Category Archives: All Politics Is Local

Why Our Politics Should Stop at the Water’s Edge

U.S. Senator Arthur Vandenberg is credited with the famous saying that our political differences stop at the water’s edge. He meant that though we may be on opposite sides of issues, we present a united front in our dealings with other nations. We do not let our differences impede our ability to carry out a strong foreign policy with diverse nations.

Americans have always celebrated ties to other countries. We are a nation of immigrants, after all. We talk of our special relationship with Britain. Though Saint Patrick’s Day is not a federal holiday, many Americans of Irish descent celebrate it. Mexican Americans celebrate Cinco de Mayo. Jewish Americans celebrate Passover. Muslim Americans celebrate Ramadan. Chinese Americans celebrate the Chinese New Year.

Basing our foreign policies on subservience to a particular country is a more serious matter. When I served in U.S. missions overseas in the Middle East, newly naturalized Americans with ties to those countries sometimes wanted us to work for their countries at the expense of our need to retain relations with many nations in the region.

Refusing to act solely for the interests of a particular country is based on our requirement to put the interests of our own country first. We also seek broader policies that benefit as many nations as possible.

The address of a foreign prime minister to the U.S. Congress at the invitation of one political party set an unwelcome precedent. This has never happened before. To tie the foreign policies of the United States so tightly to the policies of another nation is unprecedented and weakens our ability to choose options. We are part of a global community, and our goal should be working for policies that benefit both us and the community.

 

Governments Grind Away in Neutral While Citizens Seek Alternatives

The gridlock in legislatures, both in Congress and several state legislatures, has led citizens to “legislate” by other means. Citizens in my home state of Washington filed a legal case against the state to increase funding for education. They alleged that the government failed to satisfy the state constitutional mandate calling for an adequate education for all Washington children. The state supreme court agreed and placed the legislature under orders to increase funding. The legislature is currently scrambling to find the funds, being placed under threat of fines if it does not.

We see increased use of ballot initiatives to allow citizens more input into the legislative process. Both governors and the president issue more executive orders. Court cases, ballot measures, and executive orders are attempts to detour around stalled lawmakers. Such measures will continue as long as our representatives are unable to compromise and pass legislation. Political hardening and name calling (hatred in some cases) make compromise appear as “giving in to the enemy.”

Polls indicate that legislatures are sometimes at odds with what citizens actually want. Perhaps contributions to election campaigns coming from moneyed interests are overriding the public will.

 

For Those Young Americans Not Voting in the November Election: Perhaps You’d Prefer a Country Where You Can’t Vote?

Raif Badawi, now thirty-one, has been held in a Saudi Arabian prison since 2012 for blogs considered insulting to Islam. Badawi was sentenced to ten years in prison and 1,000 lashes, fifty each week until the number is completed. After the first punishment was carried out, reprieves have been granted, because, it is said, his body has not yet recovered from the first round. Badawi, of course, has never voted in a national election, nor have any other Saudis, young or not, since they aren’t allowed there.

The number of 18-29 year old Americans (millenials) who bothered to vote in the November 2014 election hovers around 21 percent, according to an article by Froma Harrop. (Published in The Seattle Times on January 25, 2015.) That’s not even one out of four. In some countries where I”ve lived, the idea of not voting when you have the privilege is beyond comprehension.

Harrop scorned the idea of some young Americans that their government doesn’t care about them, or that their voting doesn’t make a difference.

Older people vote in larger numbers. That’s why we have Social Security and Medicare. Or, as Harrop said, “You don’t get served till you enter the restaurant.”

 

Different Solutions for Different Kinds of Homelessness

The other day I pulled out a faded newspaper clipping about homelessness in Atlanta, where I lived several decades ago. That’s probably about how old the clipping is, demonstrating the tenacity of the problem. The article discusses the reasons for homelessness.

One of the speakers in the Atlanta group suggested specialized shelters instead of generic ones. For example, the mentally ill require treatment not needed by those temporarily without funds for shelter because their job was downsized. Those addicted to alcohol and other drugs need rehabilitation centers, but women and their children who are homeless because of abuse may require a different kind of help. Some conditions overlap, of course.

The idea is to treat conditions that cause homelessness. Some cities, such as Salt Lake City, appear to have made progress in reducing homelessness by offering a room with basic amenities to any homeless individual without requiring changes in the individual. The idea is that getting people into safe spaces solves an immediate problem and may make them easier to reach to solve chronic homelessness.

The need for those of us who have homes is, as it always has been, to grasp the need for investment in long term help for the homeless among us.

