tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post7523471827623007077..comments2024-03-19T05:35:07.296-07:00Comments on CONTRARY BRIN: A new Mussolini? A libertarian alternative? Plus international worries and learning to stay calm.David Brinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comBlogger67125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24202458388058684992016-06-09T19:15:19.492-07:002016-06-09T19:15:19.492-07:00Chris H. I often tout Pinker. As for the industr...Chris H. I often tout Pinker. As for the industrial revolution... um duh? Petroleum plus vast increases in practical knowledge.<br /><br />onward.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-9522376041964102822016-06-09T18:38:33.569-07:002016-06-09T18:38:33.569-07:00You need to hook up with @stephenpinker . You have...You need to hook up with @stephenpinker . You have complementary messages ...Chris Heinzhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00045972508852914723noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-73926776729228712072016-06-09T18:28:00.567-07:002016-06-09T18:28:00.567-07:00Like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expected the ...Like the Spanish Inquisition, no one expected the bourgeoisie.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-30979403542371366002016-06-09T18:15:54.859-07:002016-06-09T18:15:54.859-07:00@Alfred - re Opium Wars, 1768 - 1840s/60s Industri...@Alfred - re Opium Wars, 1768 - 1840s/60s Industrialization in Britain - <br /><i>Heh. Spoken like a lawyer. 8)</i> <br />LOL, a lousy lawyer at that. A good lawyer does a 3 hour job in 6 hours. <br /><br /><i>McCloskey’s argument is the structure was already there.</i><br />I'm not suggesting Smith + Ricardo et. al. were geniuses who transformed everything, so much as they were representatives of a number of shifts that occurred mostly among Brits/Dutch/French and not among Spanish/Portuguese/Ottomans. <br /><br />But to me, no "bourgeoisie [chose] to dignify labor" - so much as they lacked the arsenal of tools to oppress them that the aristocrats maintained. Fear drives wages - fear that a 'useful' laborer will leave, or refuse to work, or sabotage the work. French, British, Dutch bourgeoisie had to handle their fears - through contractual relations (whereas aristocrats handled their laborers through property relations - esp. evictions). That sort of fear meant leaving the laborer alone to innovate, so long as they fulfilled their obligations however they pleased (and being lazy humans, they came up with ingenious means of saving themselves time).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75232553890419631772016-06-09T17:12:02.407-07:002016-06-09T17:12:02.407-07:00COntinue here if you like.
onward
onwardCOntinue here if you like.<br /><br />onward<br /><br />onwardDavid Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-18472793930538930252016-06-09T17:11:44.188-07:002016-06-09T17:11:44.188-07:00donzelion I am a registered republican for 2 reaso...donzelion I am a registered republican for 2 reasons:<br /><br />1) For years I prescribed a radical solution to gerrymandering... not to wait for courts or politicians to end that vicious crime, but for citizens to NEUTRALIZE it. If you are in a district that has been gerried to favor one party JOINT THE PARTY OF THAT DISTRICT! Then you get to vote in the only election that matters. The primary.<br /><br />2) I've found it kinda cool to rock folks expectations. An immature pleasure.<br /><br />Thing is, the voters in California rendered my solution moot! By instituting the best voting laws in the Country, eliminating gerrymandering and eliminating partisan primaries! So the ONLY effect of my party registration was to make me look at the Republican presidential ballot on Tuesday and throw up in my mouth... and write in the name of my son.<br /><br />Yeah, I'll switch. As if it matters. But my prescription is still the way to go, in other states! And I urge all of you, if you live in a gerrymandered GOP district to JOIN the Grand old Party of Lincoln. Well... while it still exists.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-87241258915965077392016-06-09T17:02:58.732-07:002016-06-09T17:02:58.732-07:00@Dr. Brin - "The DP is the entire spectrum of...@Dr. Brin - <i>"The DP is the entire spectrum of moderate politics in America. In effect, the democratic party is the House of Commons and the GOP is the House of Lords and when the Lords have a majority they have just two priorities - to perform rip-offs of the people and (2) to prevent politics from functioning at all."</i><br /><br />I am increasingly curious why you're a registered Republican if you regard them thus. But then again, I am glad to know of at least one Republican with a thoroughgoing moderate, rational agenda (even if you have called it 'militant', your concept of militancy would make a real militant smirk).