July 15, 2012

Chris Hayes: The basic reality of American politics

The “black vote” isn’t overwhelmingly Democratic because they are biased. It’s not blacks who are the problem in this equation, it’s the Republican Party that is the problem. There was a time when blacks did vote Republican in large numbers, but that was before the civil rights movement that was embraced by the Democratic Party, the party that had been the party of many southern white racists. This is the reason the south shifted from blue to red. The south used to be where Democrats could expect to win votes but now the south is where Republicans are in control, and the reason is the civil rights movement. White racists left the Democratic Party and they joined the Republican Party which apparently welcomed them with open arms.

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July 15, 2012

Voter Suppression and the Voting Rights Act: It’s not the intent that matters, it’s the effect

As always, another great point made by Chris Hayes. On today’s Up with Chris Hayes the topic of voter suppression was at the top of the show. Texas is defending it’s undemocratic photo ID law and they want to be free from the restrictions of the 1965 voting rights act. Hayes tells us that the purpose of the voting rights act was not to police intent, but rather the effects. So if a state passes a restrictive new law that requires photo ID in order to vote, the test of whether that is allowed under the voting rights act is not the intent. We don’t need to know why the Republican legislators in Texas passed their restrictive law in order to judge it’s lawfulness. We don’t need to know if they are racists (which some most certainly are), and we don’t need to know if the reason Republicans passed these laws was to make the process of voting a more difficult task for minorities who are more likely to vote Democratic. Like Hayes said, “nobody has to do any mind-reading,” in order to enforce the voting rights act.

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June 24, 2012

The Naiveté Of Advocating A Free Market Health Care System

In case you didn’t notice, the current health care system in the United States is already a free market system. There are winners and losers. There are some people who can afford to participate and others who get left behind. This is how any market works, and this is how our current health care system (which isn’t really a system at all) is working, or should I say, is not working.

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June 16, 2012

The State Of Capitalism: Chris Hayes – “The Difference Between Cheating And Performance”

Today Chris Hayes made a great point about the difference between cheating and performance, or that there isn’t really a difference at all, at least not anymore. The problem is that we assume people who have made a lot of money did the right things in life to earn that money, but we know that isn’t always the case. We know there are people who get into positions where they are able to rig the system. We know there are people who once they taste success are not satisfied and then begin to cheat their way to the top. At this moment, a serious problem in our society is that we look up to people who have earned a lot of money. We want to emulate them because we believe they have done well in life because they made all the right and morally correct decisions. This is very dangerous if enough people buy into it. It’s what allows the 2008 financial disaster to go on 4 years without anyone being held accountable.

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