 

Should Our Schools Begin Educating in Chinese?

The world used to be divided into Western, Communist, and nonaligned nations. More recently, the division has been between developed and developing countries. Lately, a new separation has appeared. The separation is between democracies and those countries, like China, whose leaders think democracy does not work and have instituted a more autocratic form of government.

Democracies stress open elections, freedom of the press and of religion, and an unbiased judiciary, among other requirements. Autocracies think the liberal ideas of democracy have failed. They point to dysfunction, partisan politics, the recent economic recession, and the importance attached to money in winning elections. They prefer a small group of elites who can, they believe, operate more efficiently, not to mention more cheaply.

Believers in autocracy don’t think the liberal ideas of the democracies work any longer in the world as it is. The more orderly, economically viable life of an autocracy like China supposedly compensates for the lack of individual freedom.

The survival of democracies may hinge on their ability to handle the polarization of the last few years between citizens with widely differing ideas of what a government should be and do. Perhaps playing to one’s base in a democracy doesn’t work as well as playing to the common good.

Zorba the Greek Changes Partners

Greek DancersUnless you are an American with Greek roots, you probably didn’t notice that voters in Greece elected what is called a “far-left populist party.” The voters favored a government for the average citizen, not the bankers. They saw the past government as too interested in cutting as much government spending as possible in order to pay debts, no matter the harm to average citizens.

This kind of policy is called “austerity” and was demanded by the European Union for loaning the Greek government money to keep it going. It was hoped that austerity would promote economic growth by cutting spending. As it turned out, massive unemployment from the job cuts offset any growth.

Past Greek governments borrowed more than they should. Also, of course, creditors lent more than they should. Corruption leading to massive avoidance of taxes by the wealthy contributed as well. Those are legitimate targets for fixing.

But citizens in a democracy will take only so much unemployment and austerity, especially if they perceive that the wealthy are not paying their fair share. They will then search for relief at the voting polls. As the Greeks did.

 

Don’t Think You Owe Me Any Favors Just Because I’m Supporting Your Campaign With a Few Million Dollars

Does anyone remember when Senator John McCain pushed election campaign reform? People’s eyes glazed over. How short-sighted we were.

To decry money’s power is not to encourage class warfare or demonize the wealthy. Rather, it is to understand the lure of money and the human temptation to want it. If our laws allow money to be spent freely with, in many cases, no information on who’s funding which candidate, our politicians will favor laws which benefit those who give them money, not the average citizen.

Some who study the progress of democracy in the world claim the United States no longer is, in fact, a democracy. They point to the power of money to call the shots in our elections.

How to change this mockery of democracy? Some candidates will support reform if they know people want reform AND will bother to vote for candidates favoring it. A large turnout of voters is more likely to vote in officials who favor election reform than a smaller turnout, which tends to favor the status quo.

In the last national election, only about a third of eligible voters bothered to make that trip to the polls.

 

Losing/Winning the Super Bowl; Losing/Winning Elections

So the Seattle Seahawks lost the Super Bowl in a heartbreaker. This part of the world is in mourning. Folks have been living and breathing Super Bowl mania for, it seems, years, even before the Hawks went to the 2014 Bowl.

New England, of course, is ecstatic. They’ll be having the parades Seattle had last year (when the weather allows).

Elections resemble sports events. When I was young, winning both elections and sports contests was more important to me than winning is now. Especially with elections, I’ve seen too many defeats turn into later victories and victories descend into defeat. The United States hasn’t missed an election since the country began them back in the eighteenth century, so there’s always next time.

It’s the work in between that’s important. So can we stop obsessing about who’s going to run late in 2016?

 

Trapping Bunnies

I take a break from politics in the other Washington (DC) to observe those of my hometown’s city government. That would be Langley, Washington, population somewhere between 1,000 and 1200.

The town council meetings are lively at times—heated arguments over building an elevator, or maybe a funicular, from the harbor up the bluff to the town center. What changes should we allow to historic buildings? How do we manage parking in an increasingly crowded downtown? Should we allow portable food wagons within the city? If so, all year or just in the summer? And so on.

Recently, Langley has experienced a growing problem with our rabbit population. Some of the town’s citizens are irked because the bunnies enjoy munching on landscaping and vegetable plants in their yards. Many others defend the creatures.

The mayor says the town is not going to become involved in euthanizing or otherwise harming the bunnies. “It would upset too many of our citizens,” he says. He obviously knows which side his political bread is buttered on.

Too bad election to national public office requires the contributions of wealthy individuals in the billions of dollars. Otherwise, elected officials in the other Washington might listen to their less wealthy constituents the way our council members do to Langley’s citizens.

