A Canadian's Take on our Midterm Elections

I lamented the outcome of the midterm elections in a November 9 Post entitled "We Failed Our Midterm."

I am not alone in this assessment evidently.  A Canadian's letter to the American People published (Christian Science Monitor) on November the 10th reads:

You Americans Have No Idea Just How Good You Have It With Obama

 

Many of us Canadians are confused by the U.S. midterm elections. Consider, right now in America, corporate profits are at record highs, the country's adding 200,000 jobs per month, unemployment is below 6%, U.S. gross national product growth is the best of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. The dollar is at its strongest levels in years, the stock market is near record highs, gasoline prices are falling, there's no inflation, interest rates are the lowest in 30 years, U.S. oil imports are declining, U.S. oil production is rapidly increasing, the deficit is rapidly declining, and the wealthy are still making astonishing amounts of money.

America is leading the world once again and respected internationally — in sharp contrast to the Bush years. 

Obama brought soldiers home from Iraq and killed Osama bin Laden.

So, Americans vote for the party that got you into the mess that Obama just dug you out of? This defies reason.

When you are done with Obama, could you send him our way?

Richard Brunt

Victoria, British Columbia

Well said, Richard!

Dismiss School Early for Football?

In Texas we enter weeks of playoff games now that the regular high school football season has ended.  And since 4 teams advance to the playoffs from each district this year, that means over 60% of the teams will be in a playoff game.  Amazing.  Very little pride left in advancing to the playoffs when a majority of the teams will do so.  But, that is beside the point.  The main question is should schools dismiss early on the day of the playoff game?  My response is a resounding “No.”  Why?  What am I, anti-football?  Again I say “No.”  My rationale goes like this.

There are 1600 kids in the small district where I live.  Of those, about 50 are on the football team, about 100 are in the band, about 12 are cheerleaders, and about 16 are on the dance team.  That is about 180 kids.  Let’s call it 200 kids to round up the possible numbers.  If 200 kids are directly involved in the game via one of these extra-curricular organizations, then 1400 kids are not, or 12.5% participate and 87.5% do not.  To dismiss school early for 12 or 13% of the kids does not make sense.  We do not close schools for the flu until we hit 20% absenteeism. 

Worse, all the kids we are talking about are high school kids.  Elementary and junior high kids still require adult supervision after school.  To send 87% of our kids home in the middle of the afternoon will require parents to either alter their work schedules or procure child care with very little notice.  Not only is this a safety issue and convenience issue, it is not a good PR move.

Even worse, the playoff game will be held a mere hour and 45 minutes away.  The game starts at 7:30.  If school were dismissed the normal time at 3:30 and parents headed for the game as late as 5:30 they would easily see the kick off.  Travel time is not the issue.

Number of buses could be the issue.  If we run regular bus routes at 3:30 the buses will not return until about 4:30.  If the band, for instance waited to leave until 4:30 they would still arrive at the game an hour early.  So, number of buses is really not the issue.

Let’s say a parent really wants to leave at 3:00 to make the hour and 45 minute to arrive at the game early.  Any parent can show up at school and check their kid out at any time.

Most important to me is the relative importance of instruction.  If we cancel close to a half day of school because a football team has an away game, the message we send is a high school football game means more to us than a full afternoon of instruction for grades PreK to 12.  My priorities are different.  I felt it was my job as superintendent to protect instructional time, not reduce it for extra-curricular events.  Especially when there are no good reasons to dismiss so early.

Well, coaches and band directors would love to leave early.  And on that basis we have the decision to dismiss school in the early afternoon. 

We are judged by all that we do.  Our behaviors indicate our priorities.  At no time during my tenure as superintendent did we dismiss school early for a football game and every time during my tenure that we made the playoffs everyone who wanted to be at the game was at the game.  More importantly, instruction continued.

If our football team made the state finals and the game was in Austin in the middle of the afternoon I would dismiss school as part of the celebration for such a rare event.  That has not been a decision I have had to face.

As 60% of the schools in Texas are advancing to the playoffs it is my hope that most of them value instruction more than adult convenience and promotion of extra-curricular activities.  On the other hand, I made those decisions and the Board wanted a different set of priorities.  Looks like they are getting what they want.  I find that beyond unprofessional.  It is just sad.

We Failed Our Midterm

I endorsed Wendy Davis and Leticia Van de Putte for Texas Governor and Lieutenant Governor.  They were soundly defeated at the polls.  Republicans nation-wide had a grand sweep increasing their majority in the House and gaining a majority in the Senate.  As I made an endorsement in the Texas race it seems only appropriate that I eat a little crow and review what I think happened.  Not that either matters much.  National pundits have hashed and re-hashed the outcomes and I suspect no one cares too much if my endorsements failed to get elected.  And yet, I am moved to throw my two cents into the national dialogue.

