The Fourth Option (A Centrist Perspective) Blog

I. The republicans have agendas that they bargain for collectively. Saw what they did for the richest Americans? Noticed they bargained collectively? Saw what they did for corporations? Noticed they bargained collectively? And what about those oil companies, for whom the bargain and bargain collectively? And what about those insurance companies for whom the bargain and bargain – collectively? II. In concert, they refuse to cut taxes. Aggressively they acted collectively. In concert, they’re insisting on cutting entitlements. Are they acting collectively? How about their arguments on “the right to bare arms?” How about their argument on “the right to conceal carry?” How about their stance against gay marriages? Are they acting – collectively? III. They’re proposing a balance budget amendment. Isn’t this bargaining collectively? They proposed cutting the size of government, (hypocritically), but isn’t this bargaining collectively? And they are encouraging us to stay longer in A...

"Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it." -    George Santayana Foods for Thought Food 1. All economic and social ideas a candidate running for public office will propose have been tried before. If we take the time to research them, we will discover, for ourselves, the positive and negative outcomes the ideas produced when they were previously implemented.      For example, research the positive and negative effects of giving tax breaks to rich corporations and the top income earners. (It has been tried for 30+ years at the state and national level.) What outcomes did it produce in terms of real wages, balancing the budget, closing the gap between the rich and the poor . . . Food 2. Look-up any environmental, safety, health, equality/fairness, or entitlement issue that you feel needs to be better regulated, and you will discover that previous laws, which offered the protection you are desiring, were once in place. Then they...

Question 1. What are the goals of the Republican Party’s Economic Plan? Answer 1: There are five goals of the Republican Party’s Economic Plan: 1 . Cut the taxes on corporations and upper income Americans. 2 . Deregulate corporate restrictions and guidelines, and prevent new ones from being implemented. 3. Cut entitlements (or benefits given to those who have lost their incomes due to illness, unemployment, old age, and disability,) and cut public assistance (welfare ). 4. Transfer many of the functions currently done by the government to private corporations – especially functions (and policies) pertaining to the environment, use of state-owned land, lakes, rivers, etc., harvesting timber, mining coal, wildlife management, and wildlife gaming (hunting and fishing). 5. Continue to use Defense Spending as the “Hidden Stimulus Packages” in the republican states. Give lavishly to big corporations for unnecessary weapon systems. Give defense contracts to research and developmen...

      I sat in my classroom yesterday morning. Wisconsin’s recall election, which was the previous day, was very much on my mind. Earlier in the morning, before leaving for work, I wrote the article for yesterday’s blog about it. During my drive to work, I thought about. And here I sat, preparing to teach my students the final lesson of the school, while thinking about it.      Normally, I devote the lessons in the last days of school to class discussions about lessons learned in the classrooms, on the athletic fields, in the band rooms, and after- school activities, like 4-H, boy scouts, girl scouts, etc. My objective is to get the students to understand that honesty, respect, fairness, trustworthiness, caring, responsibility, and citizenship are the pillars of good character: They are the character traits that make us excellent role models, exceptional citizens, first-rate employers, and tremendous employees. Those of us who also learn emp...

      Governor Scott Walker (R-WI) won Wisconsin’s recall election. His victory is the latest chapter in the continuing irony of Wisconsin’s middle class voters: Scott Walker won the recall election because the middle class voted against their own best interests. In other words, they suppressed their instincts, intuitions, experiences, and knowledge; and instead, they relied on Walker’s promise of moving Wisconsin forward.  It also means that they succumbed to the fear implanted by the Republican Party attack ads against Mayor Tom Barrett, and the political spins Governor Scott Walker used to play-down his social, economic, and lawful failures. Most importantly, however, it means that the undemocratic, un-Christian social and economic policies that are prevalent in the southern republican-controlled states have spread to Wisconsin, like chronic deceases.      The symptoms of these chronic deceases are easy to observe: 1. Workers begin t...