And this has nothing to do with programs. I would bet that if you ran program against program in ’00 and ’04 Democrats would have won handily, especially if you threw in an argument/education about nominations to the Supreme Court.

By: ZenDog

ZenDog — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 05:49:00 +0000

Potter, thanks for the link. aarrott, I’m guilty of whining and handwringing, as charged. It’s a character flaw exacerbated by a combination of the things outlined in Rich’s piece and my gobsmacked . . .uh . . .incredulosity . . .at, A: the lack of an outraged uprising amongst the masses regarding these things, and B: The as of yet uninspiring Democrat response.

It will be very interesting to see if something coheres for the Dems in the next year or so.

*******

From a recent “No Exit” (by Andy Singer) cartoon I saw in the local freebie events newspaper:

Try the new LIBERAL ANXIETY DIET PLAN: Anxiously ponder one of many hair-raising questions and watch unwanted pounds melt away! Questions like:

-Is Bush crazy enough to invade Iran?

-Will he draft and kill my child in Iraq?

-Will we do something about global warming before it’s too late?

-Will huge republican deficits trigger an economic collapse?

-Can our decaying public health system handle a bio-terror attack?

By: wellbasically

wellbasically — Fri, 04 Nov 2005 04:32:02 +0000

LeeJudt anyway the saying is “you can’t EXPORT democracy at the point of a gun” — so you see, if the Iraqis want a democracy they do it themselves.

If the USA makes up a democracy for Iraq it will by definition report first to the USA, and maybe second to the people of Iraq. Recipe for failure.

The second Iraq had a real democracy they would vote us out of there and order up a batch of WMD to keep us from coming back.

By: Potter

Potter — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 20:32:21 +0000

Nikos- you know you are right, he did!

By: Nikos

Nikos — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 19:37:07 +0000

bloggeddown, at 8:26 pm, really nailed it, imho.

By: aarrott

aarrott — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:29:02 +0000

Potter: No amount of Bush-bungling will relieve the Democrats of the requirement to get their act together and present a genuine coherent program for governance. Even in the immediate post-Watergate election of 1976, when various regular Democrats thought they could just win by default, it was little-known Jimmy Carter, with a clear, coherent program, who swept to power. Americans are good at “throwing the rascals out”, but they do it by voting in a viable alternative.

ZenDog: forget the whining and handwringing about the condition of the moderate middle and offer them an alternative that you can close the deal on. Politics is always restricted to the realm of realistic possibility.

By: Potter

Potter — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:14:02 +0000

How nice! Here is a link

“One Step Closer to the Big Enchilada” by Frank Rich

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/103005X.shtml

By: Potter

Potter — Thu, 03 Nov 2005 12:09:58 +0000

aarott: I’d rather be governed by an endless argument (or discussion), as exasperating as that can be, than suffer with this ill-considered hubristic unilateral foreign policy, and worse, the incompetence of cronies, the divisiveness, the deceptions, outright lies, trail of disastrous consequences that weaken us and make us more vulnerable.

ZenDog; The polls give some hope that perhaps people are sticking their heads out from all the “getting and spending”. I disagree that there are not enough people left to pitch a different message to. First the real news has to sink in more about how they have been misled. This has to marinate a little more.

Have you read Frank Rich’s Sunday piece in the New York Times “One Step Closer to the Big Enchilada”?

How much easier could the Republicans make it for the Democrats to come up with a message?