Prevailing theories regarding the Republican sweep include a back lash to Obama and frustration with the lack of action in Washington.  And many point out that for many years the midterm election in the second term of a sitting President has always been most favorable for the party not sitting in the White House.  Others point out that since the Supreme Court ruling in Citizens United wealthy individuals and corporations have no limit on the amount of money that can be spent on elections, and the Republicans dramatically outspent Democrats.  OK, so this may be a historical trend.  This may be less about supporting Republican candidates and more of an anti-Obama vote.  This may have been a case of voters believing what they heard in TV ads.  Regardless, Republicans won and only those folks who showed up and voted Republican really know why they chose to do so.

If Republicans won because of a long-standing trend that dictates they should have won in the midterm elections of the second term of a sitting Democrat President, then there are deterministic forces at work here that fall beyond analysis.  If this is an automatic trend regardless of party, then there is nothing any of us can say or do about it.  It has happened, it did happen and it will continue to happen regardless of issues, candidates and party affiliation.  If so, we could save a ton of money and simply install candidates of the other party in office and not even have an election.  I reject this argument prima facie.  This year’s results may be consistent with previous trends, but some Democrats did win.  If we are to have a democracy we must have elections.

The campaign contribution issue deserves a further look.  I have read the philosophical beliefs of some of the major corporate and individual contributors and am frankly horrified.  If we are to have a nation that exists solely for the purpose of ensuring the continued growth of wealth for the top 1% at the expense of all others, then we no longer have a democracy anyway.  We have a capitalist oligarchy and/or a plutocracy. 

Obama bashing has been a trend since January 2009.  I lay the blame on Obama for having the worst PR efforts of any President.  In fact, Obama has had so much success as President that I believe he will be considered one of the greats when the smoke clears and historians review his tenure in this office.  Am I out of my mind?  Fox news would have you think so, as would every Republican candidate this week.  So, just a few quick fact checks – many of which I bet you did not know: 

• When Obama took the oath of office in January 2009 our national debt was roughly $12 trillion dollars.  Bush inherited a surplus and sent us into debt.  Today the national debt is $17 trillion dollars.  Obama has yet to contribute to the national debt anywhere near what Bush did, even though he continues to take the heat for the entire debt.

• In 2009 the Dow was 7,949.  Today it is over 17,000.

• In 2009 the S&P 500 was 805.  Today it is just under 2,000.

• In 2009 the GDP annual growth rate was Minus 5.3%.  Today it is Plus 4.2%.

• In 2009 our unemployment rate was 7.8%.  Today it is below 6%.

• In 2009 our national debt represented 9.8% of our GDP.  Today it is 2.9%.

• In 2009 consumer confidence was at 37.7%.  Today it is 92.4%.

• In 2009 we were involved in two land wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Today we have dramatically withdrawn from both arenas.

• In 2009 16% of Americans were without health insurance.  Today less than 13% are without health insurance and that number continues to drop.

Clearly we are much better off since Obama took office.  The fact that few know that is due to a lack of coverage and PR on behalf of Obama.  Since Republicans gained control of the House in 2011 major policy proposals initiated by the President and passed by the Senate died in the House.  At the same time the House leadership continued to blame Obama for not getting anything done.  I am still baffled that a group of Congressmen were elected to dramatically curtail the government and oppose Obama on every issue.  They did so, and then blame Obama for not getting anything done. 

And now we have given this mind set control of the Senate. 

Appears to me the American people loss the midterms.  Or, did we really?

We love to say the people have spoken.  I do not believe that is true of the 2014 midterm elections.  Nationally, only 40% of registered voters even voted.  So less than a majority of us actually voted.  That means that a mere 20% or more of the registered voters made these decisions and elected these people.  That is not majority rule.  I find it very hard to either celebrate or lament a victory where 2 out of ten claim a majority decision.  That is rule by those who bothered to vote, and they are a minority.

It is worse in Texas.  Texas had the lowest voter turnout of any state in the union at 28%.  That means 14% of registered voters or more decided our elections.  Perhaps it becomes clearer why Republicans strongly support laws that make voting more difficult.  The fewer people who vote the more likely a Republican victory.

So yes, the Republicans swept the midterm elections.  They did so by many healthy margins.  But those margins were votes cast by a minority of the people who are registered to vote.  Until we believe we have a democracy, that the people should rule, and that every vote counts we are likely to continue to see this trend.  Australia has no such problem where citizens are required to register to vote and then required to vote.  One wonders what the outcomes would have been if all Americans registered to vote actually did so.  I bet the outcomes would be very different.

So, we failed our midterm.  A majority of us failed the midterm because we did not show up for the test.   

Welcome to our new governmental realities determined by small minorities of people throughout our so called democracy.  We have been here before, and we still do not learn.  I wish us all well.