 

What Do You Know About Our Immigration System?

Amy Chua, the daughter of Chinese immigrants to the United States, wrote an article several years ago, which I found the other day. According to the article, Chua, a professor at Yale Law School, believes in our immigration program—but with changes. She suggested that our immigrant visas award ability and job skills needed by the U.S., more than family preference, as it does today.

As a U.S. visa officer overseas, I interviewed applicants for immigrant visas to the United States, leading to permanent residence here. Those visas were typically awarded to a wage earner, a spouse, and minor children. Others went to brothers and sisters of U.S. citizens, unrelated to job skills.

Chua believes the practice of sibling immigration tends to keep immigrants in enclaves instead of assimilating more quickly into the country’s culture.

I favor, as Chua does, the elimination of sibling visas (after current ones in the pipeline pass through) and their replacement with an increase in immigrant visas related to job skills that are in short supply. Spouses and minor children would continue to be included.

In addition, entries to the U.S. should also include refugees. “Huddled masses yearning to breathe free” are part of our national fabric.

Fairness also should guide our decisions about undocumented residents. Many of them have been here for years and are contributing valuable skills. Some were brought here as children, have assimilated into American culture, and are studying toward college degrees.

[Amy Chua’s article was printed in the Seattle Times on February 3, 2008.]

 

The Dilemma of Having Convictions and Acting Stupid

“Generally speaking, I like the people in favor of abortion better than I like the ones against it, but I`m on the side of the people against it.”
—Andy Rooney, Chicago Tribune, 1985

In his thought-provoking book, Vanishing Grace; Whatever Happened to the Good News? Philip Yancey further quotes Rooney: “I’ve decided I’m against abortion . . . But I have a dilemma in that I much prefer the pro-choice to the pro-life people. I’d much rather eat dinner with a group of the former.”

Why did Rooney find so much to dislike among card carrying Christians? In the case of abortion, at least, it didn’t spring from being on the wrong side of an issue that passionately stirs them.

Maybe it’s because Christians sometimes act like spoiled children upset at being replaced by younger siblings. Christian culture is no longer the favored child.

Christians now are asked to explain themselves: How did the South become the Bible Belt even though its pre-Civil War white Christian citizens accepted slavery as God’s will? Why, when slavery was abolished, did they create segregation? Why do some Christians become ballistic over climate change instead of allowing reasonable debate? Spew hatred of gays? Identify so closely with politics that they draw harsh lines against those with different political opinions?

Quoting Yancey again: “The issue is not whether I agree with someone but rather how I treat someone with whom I profoundly disagree.”

 

Elections American Style

According to CNN, this year’s midterm elections cost about 4 billion dollars. That’s more than enough to pay for kindergarten through 12th grade schooling for 12,000 students, CNN says.

Much comes from “dark money,” that is, donors who don’t have to be listed by the groups they give to.

Too bad we don’t have that money for our schools. Or to repair our roads and bridges. Or to invest in jobs. Or to pay for mental health clinics that might reach a few of those unbalanced people who routinely shoot at students and others. Or to (fill in the blank with your choice.)

Plus, what happens to the people elected with this money, especially the dark variety? Won’t those elected office holders feel beholden to those who spent their money to get them in office? Who are they going to represent? One of those dark donors with the millions or the people who only voted for them?

 

An Absentee Ballot from Georgia

He asked to look at my absentee ballot when it came to me in the mail from Georgia, my home state at the time. He fingered it as one might some sacred manuscript. A native of an Asian nation, he worked for me in a U.S. consulate in a Middle Eastern country several years ago. His reverence for my opportunity to vote taught me its value.

That memory overcomes cynicism over the neutral gears that our government often seems stuck in. Cynicism as well over the amount of money spent on elections. Yet, in times past, we have overcome similar problems and voted in better governments and laws. We can change, and voting is one way we do it.

Yes, I’m going to vote this year. I owe it to all those in the world who, like my employee, have no such privilege or vote only in elections so corrupted that they aren’t worthy of the name.

I owe it as well to men and women who have sacrificed far more for my privilege than the time it takes for me to mark my ballot.

 

 

 

What The Tooth Fairy Doesn’t Pay For

 Returning from a shopping trip over a year ago, our car was hit by a motorist coming from a side street. Within a few minutes of the accident, an emergency vehicle appeared. Fortunately, no one was seriously injured, but they did treat my husband’s bruised leg. The county police arrived to direct traffic, take testimony from witnesses, and write an accident report. The report became part of the public record. The police stayed until a friend came to take us home.

