Every election you hear the same old mantra: Declining civility and nasty campaigning. And it’s getting worse!
Well, if you have some knowledge of history …
You might find a lot of interesting stuff from the video source, Reason TV.
Author: Redactor
Which is scarier, Halloween or the Tuesday after?
Silly question. Of course it’s Tuesday. Election Day.
The ghouls and goblins of Halloween are all dress-up; kids enjoying some play on the dark side, the better to go back into the light and … eat candy.
The ghouls and goblins of Election Day are dressed up, too. But the pretend element is that incumbent politicians aren’t the problem. (Or, as the contest heats up, that it’s some other incumbent’s fault.)
It’s all trick and no net treat, though, when their idea of “the good” incorporates all sorts of scams and schemes to take from some to give to others. Or better yet, to promise to give something later … long after they’ve retired. Then, those good intentions develop horns and tails and sulfuric stench.
It’s highly likely that U.S. Congress’s majority Democrats will receive many thwacks from challenging Republicans. This is to the good not because Republicans have proven themselves stalwart foes of politics-as-usual, but only because the devils I don’t know (the challengers) ought to be better than the devils we do know (the incumbents).
Why? The incumbents have learned the devil’s trade. The challengers have not necessarily succumbed to the temptations of that deviltry.
Yet.
Term limits, which cut down the time politicians spend in the path of temptation, might help purge some of the evil.
Unfortunately, term limits aren’t on most ballots next Tuesday. Only in Oklahoma.
Happy Halloween.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
The essence of politics-as-usual is to promise the moon and bury any mention of costs.
This beggar-all promising has calcified into government policy. And we all get trapped in the web of promises that become law and then bureaucracy with “benefits” … as folks come to rely on those benefits. Damn the costs.
Example? Medicare.
It’s politically untouchable. Though deeply insolvent, politicians and partisan activists of both parties whip voters into a frenzy each time the program gets targeted for the slightest cost-constraining reform.
How out of control is it?
According to a report by David Naither, for The Center for Public Integrity, “Medicare is a significant part of the reason the national debt is soaring.…” Millions rely on it as a “safety net” that protects them “from bankrupting medical bills. But since it’s an open-ended program — with no upper limit — the nation has no similar protection to keep Medicare from bankrupting the country.”
Naither is not just fear-mongering. The trends are clear. The program itself raises medical costs, Naither notes, and, as the Baby Boomers retire, it will have “more seniors to cover.” No wonder the program now outpaces Social Security growth; it could very well bulge past Social Security within 25 years.
If the country survives the added burden, that is.
There are reasons we need to reform the structure of politics. For politics-as-usual is throwing us into a deep, downward spiral.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Regular readers know that I’ve had my share of troubles in Oklahoma, where a politically-motivated Attorney General abused his office years ago to threaten myself and other initiative petitioners. Thankfully, we won that battle.
Now, with a critical election nearly upon us, there’s a different problem in Oklahoma. Put another way, there’s a big opportunity.
On the ballot in just a week is State Question 750, which will make it a little less onerous for citizens to qualify initiative and referendum measures for future ballots.
Of all initiative states in the country, Oklahoma is the most difficult to put an issue on the ballot. The state mandates the highest percentage of signatures in the entire nation, while also setting the second shortest period for folks to circulate petitions, a mere 90 days.
Currently, Oklahoma determines the petition signature requirement by the office with the highest number of votes cast in the last election. This means that after every presidential election the signature requirement shoots up by as much as 40 percent!
Which, in turn, shoves aside the possibility for voters to reform government and hold it accountable.
State Question 750 would, instead, set the petition requirement to match the totals to the votes on gubernatorial elections. This would remove the roller-coaster fluctuations after each election. More importantly, it would significantly lower the signature requirement — by about 40 percent.
But there is a rather serious problem. SQ 750 is slightly behind in the polls — with a surprisingly large number of voters undecided.
Why?
Well, I’m convinced it’s because the ballot title for SQ 750 is plodding and abstruse, while also offering a negative spin.
Can you guess who wrote it?
The cockamamie title was prepared by none other than Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson. Yes, Edmondson’s the same politician who tried to throw me (and two other innocent activists) in jail on trumped up charges that, later, he was forced to dismiss and expunge.
When AG Edmondson launched his political witch-hunt against those of us who seek limits on government spending, we fought back. As that battle began, a friend urged me to set out some goals. Here are the five goals I set out three years ago and where we stand on each one:
1. Win our legal case.
- We won. All charges were dismissed and our indictment expunged from the record.
2. Make Mr. Edmonson a private citizen after the next election.
- Edmonson was defeated in the Democratic primary back in July.
3. Overturn the state’s residency law.
- The law was struck down as unconstitutional.
4. Term-limit all statewide officials — most necessarily the Attorney General. (Edmondson has been AG for the last 16 years.)