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-90472717677063167572016-06-09T16:48:00.359-07:002016-06-09T16:48:00.359-07:00@donzelion: The novel structures they experimented...@donzelion: <i>The novel structures they experimented with required a larger middle class than had ever existed before: that middle class needed to be literate to inform themselves of trade opportunities, follow scientific developments, apply mathematics, etc.</i><br /><br />Heh. Spoken like a lawyer. 8)<br /><br />McCloskey’s argument is the structure was already there. The various parts of the bourgeoisie chose to dignify labor and those who innovated in the field while also liberating them to act upon those innovations. The aristocrats dragged along, but couldn’t prevent the liberation since most of the bourgeois were townspeople keeping themselves down. Guilds, tariffs, and other protections had to be dismantled and much of it could be done by the bourgeois themselves.<br /><br />McCloskey argues that this worked up until the failed revolutions of 1848-49 when one of bourgeois clade turned on the others. The ‘clerisy’ abandoned the liberal path and moved to socialism. They argued they could design a better society instead of freeing the one that existed and letting it innovate liberations. She argues we are still dealing with this treason.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-28050401905076386922016-06-09T16:25:39.130-07:002016-06-09T16:25:39.130-07:00@Jumper: “Surfaces and Essences” was written twice...@Jumper: “Surfaces and Essences” was written twice as one book. The French and English books are not translations of each other, since the authors were trying to get across something that might have problems in translation. Both parts are supposed to be able to stand alone, but officially speaking, the book is both parts. If I knew French, I’d read the other part too. 8)<br /><br />By the time you get to the end, I think you’ll see they make a good case for ALL human thought being a matter of analogy. All. By the time I was done with it, I realized our languages are also ‘compression algorithms’ and represent a culture’s knowledge that isn’t in any single person’s mind. We do a lot more than talk to each other when we talk to each other.<br /><br />Take your time with it and enjoy it. 8) It helped me deal with how my autistic son learns and also showed me a thing or two that I thought I knew but didn’t about math and physics learning. By the time I was done, I had a very different view on the role story tellers/writers play in our communities too.<br /><br />Hofstadter fans should spend the time needed to comprehend it. It is worth it.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-52287860306392039832016-06-09T16:11:52.224-07:002016-06-09T16:11:52.224-07:00@locumranch: British exploitation of their empire ...@locumranch: British exploitation of their empire isn’t enough to explain what actually happened. You are making one of the many mistakes people make when they don’t dig into the history AND economics. That these events happened isn’t in question. The problem the economists face is they aren’t enough to explain the doubling of incomes by 1860. Only a hand-waving argument works here because research undermines the hypothesis.<br /><br />You are welcome to blame people for bad behavior all you want, but something else happened beyond your assumption. A positive sum game happened and is still underway.Alfred Differhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01170159981105973192noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-41899294689002630842016-06-09T15:49:54.895-07:002016-06-09T15:49:54.895-07:00Dr Brin:
LarryHart you are half right. Today'...Dr Brin:<br /><i><br />LarryHart you are half right. Today's Democratic Party IS NOT a center right party... It CONTAINS America's center right party.<br /></i><br /><br />Fair enough. And maybe it's changing this year, but since the 90s, the center-right aspect of the Democratic Party has been ascendant. The more left-leaning complain about that all the time, while the Republicans still caricature the Dems as commie pinko hippies.<br /><br /><i><br />If the GOP vanished tomorrow, Thomas Friedman's wish would instantly come true as the DP split in half. Into a center left and a center right party<br /></i><br /><br />That's kind of what I meant. If you look back at his list of specifics that he wants his "Grand New Party" to work on, the Democratic Party is already there.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-8622803637627414862016-06-09T15:41:43.134-07:002016-06-09T15:41:43.134-07:00And for your amusement, Dr. Brin, an article on Cr...And for your amusement, Dr. Brin, <a href="http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-objective-reasons-ronald-reagan-was-our-worst-president/" rel="nofollow">an article on Cracked providing six reasons why Republican sweetheart Ronald Reagan was perhaps the worse president ever</a>, which goes into things like corruption (and Iran-Contra), Reaganomics, his anti-labor union practices that have screwed over the middle class, ignoring the AIDS epidemic, how his policies basically turned the Middle East into the quagmire it is today, and his "mental health care reforms" which significantly increased homelessness and basically dumped all those people on the streets.