Politics

Four months – 126 days – from now, Tuesday, November 3, is Election Day.

My “bio” is at right on this page. The bio fits who I am, personally, politically.

Each and every one of us who are eligible to vote in this country are “politics”. Period. There is nobody, nothing, else. WE ARE ALL ‘POLITICS’, whatever we think – or don’t – about it.

For those of you who are Minnesotans,here is the key portal. Everything you need to know about the 2020 elections is found there. Every state, and most local candidates and parties have their own websites. Find out who they are for your area, and get engaged.

Here are details about the Republican National Convention.

Here are details about the Democratic National Convention.

An old saying is “the devil is in the details”. In my opinion, the “details” are each and every one of us; what we do…or don’t…is the ultimate key.

Learn the candidates and the issues where you live. Every single election on your Nov. 3 ballot is equally important.

Show up.

As always, I solicit comments. Check back here once in awhile, and watch for more posts as the political season gets hotter.

POSTNOTE: A definition that comes to mind that I heard in person in June, 1960: Politics 1960 vs 1996001 (click to enlarge) (last para in col. 1): “… in reality [politics] is the lifeblood of American government. When they tell me that politics is a dirty business I tell them, why don’t you get into politics then and clean it up.” NY Gov. Nelson Rockefeller, speaking in a Valley City ND city park, June 3, 1960.

July 2: This mornings Just Above Sunset: Not This Time; Pew Research analyses the 2016 presidential election.

COMMENTS;

from Steve, a member of the MN state legislature: I remember reading your letter [to my legislators in May, 2020] and I believe I responded [he did]. I’ve referred to your thoughts several times in conversations with both friends and other legislators. Those of us–our circumstances are very similar–who recognize the costs of services and the inability of some to pay a full share, are in an unpopular minority. Our voices aren’t very loud. Three or four years ago, I read Thomas Piketty’s “Capital” and Joseph Stiglitz’s book on inequality. Both said that it’s the tax structure that has created and maintained the inequality in our society, and they were both pessimistic that it would change. Political decisions, they said, are in the hands of the very wealthy and they will control legislation affecting the structure of wealth in this country.

With the help of our research staff at the House, I authored an education finance bill based on Piketty and Stiglitz ideas. I may have told you about it. The idea is to remove the burden of k-12 finance from regressive taxes–property, income and sales–and move it to a progressive system of capital gain, estate and commercial/industrial property. I won’t go into details here–I’m happy to discuss it if you’re interested. It would have reduced homestead property tax across the state by 20%, increased tax on capital gains ABOVE $500,000 to11%, protected farmers andsmall business, and increased estate tax reasonably.

Dicks response: Thank you very much, Steve. It is an immensely difficult task to represent those who have less, largely I think, because they can be so easily convinced, through media largely, that other more seemingly powerful people have more expertise, etc., and will take care for their needs. This is, unfortunately, not true. Greed rules. The already rich wish to remain first in line for the handouts, and they are immensely successful at this con (my opinion). This has happened again within the trillions of dollars stimulus passed by Congress and signed by the President. The least needy are first in line, and the massive dollars they receive least supervised by the granting institution – our government. I keep thinking back to the disastrous days of 2007-08…. We recently saw one of the movies about part of those years. It’s “The Big Short”, and well worth your time. There’s another documentary about the money disaster: Wells Fargo, Dirty Money. There’s a boatload of reviews.

In my opinion, this is not to the ultimate advantage of the rich and the corporate interests they represent, however. As I pointed out to a good friend, a retired corporate vice-president, capitalism depends on ordinary people spending money on goods that they want. It makes more sense to provide a system that rewards people with money that they can spend on goods manufactured by companies who wish to profit.

Of course, this makes too much sense and will likely never happen.

The 99% are far superior in their potential power to elect more enlightened legislators…if only they would come to this conclusion and prove their point. If they don’t, we’re all in deep trouble.

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