Category: Political Science & Economics

I Can Feel the Tension in the Air

Category : Political Science & Economics
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I got back to the US on Sunday after living in Chile for the past six months and one of the first things I noticed was the tension in the air.  People seem on edge, ready to jump at the smallest things.  People are scared.  We’re living in an era of extreme change, taking place at an unprecedented pace.  Most Americans have not experienced hard times.  Yes, there have been recessions, but nothing that compares to the confluence of events that has caused our current predicament.  We’re in the biggest era of change since the industrial revolution.  The recession started almost three years ago, but the mood of the country seems to have soured noticeably in the past six months.

I can see it on Facebook and Twitter in the status updates of my friends and network.  I can see it in the moods of my friends without jobs or stuck in dead en jobs.  I can see it in the blogosphere, cable news, the looks on people’s faces walking around town and how people are treating each other.  I saw it in the airport security line in NYC as the TSA employees and passengers struggled to interact civally.  I saw it on my flight to Milwaukee when two women got in a fight over a reclining seat.  It’s especially evident in Wisconsin with the current administration and counter protesters.  The anger, tension and fear is there.

Beyond the recession, our political climate is toxic and people feel powerless to make their lives better.  It used to be that if you worked hard, got a good education, you’d get a good job and be able to support yourself and live well.  Both the left and the right are getting more extreme and the center is increasinly empty, silent or powerless.  The reasonable center is afraid to speak up, or believes they can’t do anything.  In order to be heard, the reasobable center is moving to the margins and becoming more extreme, or just checking out entirely.

Our politicians are not willing to do what is actually best for the country, they are simply trying to win political points and get reelected.  There are hundreds of policies that both sides could likely agree on, but will never get voted on because they do not win political points.  Both sides are cultivating the us vs. them narrative and becoming more extreme.  Reasonable political discussions are almost impossible.  You risk getting your head bitten off.

Democrats are playing the class card, but doing it poorly.  There’s a difference between a rich small business owner or entrepreneur and the finance guys who are just moving money around.  Republicans are attempting to cut social programs, while keeping taxes low for the rich and demonizing the people who are not finding success in this economy.  Many on the right are anti intellectual, under the guise of anti elitism.

Well intentioned guys like President Obama and Representative Paul Ryan have never had a private meeting, even though they are trying to fix the same problems.  Although they don’t agree, leaders should be talking.  But they don’t.  Both sides look for outlandish claims to punish new thinking.  President Obama equated Ryan’s plan with murdering old people and the Republicans have come with all sorts of nonsense to attack the President. Nothing will get done if we keep going down this path.

People have a feeling that the game is rigged, but they don’t think they can do anything about it.  Every week, there’s another scandal, but people dont seem to react.  People know they are getting fucked by the banks, their government, insurance companies and other lobbying groups, but they don’t have any idea how to fix the situation.  They feel powerless and this leads to tension, anger and the current mood of the country.

It was really jarring to come back to the US and feel the tension.  The reasonable center needs to start speaking up, challenging both sides and demanding compromise.  We need to stop dealing in half true soundbites and start actually talking.  We need to demand more from ourselves and our politicians.  We can’t keep going on this way.

I Am Unitedstatesian

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There’s one word that always creates heated debates while I’ve been in Chile.  It’s offensive to some, a joke to others and completely innocuous to the rest, but it’s sure to raise a debate if you ask.  So what’s this hotbutton word?  American.

In the US, most of us refer to our country as America and ourselves as Americans without a second thought.  Growing up, we just assumed that’s who we are.  It’s used offhand every day by millions of people.  Pretty much every Presidential address in my lifetime has begun with “my fellow Americans.”  It’s part of our culture.

Before I arrived in Chile, I already knew that some people found it offensive that people in the US have appropriated America to only refer to the United State because I had learned about it in a Latin American studies class in college, but I assumed that it was mostly overly politically correct people.  I had seen the famous Alfredo Jaar video from the 80s called This is Not America, but believed that only the far left cared about the term.  I was pretty clearly wrong.

Once I got here, I realized it was more widespread than I thought.  Everyone seems to have an opinion.  Some Chileans don’t care at all and refer to the US as America and its citizens as Americans without a second thought.  Others playfully pointed out that they too were Americans and other were actually offended.  I’d say that most were in the middle.  They’d prefer that the US didn’t call itself America, but weren’t really offended.  Some examples:

I was at an asado and a Chilean friend of mine asked a girl where she was from.  She said America.  He responded with a smile, “oh yea, me too.”  He told me he loves to do that, mostly as a joke, but partly to make the point to people from the US that they are not the only ones from America.  Another friend cringed when I said something about America to refer to the US and corrected me.  He wasn’t offended, but said it grates on his ears when someone from the US uses America that way.

The new US startup program is called Startup America, which is especially galling to some in Chile, as the program is basically a knock off of Startup Chile, but appropriates the name of the entire hemisphere.  Another friend posted the Alfredo Jaar video on her Facebook wall and got 10 likes in under 5 minutes.  24 hours later, there were over 100 likes and 15 comments.  She told me tons of her friends posted it on their own walls, creating a mini-viral campaign.  Most of the comments did not seem to have any vitriol behind them (see graphic below).

I’ve also seen many Chileans mostly playfully turn the globe “upsidedown” so that Chile is at the top.  The most southern province, Magallanes, even has their official symbol with Antarctica at the top of the map, not the bottom.  From my view there are only a small group on the far left that are truly, deeply offended by the term American, but there is definitely a large group of people who would prefer that people from the US didn’t say American to describe themselves.  It grates on them, but it’s not a huge deal to them.