<br /><br />Rob H.Acacia H.https://www.blogger.com/profile/07678539067303911329noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24240744941309648532016-06-09T15:40:12.530-07:002016-06-09T15:40:12.530-07:00LarryHart you are half right. Today's Democra...LarryHart you are half right. Today's Democratic Party IS NOT a center right party... It CONTAINS America's center right party. <br /><br /> The DP is the entire spectrum of moderate politics in America. In effect, the democratic party is the House of Commons and the GOP is the House of Lords and when the Lords have a majority they have just two priorities - to perform rip-offs of the people and (2) to prevent politics from functioning at all.<br /><br /> If the GOP vanished tomorrow, Thomas Friedman's wish would instantly come true as the DP split in half. Into a center left and a center right party.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-24643534851445188512016-06-09T14:19:49.982-07:002016-06-09T14:19:49.982-07:00@Larry - "I don't think the people Dr Bri...@Larry - <i>"I don't think the people Dr Brin describes are necessarily bringing their own race into the discussion."</i><br /><br />Fair enough. Comes to the same thing, agent provocateurism of a very special nature. "How can we rebuild the freeway until we've repaid the brown people for all those years of oppression" - spoken by a white person trying to curry brown people's votes - or spoken by a brown person trying to curry them for his own sake - either way, the issue is that the participant's goal is to hijack a debate and turn it away from an effort to reach a plan for fixing a problem, and move it toward an effort to take power. Yes, very annoying.<br /><br />OK, back to work for me... ;-)donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-51160556238159198592016-06-09T14:15:54.554-07:002016-06-09T14:15:54.554-07:00@Larry - "[Trump] can do no wrong [in his own...@Larry - <i>"[Trump] can do no wrong [in his own mind]. Anyone who says he is wrong about anything is biased against him....I have trouble believing it is anything more complex than that."</i><br /><br />Well, not "much" more complex than that. Every politician always has to play multiple games simultaneously, as does every other businessman (balance suppliers, employees, against customers, and self interest). It's not like Trump is doing something unprecedented.<br /><br />But I see the "can do no wrong" view ("I've never repented from anything!") as a sales device, rather than merely a psychological commitment. Trump is a master salesman whose product has always been Trump - he's quite good at selling it. Standard advertising: it's less about virtues of the product, so much as who/what the buyers want to be. "How dare you suggest tobacco causes cancer? What are you, a Commie? You trying to oppress me?" It seems ridiculous to us now. It didn't 50 years ago. <br /><br />Call my university a scam, do you? You're just a political actor biased against me for ____________ reason. Trump has a long list of terms he can toss in to fill in that blank (Mexican? Muslim? Californian? Weak-willed stupid person? Ugly person?) Doesn't matter that the 'fill in the blank' attacks never convince the victim of the attack, and sometimes annoy others who find such attacks distasteful - what matters is how they play more broadly, and amazingly, such tactics work for a large number of people (just as the tobacco gambits worked years ago, for a while).donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-71486400988973609182016-06-09T13:56:05.221-07:002016-06-09T13:56:05.221-07:00donzelion:
If by 'racialist' you're r...donzelion:<br /><i><br />If by 'racialist' you're referring to the sort of misguided agent provocateur who barges into a debate about freeways and says, "You guys stop building any more roads through MY PEOPLE's neighborhoods until you repay us for slavery!" - then I'm with you. A constant stream of distraction that aborts or hijacks useful debate, intended not to contribute to debate, but to acquire power outside the debate.<br /></i><br /><br />I don't think the people Dr Brin describes are necessarily bringing their <b>own</b> race into the discussion. If anything, the privileged white kids who insist that everything is about downtrodden brown people are even <b>more</b> annoying.<br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-88124121574921510012016-06-09T13:43:47.690-07:002016-06-09T13:43:47.690-07:00@Dr. Brin - hmmm..."racialism"...
