What Lessons Learned?

What discoveries has the turn of the 21st century revealed to us?  After 2008 or nine months in 2013?  What have we learned since October first?  And from whom have we chosen to learn?

Keep in mind, for a mind to engage in learning, it must be open as wide as possible to all that is possible, and, listen.

Now with the vast starry universe full of mysterious miracles above us, Mother Earth and all that lives upon it at our feet, and a whispering world swirling all around us, what lessons have we won to hold close, forever?

Have we learned that those who curse government to a size enabling it to be drowned in a bathtub, are not seat of learning for Government of, by and for the people?

Yet, a few Points of Right have taught us that the power of We the People to rise up and say, ‘Enough with the Nonsense, Grow up and do your job:  Honor our Troops with paychecks, Fund Head Start and open the Zoo,’ are more powerful than any tea party throwing America overboard from their Ship of Denial, sailing down river, navigating on a misguided Ted Cruz.

Have we learned enough from The Slings and Arrows of Outrageous Fortune that accompanies voting against, first America’s, then second, your best interest?  Do you now get the necessary connection between Americans and the rest of the world, as much psychological trust as financial, and more personal relationships than military empire?

Surely we’ve learned that Newark is no more surrounded by a river of dead bodies, than Brewer’s Arizona dessert is of severed heads.  However, if tag team Lonegan & Palin paint Jersey Senate race racial, defeating anti-gun violence Mayor Booker, what have we learned?

Did we learn expired Farm Bill was for all who eat, not just farmers;  Redskins — as have the demented medical terms once used to label patients with mental disorders — like all racial slurs, once historically accepted, have in overtime proven, it’s time for a Time Out.

Perhaps we’ve learned that saving the world from Chemical weapons and, Educating Everyone, are the brother and sister of World Peace.

Not win or lose, but elected officials can’t play games.  When 75% of We The People speak our open-mindedness, the rights of the 25% to speak theirs is protected, but not allowed to devastate the reasons America is the single most trusted economic shot heard round the world, as long as U. S. Savings Bonds and U. S. Treasury Bonds remain the sweetest and safest deal, providing global peace of mind.

Now for graduates:  the family budget of 99% of Americans has almost nothing in common with how the budget of U. S Government works (using deficit for forty-five years out of the last half century); or as Presidents Kennedy and Reagan might have put it, deficit and expenditures are like Left and Right brain – both needed to work together for our success, but both (deficit and expenditure) not meant to control one another, and both (Left & Right) not meant to be a divided brain against itself.

The best lesson of all?  Learning the value of all those who protect children of all ages, with education.

We’re learning all the time, whether in classrooms, family rooms, street corners or Congressional back rooms.  The lessons that change a mind, a life, a world are everywhere.  To learn best about government, Wall Street or America, don’t ask a politician, ask life’s first responders:  teachers, social workers, single parents, civil servants, receptionists, firemen, police….

Thus ends the lesson, but the greatest of these:  listen to life saving teachers and avoid Tea stained cliffs.

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How We Can Hear Opportunity Knocking in These GOP Poll Numbers

Everybody knows: the polls show a huge drop in the poll numbers for Republicans.  What that means is that millions of people are in the process of changing their image of the Republican Party. For the worse. Maybe much worse.

But people have short memories. The image of the Republicans recklessly taking hostages over the shutdown and the threat of default will soon begin to recede.  When the ugliness that this episode has revealed recedes from view, these millions of people whose views of the GOP are in flux will likely shift back in the direction of their old views, as when the GOP polled better.

Unless the Democrats strike while the iron is hot. That means taking every opportunity to highlight what will doubtless be other Republican conduct in the future that confirms what these millions are now coming to see.

Almost two-thirds of Americans now see the Republicans as promoting their own agenda at the expense of the public good.  They’ve been doing this for years, and they’re not about to stop.

The job for the Democrats now is to call them out on their power-hungry disregard of the nation’s welfare every time it’s on display.  That will reinforce what so many Americans are now more receptive to seeing.