We live thirty miles from a U.S. naval base. It’s part of the nation’s defense system.

Further down Puget Sound is the Port of Seattle. Federal inspectors monitor the cargos of ships arriving from diverse countries. Do any contain contaminated food? Toys painted with toxic chemicals?

Over on the Olympic Peninsula a few years ago, a U.S. customs inspector noticed that an Algerian entering on a ferry from Canada appeared nervous. An investigation revealed that Ahmed Ressam’s car trunk contained explosives. Ressam said they were to be used to bomb the Los Angeles International Airport. The U.S. agent’s alertness prevented a terrorist tragedy.

Criticism is part of the democratic process. We complain and disagree about what our governments do and don’t do as well as what they should and should not do. Accountability must be part of any system if it is to do its job. After all, our services are paid for by our taxes. We have every right to require that they be spent wisely and honestly.

I temporarily mute my criticism, however, when I read of the toll that the Ebola virus is taking on underdeveloped health and medical systems in Liberia and other countries. The disease, though horrible, can be contained with proper public health measures. Unfortunately, the countries do not have a Centers for Disease Control as exists in the United States to monitor and cut the spread of Ebola.

We have every right to debate and examine our government programs. If we wish to continue the many good things our government does provide for us, however, we must pay for them with our taxes.

 

Where Is Our Man or Woman in Dublin? Or Lima? Or Cairo? Or . . .

 The Irish wonder if they are no longer important to the United States. The U.S. has neglected to send them an ambassador for over a year and a half. Our Central American neighbor Costa Rica frets over the length of time for a U.S. ambassador to take up residence. The media in Jamaica, Russia, Egypt, and Romania wonder why noncontroversial career ambassadors take so long to be confirmed by the Senate.

Brian A. Nichols, appointed as ambassador to Peru after waiting 360 days for confirmation, mentions the toll it took on U.S. foreign relations with that country, as well as on his family. He says he is honored and humbled to finally serve his country. Why must those who want to serve wait so long? What if our military appointments were delayed in this fashion?

News reports focus on why we can’t pay our bills without a political donnybrook. Other casualties result from our stalled systems. It appears we can’t be bothered to fully staff our embassies, despite the multiplying world crises.

The cover of the September/October 2014 issue of Foreign Affairs, depicts how some observers view our current domestic problems:”See America, Land of Decay & Dysfunction.” Articles include: “Dysfunction Junction,” America in Decay,” and “Pitchfork Politics.”

Agree or disagree, the ideas are food for thought when our country has difficulty even appointing an ambassador to represent our interests.

 

Where the Spoils System Is Alive and Well

 

Years ago the comic strip Doonesbury ran a segment lampooning the political appointment of U.S. ambassadors. In the storyline, government officials of an unnamed country strive to maintain secret connections with a lower level American diplomat. They seek to bypass the appointed ambassador, a know-nothing doofus named because he gave money to a political campaign.

One might expect corrupt dictatorships to send politically connected hacks to serve as ambassadors. But do we want to imitate them?

Map of NATO countriesHow about our democratic allies? What kind of people do these countries appoint as ambassadors TO the United States? According to a recent study of ambassadors from NATO countries (May 2014 issue of The Foreign Service Journal), not a single one serving at the time was politically appointed.

Peter Bridges, a retired career ambassador, wrote in a recent article on the Internet: “In all of our republic’s history, only one career Foreign Service officer has ever been our ambassador to the United Kingdom—our most important ally. . . . In contrast, the British almost invariably send one of their most experienced career diplomats to Washington.”

On average, around one third of U.S. ambassadors are appointed for political reasons, usually because they give money to political campaigns. Democratic and Republican presidents are equally guilty in the appointment of favorites instead of career Foreign Service officers who’ve spent years serving in countries all over the world and learning how to deal with foreign governments.

We don’t appoint generals because they give money to a political party. Even in corporations, where money matters a great deal, managers usually are chosen for their skills. Why should it be different for ambassadors?

Of course, political ambassadors are generally not appointed to dangerous countries like Libya, where career ambassador Chris Stevens was murdered by terrorists.

Why Democracy?

 

“I believe in political equality. But there are two opposite reasons for being a democrat. You may think all men so good that they deserve a share in the government of the commonwealth, and so wise that the commonwealth needs their advice. That is, in my opinion, the false, romantic doctrine of democracy. On the other hand, you may believe fallen men to be so wicked that not one of them can be trusted with any irresponsible power over his fellows.”