If by...@Dr. Brin - hmmm..."racialism"...<br /><br />If by 'racialist' you're referring to the sort of misguided agent provocateur who barges into a debate about freeways and says, "You guys stop building any more roads through MY PEOPLE's neighborhoods until you repay us for slavery!" - then I'm with you. A constant stream of distraction that aborts or hijacks useful debate, intended not to contribute to debate, but to acquire power outside the debate.<br /><br /><i>"Racialist is not quite the same as racist."</i> Indeed, and Locum speaks poorly to assert equivalence, though he does so with different terms.<br /><br />As I see it, the 'racialist' wants to assert authority based on the ultimate message: "You don't understand MY people! Let me tell you what it's really like! And once they anoint me, I'll show you our power!" A 'racialist' may prove little better than a standard anti-colonial leader, esp. various African and Latin American tyrants who 'liberated' their people from foreign oppressors, only to turn around and oppress their own people as brutally. But not always.<br /><br />A "racist" on the other hand asserts authority based on assumptions about knowledge: "I DO understand 'your people'! Let me tell you what those folks are like! (And what I'm gonna do to them...once I take power)"<br /><br />Some racialists become vile; some actually offer useful insights, and their focus on race is helpful to understanding meaningful social and cultural distinctions that would otherwise be missed. <br /><br />All racists are vile (until they eliminate racism). They might achieve some useful things (like putting in a dam, a freeway, a university, or a hospital), but their methodology will consistently oppress both the race they target overtly, and later, any members of their own race outside their circle of cronies.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-53814773964188131152016-06-09T13:43:43.193-07:002016-06-09T13:43:43.193-07:00@donzelion,
I'm not convinced that Trump is p...@donzelion,<br /><br />I'm not convinced that Trump is playing three-dimensional chess. I think it's more likely he's playing checkers.<br /><br />Trump complaining about the judge being biased against him (translated as "not securely in Trump's corner) is akin to Tonya Harding complaining that her skate laces got untied. He can do no wrong. Anyone who says he is wrong about anything is biased against him. Anyone who holds power over decisions which might affect him adversely is cheating.<br /><br />I have trouble believing it is anything more complex than that.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-42028948109635562592016-06-09T13:23:30.257-07:002016-06-09T13:23:30.257-07:00As for Trump v. Judge Curiel - I tried to argue wh...As for Trump v. Judge Curiel - I tried to argue what he's really up to yesterday, then realized my argument skipped too many steps, sacrificing clarity for brevity. I'll try again.<br /><br />First, Trump's statements about Judge Curiel are racist. They are also a cynical racism deployed to use prejudice to achieve additional ends. What ends?<br /><br />Trump's no fool (not a super-genius either, but not stupid). His apparent "shoot from the hip" talk reflects brawler's instincts typical of a real estate developer who is used to playing multiple games at the same time. He anticipated Democrats would seize the 'racism' card (yet again), and anticipated that it wouldn't hurt him materially. <br /><br />What's he really up to? I see at least two games underway:<br /><br /><b>The Political Game:</b> Democrats will play the race card to try to lock in Latino votes. Republicans will then play the race card to convince white voters to come out in droves come November (otherwise, the Latino voters will bury them). It might work. (Netanyahu played a variation on this game in Israel: making several extreme statements against Palestinians, who predictably united to challenge his statements, which in turn drove greater turnout to Netanyahu's side - he's the most successful Israeli Prime Minister in terms of holding onto power for a reason - oh, and he also likes walls. Lessons Trump has noted.)<br /><br /><b>The Business Game:</b> There's over a trillion dollars in student loan debt in America today, but it's unusually illiquid debt. A portion is available for traders to profit from, but those traders must value that debt based on both the Fed (and the value of debt generally) and Executive action. Obama has made signals of cracking down on some practices in that market (e.g., Corinthian colleges) - but hasn't done much about the bigger traders (who profit from the debt pools themselves, not merely operating for-profit outlets).