Party doesn't matter anymore in America, if it ever did.

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 09, 2008 · 11:01 PM PST

2008/11/09 · 23:01

Since Clinton, it's been hard to tell Democrats and Republicans apart. Democrats cut programs, start wars and reduce the deficit. Republicans pass huge social programs and abandon fiscal responsibility. When Clinton was in Power, many liberals considered him a Republican.

If it's so hard to tell the party's policies apart, then why is there such strong, passionate partisanship? Some say that it's precisely because the policy differences are so narrow that emotions runs so high. That explanation runs a little thin, many people were deeply angered and scared by Obama's win and feel that it will mean terrible things for the country. Many of these people (but not all) show no other outward signs of insanity.

What's going on here?

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday November 03, 2008 · 12:03 PM PST

2008/11/03 · 12:03

A Democrat is swept into the Presidency by huge margins in a period of great financial turmoil. While his Republican opponent insists on letting the market work out the problems itself, he offers a more activist government with greater intervention in the economy and is accused of Socialist tendencies.

Meanwhile, on the international front a defeated power is re-asserting itself on the world stage. They are rearming and eventually invade a neighboring country on the grounds of protecting it's own citizens (after distributing passports in disputed ethnic areas) citizens. The year is 1932 or 2008?

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Sunday November 02, 2008 · 3:18 AM PST

2008/11/02 · 03:18

I have lived in Post-Communist Europe for most of my adult life. I have seen the horrorible damage close up. I know it's people and speak it's languages.

To use the term to score cheap political points is not only disingenuous, it's disrespectful to our "Greatest Generation" of Americans who defeated Communism through a long, heroic and bi-partisan effort.

In fact, looking back to how we defeated Communism provides a good guide to how we should combat our problems today: Real action rather than empty rhetoric.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 20, 2008 · 7:48 PM PDT

2008/10/20 · 19:48

I've lived in post-communist countries for over a decade and I can say from first-hand experience and without fear of hyperbole that Communism was one of the worst things that has happened in history. It failed in every way possible, was responsible for the death of millions and endangered the well-being of the billions of others. It was so brutal and so corrupt and so difficult for most Americans to believe that it almost cries out for apologists. Such failure on such a mass scale is simply beyond the comprehension of most Americans.

I'm a big supporter of Obama, hated Bush and loved Clinton. So it is common for friends and family back home to ask me "if you've seen first hand how that system has failed, how can you favor those policies?" Michelle Bachmann hurls the epitets "Liberal" and "Leftist" as proof of "Anti-Americanism."

I think on-balance, most Americans know that Bachmann's view is wrongheaded, but she wouldn't repeat it if it didn't have resonance. Most Americans are also are uneasy about Socialism and it is true that we are a "center-right" nation. So I think that a lttle more thought needs to be put into a rebuttal than simply calling her a lunatic (even though she probably is).

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 17, 2008 · 9:54 PM PDT

2008/10/17 · 21:54

Ironically, the one promise that George Bush has made good on is to make our foreign policy more humble. We really don't have a choice about that anymore.

Rebuilding our image in the world will be a major challenge for the next President. The American brand is the conerstone of our soft power, which Joseph Nye defines as the power to get others to do what we want without coercion. Therefore, improving how the world sees us will be the best way to do more with less in our foriegn policy.

I've been living overseas for the past 12 years. I speak two foreign languages, have lived in three foreign countries and travelled to over twenty more. So I have definitely have had my share (and sometimes a fill of) foreigners opinions of us shared with me and I would like to share some of them with all of you.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 16, 2008 · 6:01 AM PDT

2008/10/16 · 06:01

The facts are very simple and can be found on the Energy Information Administration web site.

Obama is 100% right on this issue and McCain is just not clear. We can't drill out of our way out of this problem and building 45 (or 145) nuclear plants will do nothing about our oil dependency.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 15, 2008 · 1:47 AM PDT

2008/10/15 · 01:47

John McCain says that he wants to "put government on your side and out of your way." However, his plan is only on the side of a few, gets in the way of small business and innovation and will most likely cause another asset bubble and get us in the same trouble all over again.

If McCain really understands his plan, then he wants to raise interest rates (and hence, the national debt), sell american companies and encourage speculation rather than investment.

I'm speaking specifically about his plan to cut capital gains taxes for the next 2 years. It is not pro-business, pro-investment or pro-innovation. It is basically welfare so certain kinds of businesses (especially big ones) have an advantage against others.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Tuesday October 14, 2008 · 6:08 AM PDT

2008/10/14 · 06:08

I was pleasantly surprised about the fantastic response I got from my last post and would like to thank everybody for all of the nice comments.

I got one comment asking me to "back up" my assertion that Friedman was proved right about his stagflation, which sort of underlined my point. Although now much maligned in some circles, Milton Friedman won a Nobel Prize for Economics and so did a lot of other of the conservative economists that he is associated with. These were serious people with powerful ideas. They were also original ideas (hence the Nobels), but they were original 30 or 40 years ago.

So let's assume that history marches on and update a bit. Even a casual glance at Nobel Prizewinners in Economics will show a sea change.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Monday October 13, 2008 · 4:45 AM PDT

2008/10/13 · 04:45

The Republican Philosophy has failed so miserably that is has effectively become an "anti-philosophy." As David Brooks pointed out in a recent column, it has effectively become a war on thinking. Any serious thought, qualification or education has become a disqualification in Republican circles. Obama's simple message of "Change" has been so successful because Republicans have become so incoherent.

However, if you have any faith in the American people (and I do), then you must accept that the dominating political philosophy of the last 40 years must have had some validity at some point. Moreover, if we are discarding it, what are we going to replace it with?

In the words of Robert Redford's character in "The Candidate": What do we do now?

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Friday October 10, 2008 · 4:25 AM PDT

2008/10/10 · 04:25

Bush did not cut taxes. He raised them. The fact that he didn't present the bill to the american people during his tenure is completely irrelevant (and dishonest). The federal budget will be roughly $90 billion more due to interest expense when he leaves than when he came in (and that is actually an artificially low number). Whether we borrow money against future tax revenues or tax today to pay them doesn't change the inescapable fact that these are liabilities that will have to be paid by our taxes at some point.

It's as if a child says to his father "I don't need an allowance" and then blows out the credit card.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Thursday October 09, 2008 · 6:31 AM PDT

2008/10/09 · 06:31

How can we pay for health care? No, the real question should be "how do we pay so much for health care and get so little?" We pay roughly twice as much for health care as other developed countries but have lower life expectancy and higher infant mortality.

gsatell

Community (This content is not subject to review by Daily Kos staff prior to publication.)

Wednesday October 08, 2008 · 3:31 AM PDT

2008/10/08 · 03:31

To understand the Obama Ayers relationship, one only needs to look at basic network theory. In actuality, the fact that Obama and Ayers have a relationship is no information at all. It would have been virtually impossible for two policially active people in Chicago to NOT have some relationship.

RSS

Party doesn't matter anymore in America, if it ever did.

The most memorable election since...

Why I take offense at the "Communist" diatribe

Are we becoming more Socialist? Of course! And more Capitalist as well!

What the world thinks of us

The facts on ending dependence on foreign oil

Does McCain Really Understand his Economic Plan???

The War on Thinking (Continued)

The War on Thinking: The Republican Philosophy has Failed. What Now?

Let's Explode the Myth That Bush Cut Taxes

How to Pay for Health Care

The Strength of Ayers Ties