People have seen that the Republicans do not speak the truth. Democrats should call them on their lies, every time.  They see that the Republicans run roughshod over the norms of our democracy.  Call them out.  They see that the Republicans are unhinged from reality (default would be no big deal). Keep the focus on how dangerous it would be to let such unhinged people steer our nation.

Today’s Republican Party is fully as bad as these recent weeks have shown them to be.  This crisis has opened the door to solidifying that realization in the minds of millions of Americans.

Nothing could be more important for us Americans at this point in our history.

The destructive force that’s taken over the Republican Party in our times has done enormous damage already to this nation, and threatens to do much more.  The way to make America safe is to take away from this force the power to wreak that damage.  As we still have a democracy, that power rests on the support of the American people.  Take away that support, and you drain away that power.

That’s the big picture of why this is Job One.

More immediately, if the Obama presidency is to be able to accomplish much of anything in the time that’s left, it will be necessary to take control of the House away from the GOP.  The 2014 elections are the battle that will determine whether President Obama is able to move the country forward, or just stand as a barrier to the worst efforts of the Republican Wrecking Crew.

We who see the Republican Party for the monstrosity it has become have a job to do. We should exhort our Democratic leaders to strike while the iron is hot.  We should make sure that these upcoming elections in Virginia give the Democrats a stunning victory, underscoring the public’s rejection of Republican extremism.  We should organize to elevate powerful messages and the people who can deliver them.

The metaphor of striking while the iron is hot captures an important reality about how the world works.  There are times when things are solidified, and change is very difficult to accomplish-that’s when the iron is cold.  And there are times when things are hot and therefore molten and malleable, ready to be shaped by the man with the hammer and the anvil and the skill to bend the metal into the shape he wants.

The immediate crisis has made the iron hot.  When this crisis is over, it will be time not to back off but to keep striking.

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Andy Schmookler, recently the Democratic nominee for Congress from Virginia’s 6th District, is an award-winning author, political commentator, radio talk-show host, and teacher.  His books include The Parable of the Tribes:  The Problem of Power in Social Evolution.   His website is at www.NoneSoBlind.org .

( – promoted by lowkell)

When listening to political debates, rarely does the moderator ask a question that makes me sit back and think: “nicely phrased … wouldn’t have thought to ask this … interested to hear the answer …”  Chuck Todd’s opening question at the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce debate about advertising fostered that reaction.

As posed to our next governor, Terry McAuliffe

Nearly $20 million’s been spent on TV ads in this race. 75% of ’em, we did the calculation, have been negative. This is both of you. I want each of you to respond to the stereotype you’ve been tryin’ to create– about the other. Mr. McAuliffe, the stereotype of you is that you’re an operator, cheerleader more than a legislator or governor. That you don’t have the relevant experience to be governor. And that you’re a man in a hurry, who’s willing to use political connections, sometimes in very high places, to take shortcuts. Your response?

This question provided Terry a chance to hit a homer out of the park, make news, undercut Cuccinelli, and add — in my opinion, with just this one question response and the reporting that might have followed from it — points to the lead.  

See after the fold for a concept for a(n overly long) truthful response to the question that might have achieved this result.

Responding to messages:

Thank you, Todd, for this question and the chance to respond to the serial character assassination efforts that, in fact, represent not just a misrepresentation of me but a disservice to Virginians.

I created my first business when I was 14 years old.  Rather than a youth who wanted to earn some money on his own, to save money for college and have money to take a girl on a date, if we listened to the abusive attack ads, evidently I must have been an incredibly politically connected teenager to be able to create my successful business.  And, listening to those ads, perhaps it is a bad thing for teenagers and Americans to be entrepreneurial.

Now, in creating that business, of course I first approached neighbors that I knew.  Don’t all successful business people leverage the relationships that they have built, with people who have confidence in them because of the quality that they have already delivered to them.

In my political life and in my business life, of course I have been willing to pick up the phone and call people I know, to work with them, to get their advice, to have them help me figure out best paths to success.  