<br /><br />There's no rational or logical link between "Trump University" and the for-profit student loan debt market, but there's an obvious 'psychological' connection (that lovely term' university'). So long as the case is ongoing, there's a risk that people will pick it up - and how many psychological steps is it from "Trump University is a scam" to "student loan debt is a scam"? <br /><br />That sort of debate threatens the traders in that pool. So, Trump reframed the debate: Judge Curiel is a Mexican, I'm building a wall, he's unfair to me. Now, the traders in that pool can choose to back Trump or Hillary (who may need to make overtures to capture Democratic students who worry about that student loan debt). Guess where their allegiance flows? Even if Trump loses politically, he's defended a very quiet pool with a very large chunk of money...which is itself worth a fair bit of money.<br /><br />Games within games. Complex, but par for the golf course in any long-term multi-billion dollar real estate development project where priming is essential to extracting the best terms. donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39686448266588812962016-06-09T12:50:51.670-07:002016-06-09T12:50:51.670-07:00"Trump's so-called Racism is indistinguis..."Trump's so-called Racism is indistinguishable from established Progressive Party Identity Politics " <== I will shock (shock!) all be avowing that many on the mad far-left are definitely "racialists"... a better term, since they deem race to be a primary fixation in conversation, dogma and philosophy.<br /><br />Racialist is not quite the same as racist. The latter tries to disparage others and limit their options because of membership in a caste. It is overtly nasty and Trump caters to the worst in his constituents... for whom there is ZERO excuse.<br /><br />Racialists I do not like. I do not deem them to be helpful. Their obsessions oft do more harm than good and some of them asre simply sanctimonious self-righteousness junkie bullies. Still, to deem them the same as racists... when they are fighting to overcome centuries and millennia of oppression? Bullshit.David Brinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14465315130418506525noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75386170862098853072016-06-09T12:40:01.535-07:002016-06-09T12:40:01.535-07:00@Locum - re opium wars - Certainly an important fa...@Locum - re opium wars - Certainly an important factor and one that merits very careful thought, but not the cause of the expansion of Britain, so much as a symptom of it. Consider:<br /><br />(1) Before 1768, Spain, the Ottomans, and the Portuguese were the primary European powers trading with China. For all three, the overwhelming bulk of the surplus they received through trade flowed to their own oligarchs (and ultimately, the Crown, as the first and most powerful oligarch in each territory). The oligarchs in turn 'invested' their profits into acquiring land holdings (either directly or indirectly). <br /><br />(2) However, by 1768, the Spanish, Portuguese, and Ottomans were all in decline relative to other European powers (esp. France, Britain, the Netherlands, and later Prussia) which embraced novel structures for legal and economic organization largely because they lacked the commodity wealth that their predecessors had secured (by destroying 'ancient' state structures, like the Aztecs/Incas/South Asian/African kingdoms). The novel structures they experimented with required a larger middle class than had ever existed before: that middle class needed to be literate to inform themselves of trade opportunities, follow scientific developments, apply mathematics, etc. <br /><br />The economic ideals that motivated those innovations in Western Europe were turned towards horrific colonial enterprises (including the Opium Wars, among many others). It is fit and proper to bear that in mind.<br /><br />(3) Still, when the Opium Wars struck, something profound had changed: for the first time, European powers could clearly dictate terms even to the mighty Chinese (an empire which was still a larger economic power than any of the Europeans until late in the Industrial era).<br /><br />My takeaway is that certain Western Europeans in the late 18th century rejected (were forced to reject) an 'old way' of organization in favor of one that placed innovation, productivity growth, education, and persistent incremental improvement (through deployment of capital) center stage. <br /><br />That required sidelining (or beheading) their oligarchs to some extent. Oligarchs turned their eyes towards extracting profits from foreign territories, as their own land holdings in Europe became increasingly irrelevant relative to the power of capital itself. But the power of capital was established: 'old money' (inherited, tied up in real estate and commodity trades) was a vortex consuming surpluses associated with growth, while 'new money' (created, arising from a literate middle class adapting/applying/discovering science) was a cradle driving that growth.donzelionhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05991849781932619746noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-39353505395899793622016-06-09T12:27:04.616-07:002016-06-09T12:27:04.616-07:00If you erase everything past the .html part of a l...If you erase everything past the .html part of a link, it will still function and be shorter. It won't tell the owner where you got it, either. That's a pretty low-risk form of snooping, but since I automatically demur, and since it shortens the link, why not?