—C.S. Lewis, Present Concerns

Democracy quoteWealth, a form of power, triumphs over the common good unless laws prevent it. The wealthy are no more evil than the rest of us, but wealth tempts any of us who have it, as all power does.

When every citizen can vote, one group’s desire to dominate can be checked by those not in the group. Democratic forms of government tend to restrain our selfish tendency to grab power for ourselves alone.

“When bad men combine, the good must associate; else they will fall one by one, an unpitied sacrifice in a contemptible struggle.”

–Edmund Burke

(This may be the basis for the oft-quoted phrase whose speaker is unknown:

“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.”)

Five Questions About Money and Politics

 

Money1) How much more influence does a citizen gain who spends a great deal of money on a candidate compared with an average citizen who merely casts a ballot? Can votes be “bought” in the sense of understood favors toward certain policies if one accepts money for a campaign?

2) How much does advertising, which must be paid for with money, influence us? How do we make up our minds to vote for a candidate? Are today’s political ads from both parties kin to Hitler’s “big lie”?  Before World War II, he repeated over and over the falsehood that Jews were responsible for Germany’s economic problems. How about Lenin who said: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth”?

3) What is our proper attitude toward money? Wealthy individuals fund charities and non-profits as well as political campaigns.

4) Has money become the new world government? Does a wealthy tycoon in Russia have more in common with a wealthy tycoon in Switzerland or the United States or Nigeria than with his or her own citizens?

vote clip art5) Has money trumped political parties? Do wealthy individuals have more power to win elections than Democrats or Republicans or other political parties?

Five Questions About Money and Politics

 

Money1) How much more influence does a citizen gain who spends a great deal of money on a candidate compared with an average citizen who merely casts a ballot? Can votes be “bought” in the sense of understood favors toward certain policies if one accepts money for a campaign?

2) How much does advertising, which must be paid for with money, influence us? How do we make up our minds to vote for a candidate? Are today’s political ads from both parties kin to Hitler’s “big lie”?  Before World War II, he repeated over and over the falsehood that Jews were responsible for Germany’s economic problems. How about Lenin who said: “A lie told often enough becomes the truth”?

3) What is our proper attitude toward money? Wealthy individuals fund charities and non-profits as well as political campaigns.

4) Has money become the new world government? Does a wealthy tycoon in Russia have more in common with a wealthy tycoon in Switzerland or the United States or Nigeria than with his or her own citizens?

vote clip art5) Has money trumped political parties? Do wealthy individuals have more power to win elections than Democrats or Republicans or other political parties?

Minimum Wage at Ten Dollars Plus Per Hour? Fifteen Dollars?

 

SeaTac, Washington, the town surrounding Seattle/Tacoma’s main airport, recently passed legislation increasing the minimum wage to fifteen dollars an hour. (The state of Washington already has the highest minimum wage in the country at $9.32.) Politicians, economists, and entrepreneurs are scrutinizing the results. What will the increase do to the economy, to workers, to businesses?

Some rally around the measure, saying that even low income jobs should pay a living wage. Some want a higher minimum wage, but not that high. President Obama has called for $10.10 per hour. Some want a gradual wage increase, some all at once, as in SeaTac.

Some suggest that a higher wage, mostly falling into the hands of the less well-off, will boost our economy. Since this population normally is able to spend only for essentials, they will spend almost all of it.

Others say businesses, especially small ones, won’t be able to absorb the costs and will go bankrupt, causing job losses. (Many proposals exclude small businesses, although critics say if some companies offer higher wages, all must do the same to retain workers.)

Others argue that the government pays other costs for inadequate wages. These include medical expenses or subsidized health insurance (low-wage workers often cannot afford health insurance without government aid), food stamps (most low wage workers aren’t single teenagers; many have families to support), and other benefits. These government expenses would be less, the argument goes, if the workers were paid more and had benefits. Some suggest, in fact, that taxpayers subsidize businesses that do not provide adequate salary or benefits.

Washington state, with the aforementioned highest minimum wage in the nation, had an unemployment rate of 6.6 as of January 28, 2014, about the same as the nation. Some states are lower, some higher. Some with lower rates are benefitting from labor scarcity caused by the resource boom in states like North Dakota. Minimum wage appears to influence but is not the sole factor in unemployment or employment.

Part of the problem is what is tagged the “hollowing out” of the middle class, because mid level jobs are more and more being performed by computers. If our job structure is permanently changing, perhaps we should ask ourselves first: what is fair? We are speaking of workers, not the jobless. What is the minimum wage supposed to cover? If middle paying jobs are decreasing, what is fair for low wage workers who increasingly come from the former middle class?