And, looking over my career, it is self-evident that there are Republicans, Democrats, and Independents in my ‘rolodex’.  

Somehow, if you listen to the attack ads, having built up good will with people across the political divide, with people in business, academe, the clergy, and otherwise, such that they will pick up the phone and be ready to work with you is somehow a bad thing.

Listening to those attack ads, perhaps you’d get the impression that it is a good thing to be so ideologically pure that the only people who would return your call are those responsible for shutting down the Federal government and undermining our nation’s ability to do business.  

I hold it as a badge of honor that there are thousands of people — across the nation, across the political spectrum — who are ready to work with me, even if they don’t agree with me on every issue, to figure out how to get things done.

And, unlike some people, I haven’t had to make it an effort to return $10,000s of “gifts” amid criminal investigations.

And, when Governor, I proudly tell you now that I plan to leverage that Rolodex to get things done on behalf of all of the people of the Commonwealth of Virginia.

Turning to another item, over 20 years ago, I chose to move to Virginia. I chose to become a Virginian.  And, I made a choice such that my four children are native-born Virginians.  

Evidently, according to the attack ads, one who chooses to become a citizen of the Commonwealth and who votes, pays taxes, and lives in the Commonwealth is somehow not a real Virginian.  

This makes me wonder — just how many Virginians have been citizens for less than 20 years and who, evidently, aren’t considered real Virginians by my opponent?

This makes me wonder — just how long does one need to live, vote, and pay taxes in the Commonwealth of Virginia before my opponent would consider them real Virginians? 25 years? 30 years?  Or, do you have to be born in Virginia to be an actual Virginian?

This makes me wonder — thinking about my opponent’s efforts to control a woman’s right to choose, perhaps one needs to be conceived in the Commonwealth to be a real Virginian.

The Commonwealth is strengthened by attracting the best and brightest from around the nation, from around the world, to come and live here.  The attack ads on me are saying ‘don’t bother coming, because you won’t be considered or treated as a real Virginian.’  Our immigrants — whether from New Jersey or India or West Virginia — are real Virginians, to be welcomed with open arms as we create a better future for all of Virginia and all Virginians.

Finally, I like to get things done. I wake up, every morning, enthused about moving things forward. I find it truly rewarding to go to sleep at night knowing that I achieved something that day.  Evidently, if you listen to the attack ads, getting things done and working passionately to help people is somehow a mistake.  

In short, contrary to the attack ads messaging, I am a proud Virginian who has worked successfully with a broad range of people who will work, tirelessly, to make Virginia a better and stronger Commonwealth.

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Terry’s actual response to Chuck Todd’s question:

I’m a young man who grew up in– Syracuse, New York. I started my first business when I was 14 years old, ’cause I had to help pay for college. I’ve been involved in a number of businesses since that time, chairman of a bank by the age of 30, built thousands of homes. I’ve been involved in a wide variety of different businesses. I want to bring that business approach, that business experience. I think it’s important to have someone in the governor’s office who has those business experience, understands the ups and downs of businesses, understands that risk is inherent in our economy, and is willing to put everything in to make sure we grow and diversify our economy.

With sequestration, with the budget cuts that we have seen in the Department of Defense, with $500 billion, the stimulus is over, the next governor’s real challenge is how do you grow and diversify our businesses? How do we create new economic activity? Dorothy and I would love to have our five children stay in Virginia. But in order to stay in Virginia, we need to have those jobs of the 21st century, cyber security, nanotechnology, bio life sciences. Those are what we need to do to grow our economy.

Now we have had a lot of different ads. And there are differences between the two of us. My opponent has spent most of his career on a social ideological agenda. He has– pushed personhood legislation which would outlaw most forms of contraception, would make the pill illegal in Virginia. He bullied the Board of Health that would shut down the woman’s health centers. Women are 50% of the workforce of the United States of America. You cannot grow an economy by putting walls up around Virginia