I think it’s important to point out that we say “America”  completely offhand, and don’t mean any offense.  It’s just how we were raised.  For example, we were in Austin for South by Southwest and a very nice, stereotypical Texan sat next to us while we were drinking some beers, waiting for our table to be ready.  He struck up a conversation with our group that included two Chileans who were in town for the conference.  He was incredibly nice, shared beers with us and told us places to visit.  As his table was called he said “have a great time here and welcome to America.”

He, like 99.99% of other people from the States don’t mean anything by it.  We just don’t have any other word to call ourselves.    North American doesn’t work, the Canadians sure don’t want to be lumped in with us.  In Spanish you say estadounidense, but in English there just isn’t a word other than American.  I’ve pointed this out many times, and I think the best response came from one of my Chilean friends.  She said something along the lines of “you guys took the name, you gotta come up with something to replace it.”  So I’ve taken it on myself.  I guess I’m Unitedstatesian.

Some Quick Thoughts on Scott Walker vs. the Unions

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Facebook, Twitter and Wisconsin in general was set ablaze late last weekend when Wisconsin’s new Governor Scott Walker proposed a bill that would strip public employee unions of the right to collectively bargain on any issues, besides pay.  Unions would also not be allowed to automatically deduct dues from paychecks and would be required to hold secret ballot votes each year to verify that members still wanted to be in the union.  If a majority did not, the union would be disbanded.

There are four main things I don’t like about the Walker vs. Public Unions battle going on back home in Wisconsin.

First, I don’t like that Walker is just ramming this bill through without any debate.  It’s same problem I had with the Democrats in Congress the past two years.  Our political system should not be either side ramming things through whenever they have the power.  There should be debate, an attempt at compromise, then a bill, then if necessary, ram away.

Second, exempting firefighter and police unions from the bill is a clear case of quid pro quo.  These two unions are the only ones who supported Walker in his election bid against the Democrats and now are being given much better deals.  If you’re going to propose a bill like this, you have to go all in.  You can’t pick and choose based on who supported you in the last election.

Third, I have a problem with many of the responses from union members.  Some are calling Walker “Hitler” and others are basically saying, “if anything we deserve a raise because we’re underpaid.”  Calling someone Hitler because he’s cutting your pay about 15% is completely uncalled for and only makes you look like an idiot.

Union Supporter from Facebook

Fourth, I don’t like the idea that these cuts are being made across the board.  Cutting someone who is fully funded by the federal government weakens services and does not help our current budget problems.  Gov. Doyle did the same thing when he required federally funded state employees to take furlough days, now Walker is cutting state employees who are federally funded again.  It doesn’t make sense to make cuts with a machete, it should be done with a scalple.

It’s pretty clear Walker is trying to smash the public employee unions.  He could have gotten the same contractual result by bargaining to an impass and then imposing his will, but he decided to make a show of force.  Most public employees can’t strike, so Walker is sending them a clear message that he’s serious.  I think his message goes too far, but I think the unions have to realize that cuts will be made.

Our state has a 140m huge budget deficit this year and one in the billions next year.  The problem will only get bigger as most of the older workers retire on nice pensions.  Our state pensions and health insurance are sort of like the auto companies, meaning something has to be done.  I understand that nobody likes to have their salary and benefits cut, but there are only three options.  Cut employees benefits packages, cut services or raise taxes.

I think we should be looking at all options and nothing should be spared from intense scruitany.  My first cuts would be to administrators at public schools.  My old high school has 7 administrators, a full time athletic director and it’s own superintendant for one school.  I’d merge our high school district with the middle and elementry district and cut the fat and move that over to retaining teachers.  It’s insane that there’s this much fat in a school with about 1500 kids.

I don’t have time to look for more places to cut, but you get the idea.  There’s fat in most areas of state government and it will have to be cut.

My question to the people protesting:

If not your pay, what else should be cut from the state budget to close our deficit?  If nothing, should we raise taxes?

An Open Letter to Paul Ryan

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Representative Ryan,

I’m a 25 year old technology entrepreneur originally from Milwaukee, WI.  I went to school at the University of Wisconsin and have stayed in Madison after graduating in 2009 to start another web business.

I’ve followed your career with interest since I first heard about you sometime during high school.  I’ve always been impressed with your views on the economy and your willingness to propose solutions to issues that other politicians have been unwilling to take on.  This is exactly what we need from our politicians.

It was great see you take on some of the political third rails of our budget process when you released your Roadmap for America.  While I don’t agree with everything in your new budget proposal, I’m extremely happy to see you proposing real solutions to the huge problems we face as a country.

I’m writing today to tell you to keep up the good work, but I also want to implore you to not fall into the trap of veering right on the social issues and falling into the religious right.  I talk to business people all the time who would love to support you and your ideas and view you as one of the only competent politicians in the United States today, but if you start talking the talk of the religious right, you’ll lose much of this support.  Don’t get co-opted like the Tea Party did.

I’m not telling you to change what you believe in.  I believe that our fiscal problems are the single biggest threat to the United States and believe that if nothing is done, we’ll turn into a third world country, complete with huge inflation, income inequality and a huge underclass of unemployed people.

I don’t know what you believe on abortion, gay marriage, don’t ask don’t tell, drug legalization, creationism or any of the other religious right issues and honestly I don’t care.  Just focus on the economic issues and you’ll likely have my support, along with a huge amount of business people who want to support you.

Simply saying, “I don’t support abortion and gay marriage, but the biggest problem facing the United States is our budget deficit, national debt and the economy.  I want to fix these huge problems first before we talk about these other important issues,” will give you huge credibility and I think it’s what the country needs.  While I will disagree with you on most of those issues, I’m willing to overlook it if you don’t veer extremely right and make it a focal point of your platform.  Please don’t fall into the trap John McCain fell into in the last presidential election.

Please continue to focus on economic issues and continue to represent Wisconsin well, especially tonight when you give the response to President Obama.