Brendan Contribution 1

Sigh. Ive just got to throw in a few perspectives to this mix. I will try to make them brief. As an aside, Ive removed Mr. Shires from this list as per his request.

I mostly agree with Seth and Rachel. I disagree with Seth that our political culture "chooses" a two party system - there is actually a pretty solid body of literature in political science that points out that our system is one in which the winner takes all - called First Past the Post, as in a race of some kind - wherein instead of divvying up seats in congress (or parliament, or a state legislature, etc) based off a percentage of votes won by each party in a given election, the winning party grabs all the seats. Take the electoral college in the states as an example of this.

This kind of institutional system makes it strategically optimal for parties to align themselves with those that have similar views in broad coalitions, ultimately forming two large parties, since you need the biggest coalition you can get to capture the more than 50% of the vote necessary to win an election here in the States. So that is why we have a two party system, one that in fact coalesces conservative and liberal factions in both Democratic and Republican camps into two large parties. In fact the US has more like 4 political cultures, conservative Christian, libertarian, socially progressive Keynsians, and all out socialists. That is a VERY rough approximation, but you get the idea. Long story short, our institutions make our two party system, or make it a heavily favorable strategy for political candidates.

Which brings us back to Nader and other 3rd party animals (hah, Im joking!). The thing that turns me off to Nader isnt really his policies (which I dont know all that much about but truthfully havent been too impressed with what Ive heard) but the fact that he seems so strategically defunct. If he really cared about leveraging the kind of change he wants, he'd play by the rules of the system and fight for his change from the inside out. He's never going to be president not because of propaganda, or because all the American voters are little sheep being manipulated by evil corporations or military states -- no -- its because he doesnt play the game of politics.

Im not too inclined to vote for someone whose strategy to change things is take potshots to the system from the outside. What is he going to do if we are attacked again by terrorists? I just dont trust him to make good strategic moves since he cant even seem to get it together with the American political system. If he were more serious he'd join the Democrats, and compete for American votes just like the rest of our politicians do, and work to convince the majority of Americans that he's right. From inside the system, not outside.

Obama has done this, and I think Obama is actually able to to talk to some extent to ALL those political cultures I mentioned earlier -- he "sees purple"-- and this is why I think he's the shizzle. Yes We Can.

As for the bailout, I personally am totally in favor of it. There's a totally true joke which is, What do you do if you want 4 opinions? Ask 2 economists. Haha, that is totally true, and Seth alluded to this in his email. The whole thing is enormoulsy complex, but what I do know is that Wall St and Main St are inextricably linked -- foreclosures on Main St are where this whole problem on Wall St got started, even though Wall St was just as undisciplined as Main St -- and if we dont get this bad debt out of the economy, confidence in the market collapses, which means that people dont lend money, which eventually means that its very difficult for you to finance your education, or home mortgage, or car, or small business, or have access to credit. Furthermore, over time the RETURN on this bailout money could be used to pay down the national debt or, say, shore up Social Security. So yeah, lets hope the Senate, and subsequently the House, passes this Emergency Economic Stabilization Bill 2.0 by the end of this week so financial markets can be liquid again and things can get moving before we all have reach under our mattress and hope to find something there.

OKAY - well, Ive totally and completely failed to be brief. Wow, I didnt know I could be so long winded. Chances are you didnt either - sorry about that. Id love to get feedback on anything Ive said, and I like the whole town hall thing we've got going with this email. Again, sorry for the long-windedness, and thanks for reading.