tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26542777.post114676066420150987..comments2023-10-26T01:59:40.483-07:00Comments on The Dividist Papers: Hand-wringing Libertarians.mwhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11181222537529037359noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26542777.post-1148272091540561772006-05-21T21:28:00.000-07:002006-05-21T21:28:00.000-07:00#1. If they Nominate Hillary I may agree with you...#1. If they Nominate Hillary I may agree with you.<BR/><BR/>#2 The Manhattan project and the Apollo project were done by Democrats. These were much "bigger" than the Reagan tax cuts you mention.<BR/><BR/>#3 YepAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26542777.post-1148133494853106612006-05-20T06:58:00.000-07:002006-05-20T06:58:00.000-07:00Eric,Three points. 1) By the "other guys" you pres...Eric,<BR/><BR/>Three points. <BR/><BR/>1) By the "other guys" you presumably mean the Democrats and are advocating Democratic control of both the executive and the legislature. Since that cannot happen in the mid-terms, I guess we are in agreement for the '06 elections and will be debating voting strategy in '08, when I will be (hopefully) voting for a Republican presidential candidate. <BR/><BR/>2)In the article that is the foundation for this blog, <A HREF="http://www.cato.org/dailys/05-07-03.html" REL="nofollow">"A Case for Divided Government"</A>, William Niskanen points out that major reforms have a better probability of being addressed in a divided government and the resulting legisation is more likely to survive subsequent elections:<BR/><BR/><I>"The Reagan tax laws of 1981 and 1986, for example, were both approved by a House of Representatives controlled by the Democrats and have largely survived. The major potential reforms of agriculture, telecommunications, and welfare in 1996 were approved by Clinton and a Republican Congress..." - Niskanen</I><BR/><BR/>3) Finally, As I ouline in my <A HTTP://WESTANDDIVIDED.BLOGSPOT.COM/2006/04/WHY-YOU-SHOULD-VOTE-LIKE-ME-OR-HOW-TO.HTML> prior post</A>, this voting strategy requires a large block of polarized Partisan Dead Weight (PDW) on both the right and left to roughly balance, so that a relatively small group of enlighted voters, voting as a block, can actually shape the character of the government. As PDW in '08, you will have your role to play. - mwmwhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11181222537529037359noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-26542777.post-1148105267643541302006-05-19T23:07:00.000-07:002006-05-19T23:07:00.000-07:00Your premise is sound in a steady state scenario. ...Your premise is sound in a steady state scenario. Unfortunately we are not in a steady state at the moment. <BR/><BR/>In the next election cycle we must change to the "other" party in hopes we can get a sound energy policy in place that does 2 things:<BR/><BR/>1) Reduces oil consumption<BR/>2) Introduces a Manhattan / Apollo style project for alternative and renewable energy systems along with enhanced energy storage facilities.<BR/><BR/>If we don't do this then we are screwed as global warming will nail us. I'm not some whacked out tree hugger. Check out the recent NOVA special on "Global Dimming". It turns out global warming is worse than we thought. It's effects have been masked by the particulates in the airborne pollution which is partially counteracting the greenhouse effect. It further turns out that most of the crops we plant for food and feed will not make it if the average temperatures rise 5 - 10 degrees in the next 50 years as predicted. So besides being underwater (only a fool would buy Florida Real-Estate in a hold scenario right now) we will not have anything to eat. This is not good. The main scientist in this report is the NASA employee that had is climate change report re-written by the scinetific experts in the West Wing. He was on 60 minutes as well. <BR/><BR/>This is the #1 issue facing us at present. <BR/><BR/>So if you can fix the energy policy problem fast then by all means in the next election cycle after it is fixed, then lets go to a divided govt.<BR/><BR/>However, I think it foolish to believe that the dead-lock introduced by a divided govt would be able to get this initiative through.<BR/><BR/>Oh yeah another reason we need the other guys in for the next cycle is to undo some of the ridiculous things Bush and Co have done over the past 5 years. Whacky tax policy comes to mind.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com