<br />In other words,<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/opinion/dump-the-gop-for-a-grand-new-party.html<br />will take you to the same page as<br />http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/opinion/dump-the-gop-for-a-grand-new-party.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article<br /><br />I'm a little slow on the uptake with computers so I thought someone else might appreciate this factoid.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-75492062877323878822016-06-09T12:19:21.585-07:002016-06-09T12:19:21.585-07:00I'm not so sure about the existence of the sup...I'm not so sure about the existence of the supposed vast number who don't believe racism exists. I see examples of it all the time, and although I try not to be prejudiced, it's clear what's going on when I see it play out elsewhere. A bigot will deny he sees it even right in front of him. That's what makes me think the blindness is deliberate, not from mere bubble existence. A bigot will deny he's ever seen a bigoted act, not just deny he's ever done one.<br /><br />To Larry and Alfred, I got a copy of Surfaces and Essences: Analogy as the Fuel and Fire of Thinking, co-authored with Emmanuel Sander (ISBN 0465018475) (first published in French as L’Analogie. Cœur de la pensée; published in English in the US in April 2013) and am slowly working through it, as each couple of pages is enough to give me something to think on for a day or so. The theme is the contribution analogy and metaphor make to thought and consciousness, with subtext being hints towards what will be needed for AI development which matches the human mind. He and his co-author are noting some very curious things: that almost all thought IS shot through with analogy and metaphor, and perhaps is pointing to a conclusion that intelligence can literally not exist without it.Jumperhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11794110173836133321noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-80371754025854821862016-06-09T12:08:28.976-07:002016-06-09T12:08:28.976-07:00Posting again, just to see if it disappears again....Posting again, just to see if it disappears again...<br /><br /><br />In today's New York Times, Thomas Friedman calls for a New Republican Party to become the healthy center-right party in America.<br /><br />If he wasn't so blinded by ideology, he'd realize that the party he's calling for already exists. It's the Democratic Party.<br /><br />http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/08/opinion/dump-the-gop-for-a-grand-new-party.html?ribbon-ad-idx=4&src=trending&module=Ribbon&version=origin&region=Header&action=click&contentCollection=Trending&pgtype=article <br /><br />(Excerpt:)<br /><i><br />This party needs to just shut itself down and start over — now. Seriously, someone please start a New Republican Party!<br /><br />America needs a healthy two-party system. America needs a healthy center-right party to ensure that the Democrats remain a healthy center-left party. America needs a center-right party ready to offer market-based solutions to issues like climate change. America needs a center-right party that will support common-sense gun laws. America needs a center-right party that will support common-sense fiscal policy. America needs a center-right party to support both free trade and aid to workers impacted by it. America needs a center-right party that appreciates how much more complicated foreign policy is today, when you have to manage weak and collapsing nations, not just muscle strong ones.<br /></i><br />LarryHartnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8587336.post-91098079647611077392016-06-09T12:05:36.922-07:002016-06-09T12:05:36.922-07:00Paul SB:
But the problem of playing the race card...Paul SB:<br /><i><br />But the problem of playing the race card is that there are huge numbers of Caucasians who see the accusations of racism as a dishonest tactic. Many Caucasians seem to believe that since they, personally, are not overtly racist, that racism no longer really exists.<br /></i><br /><br />More than that, I think a non-insignificant group of Americans thinks that racial tribalism is just the way things are, and that "political correctness" tries but fails to mitigate that fact.<br /><br />For them, the idea isn't to avoid judging the races, but to make sure that their own race maintains its position as top dog. They see attempts to quash racism against minorities as dishonest precisely because "racism against white men" seems (to them) to be the only kind of racism that is encouraged.<br /><br />This is exactly the sort of voter who Trump appeals to.LarryHartnoreply@blogger.com