- The term limits amendment, State Question 747, is on this November’s ballot.
5. Open up the initiative and referendum process in Oklahoma.
- In 2009, we assisted Oklahoma activists in passing three bills through the state legislature to make the petition process more open and accessible. One of those bills is SQ 750, a constitutional amendment, which is on the ballot this November — along with term limits.
Passing SQ 750 cannot help but have some personal meaning for me. More consequential, however, is the impact its passage — or failure — will have on our campaign to protect and expand the initiative process all across this country. We cannot afford to have the strong public support for the initiative hijacked by a convoluted ballot title from a disgraced AG on his way to the political dustbin.
One thing is clear: If Oklahoma voters know what State Question 750 is all about, they will pass it — with a solid majority.
Let’s help inform them.
A serious statewide radio campaign, reaching the Oklahoma electorate in this final week, costs a very serious $68,000. This is heavy saturation for the last 7 days of the campaign.
The radio spot will help voters cut through the AG’s smokescreen and grasp the significance of a YES vote on SQ 750 by reminding folks that the initiative process makes reforms like term limits possible. You can listen to the radio spot here.
Citizens in Charge has already begun airing this radio advertisement statewide. But we desperately need to run it more frequently and on more stations if we are to reach enough voters.
To do that, we must raise another $14,000 by close of business today — or early tomorrow, at the absolute latest.
Please help at this critical moment. We can purchase an additional spot on a statewide network of stations for $750. A contribution of $100 will cover another 60-second play on an individual station in Oklahoma City or Tulsa. And in the Sooner State’s smaller markets, your gift of $25 or $50 means another audience will hear us.
Would you consider contributing $750, $250, $100, $50 or $25 of the remaining $14,000 to reach the electorate and win?
You are the freedom fighter that the forces of big, unaccountable government so badly underestimate. Thanks in advance for your consideration. Please contribute online here.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
P.S. This has been a super successful year for Citizens in Charge Foundation & Citizens in Charge, with not a single significant anti-initiative bill passing in the entire nation and with important victories in court cases brought in Colorado, Missouri, Ohio, Utah and Washington. Now, with your support, we have an opportunity to secure a major win at the ballot box in Oklahoma. Your gift will directly help put citizens in charge in Oklahoma.
P.P.S. Oklahoma doesn’t start early voting until the final weekend before Election Day, so we can still reach all the voters. I have no crystal ball, but I feel this radio ad campaign will make the difference between winning and losing.
Categories
Yet He Broke No Laws
David Codrea, a gun rights columnist for Examiner.com, was alerted by a reader to the plight of Brian Aitkin, in a New Jersey jail “for seven years for owning legal guns.”
Codrea looked into it. And, unfortunately, it seems that Mr. Aitkin has indeed been incarcerated for the crime of … well, of driving from one place to another in a perfectly legal manner.
Aitkin’s real sin? Bad luck. The bad luck to be stopped on the road by police ignorant of or indifferent to the law. And the bad luck to have a judge knowledgeable about but indifferent to the law, and unwilling to tell jurors about it.
Also unluckily, his jurors reluctantly went along with the vicious charade even though they weren’t getting straight answers.
Atkins was moving from Colorado to New Jersey with firearms in his possession, and which he had purchased after passing relevant background checks. The firearms were disassembled and locked in his trunk in accordance with New Jersey state law. Atkins had even contacted the New Jersey State Police to make sure of his compliance. Alas, as reported at BrianDAtkin.com, “The jury returned from deliberation three times practically begging the judge to tell them the law that protects an individual’s rights to transport firearms — [but] the judge outright refused to tell them!”
There’s much more to learn about this disturbing case. Codrea has the links. And no corrupt judge can stop you from clicking on them.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
Early reports and predictions about political spending in this election cycle claim there’s a 30 percent increase over the last mid-term election. One figure hazards that this campaign will total out to around $3.7 billion. Spending on ads is said to be up 75 percent. Traditional spending via parties and party committees shows Democrats to have an edge over Republicans by about $20 million. Republicans are making up for it, we’re told, by newly re-legalized “outside” spending.
A CBS News report relates the conventional wisdom about this. Watchdog groups “say more ads and information can be good — but voters can’t judge their credibility when donors are secret.” One expert decries this, saying “We just cannot know and we’ll never know who is ponying up the money.”
I say, “so what?”
Information cannot be judged good or bad, nor facts or argument dismissed, depending on where the money comes from to distribute the information and argumentation. The classic fallacy of the argumentum ad hominem judges conclusions by the character of the speaker rather than the truth of the facts or the validity of arguments.
Its dominance in politics is a curse, not a blessing.
Demands for full transparency of citizen activism bolster the nasty politics of a logical fallacy. When we don’t know the economic provenance of an ad or a slogan or an argument, we’ll just have to decide the issue on its own merits.
Horrors!
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.