More Polarization

In addition to the vast democratic majorities in the "good old days"  (50s-60s) the United States faced an existential enemy, a communist, nuclear armed, superpower bent on world domination.  "We will bury you" quoth Nikita Khrushchev.  Communism is about as left as politics can get.  Communism stood for ownership of the means of production (companies) by the state.  In practice that meant liquidation of company shareholders, owners, and for good measure anyone else who stood in the way. 
   This was opposed by all the targeted groups in the US, and by American labor.  Coming out of the 1930's, American workers had organized strong unions and collectively bargained some pretty decent contracts.  The rank and file figured that they had things under control, and any move toward state ownership of the means of production would break their contracts and leave them worse off.  The Democratic party was (and perhaps still is) the party of organized labor,  the Republicans were (and still are) the party of businessmen, who were as hostile to communism as the union men were.
   Which meant that the lefty impulses in the body politic could not move too far from center if they wanted to win an election.  In fact both Democrats and Republicans supported the Cold War, with such effect that the existential enemy suffered political collapse by 1991.
    Now, with communism being pretty dead for the last 25 years,  it becomes possible for American lefties to say things and do things that would have gotten them tossed out of the party in the old days.  "You want to share the wealth don't you," would have branded Obama as a commie back in the day.   In short, the fall of Soviet Communism allows the modern US democrats to go way farther to the left than would have been possible during the Cold War, when communist sympathizers were branded as traitors.  The Republicans have pretty much stayed in place, ideologically.  You don't hear any modern Republican going farther right than good old Barry Goldwater did in 1964. 
   In short, defeat of Soviet Communism has allowed the lefties out of the box and into the body politic where they attract flak.  
  

Polarization of US politics.

I've seen countless whines on this subject.  No bipartisanship, too much bickering, gridlock, yada yada.  Usually by democrats.  And, I gotta agree with them.  Over my memory span, the Congresscritters have grown meaner and nastier, far more likely to do ad hominem attacks upon the other party. 
  How come?
  Well, back in the good old days (50s,60s) the Democrats had an overwhelming majority just about everywhere, Congress, state houses, city halls.  You don't squabble with members of your own party.  And if you are a real small Republican minority party you know you have to get along with the majority Democrats if you ever want to get any of your stuff passed.  So things ran a bit smoother, and with more politeness under a one and a half party system. 
  Starting with Newt Gingrich's Contract with America in 1994, the Republicans finally gained enough strength nationwide to draw level with, or even ahead of,  the Democrats.  When you have the votes to push thru your program, you don't have to be polite to the opposition, you just vote it thru.  The opposition hates that, but that's democracy for you. 
   So, the "polarization" so decried by the democrats is actually a sign of the return of two party politics. 

Inspections.

Obama's murky deal with Iran does some talking about inspections of Iranian nuclear facilities to report when Iran starts building an atomic bomb.  Apparently we don't get to do no knock inspections. 
But, the question is, should the inspectors catch the Iranian cheating and bomb building, do we, the US, have the stones to do anything about it?  Obama probably doesn't. 
   I have been reading Winston Churchill's "The Gathering Storm".  After WWI the victors disarmed Germany and set up an inspection regime to make sure the Germans didn't cheat.  Well, the Germans did cheat, and when they created a new Army and new Air Force, completely in defiance of the Treaty of Versailles, the French and the British lacked the stones to do anything about it.  The Americans were into isolationism and coping with the Great Depression.  And WWII happened. 
   I fear that only military action will keep the Iranians from the bomb. 

Pease Flap

NHPR ran a story this morning about pollution at Pease Tradeport (the former Pease Air Force Base).  I never heard of this pollutant before (PFC's I think they were talking about).  NHPR did admit that there were no human studies proving that the stuff was harmful.  Actually, running such a study has severe ethical problems but never mind. 
   The stuff had been detected in the water of test wells drilled to look for it.  NHPR, continuing its tradition of innumeracy, didn't mention how much had been detected.  Modern laboratory technique is sensitive enough to detect a little bit of anything just about anywhere.  No mention was made about tests on tapwater.  They were hot to trot to test the blood of residents, workers, and former workers, but nobody had volunteered to pay for all this medical work. 
   Could it be that the greenies are out to shut down Pease by inventing a new hazard?  I mean the greenies invented Bicknell's Thrush just to prevent skiing on the Mittersill trails. 

Retail Politics in the North country.

George Pataki came to Littleton this morning.  Despite a couple a hundred emails announcing the event, turnout was light.  We had nearly as many people from the local papers as we did voters.  George Pataki was looking and sounding good.  His hair hasn't turned gray yet, he is tall, erect carriage, looks good speaking.  In reply to my question "What should we do to get GNP growth up from 2-2.5 percent to 3.5-4 percent, the governor mentioned income tax reform to bring off shore corporate money home, scrapping Obamacare, and reducing government regulation.  He asked the audience how they felt about the future of America, received equivocal answers, and then went on to say that that government meddling was the cause of universal American pessimism.  He is against Common Core.   He wants stronger American armed forces.  He wants to control the borders, but expressed pride in his own immigrant roots.

Crowd was sparce.   Judy Clews and Silvia Smith in the front row.

Bob Menendez, Senator, DOJ target

All I know is what I see on TV.  But the charges against Menendez sound like constituent service to me.  You take care of your constituents, your voters, your donors, your friends.  People only donate money to your campaign 'cause they want something from you.  There is little difference between campaign contributions and bribes.
   Anyhow, the Obama administration has decided to prosecute a democratic senator on shaky grounds.  Maybe they want to silence a critic.  Maybe some DOJ people have a grudge.  Who knows?  But life in the United States is becoming dangerous when even US Senators can be attacked by their government.  

Iran and Nukes and Obama

With out getting into how many centrifuges,  what kind of inpections,  years to breakout, etc, we need to recognized a few basic facts. 
The Iranian want their own nukes.  They want them so badly that they will do anything to get them.  Flim flamming inspectors, lying, breaking their sworn treaty, is small change to them. 
   Their first and greatest desire for nukes is to deter  the Americans from doing a regime change on them, just the way they did to Saddam Hussein.  Even the hardest of hard core American hawks will be deterred by a threat to nuke Tel Aviv, or Riyadh or Cairo or New York.  Without nukes, the Americans could do Iran down as easily as they did Saddam.  One division, 3rd Infantry Division, (although it had enough tanks to be called an armored division) crushed the Iraqi army in a matter of weeks.  The Ayatollahs know that right now, the Americans could do the same thing to them.  Only Iranian nukes give them a chance of survival. 
  Secondary desires for nukes are the prestige they would bring Iran, very helpful in asserting control of the middle east.  And the really hard core Ayatollahs dream of nuking Israel. 
  We don't want the Iranians to get nukes.  Soon as Iran gets a nuke, everyone else in the middle east (Saudi, Iraq, Egypt, Turkey, even Jordan, will get them too.  The Pakis have nukes now, and would probably sell bombs or technology to fellow Muslim powers.  So would the Norks.  Soon as everyone has nukes, someone will use them.  Leadership in that part of the world is full of crazies.   
   So we ought to be telling the Iranians, you don't get nukes.  If you try, we will bomb your nuclear sites. And tighten the economic sanctions even more.  Cooperate and we will lift sanctions.  Cooperation means turning over all enriched fissionables and destroying all the centrifuges, and no you don't get a nuclear reactor. 
   Obama doesn't understand this.  But the voters do.  Even the Congressman do.