I wonder if my 50 or so daily readers can guess my political affiliation. I don’t think it’s surprising, but what the hell do I know? Anyway, here are some interesting pieces that have caught my eye the past few days.
One of the many (many, many, many, many) things that bothered me about celebrities’ taking to the streets to encourage young people to go to the polls was that they missed the issue. Of course I’d like every eligible voter to take part in the democratic process, but I’d rather have a smaller number of voters who have done their homework than a massive turnout by the ill-informed. Bob Herbert points out that “nearly 70 percent of President Bush’s supporters believe the U.S. has come up with ‘clear evidence’ that Saddam Hussein was working closely with Al Qaeda.” Yikes! How about opening a newspaper because voting in ignorance can undermine the goals of a free society.
Yasir Arafat won the Nobel Peace Prize less than a decade ago. Now Thomas Friedman thinks that he’ll be remembered as the man who padded his pockets while standing in the way of a Palestinian state.
Do tax cuts stimulate growth? History seems to bear this out. Do tax cuts curb spending? Au contraire. It seems as if federal spending rises whenever taxes are lowered. That is not a good formula for a healthy economy in the long term.
Much has been made of Karl Rove’s “brilliant” plan to put the “morality” behind sexual preference to a vote. Even my buddy, Doug, suggests this. Although I agree with much of what he wrote in his blog entry, I don’t think that “the gay issue” tipped the election in Bush’s favor. The statistics (and Paul Freedman) seem to agree with me.