Compromise:
Jamelle Bouie of Slate suggests the Senate Minority Leader
spot that Harry Reid is vacating is a spot for a moderate, because this
position represents all Democrats, not just the liberal wing… therefore
Elizabeth Warren isn’t the right person for the job. If she became Senate
Minority Leader she’d be pulled to the right and no longer be a firebrand for
the left.
Ted Cruz, and increasing my vocabulary:
Douthat games out a scenario in which Ted Cruz, currentlythe only Republican who has announced his candidacy for President, becomes theRepublican nominee. Essentially, Cruz should hope for a crowd of centrists
whacking one another and Rand Paul to be off in left field doing his own thing.
Cruz then would need to find a few issues that separates him from the field and
prove that he’s the only “true believer”… for example his position on
Immigration (and potentially Common Core and the ACA). Essentially, Cruz could
use a few dog whistle issues to paint the rest of the field as Republicans in
Name Only (RINOs) in Reagan clothing.
Douthat believes Cruz’s main liability is his lack of
likability… more specifically he noted multiple people have described Cruz as
“Oleaginous.” A quick definition for those of you who aren’t familiar with the
term (myself included), “1. Covered with oil 2. Distastefully complimentary.”
The Trans-Pacific Partnership:
This is an issue I’ve felt a little in the dark about, so I
asked around and these were the places friends pointed me to: the Whitehouse, Krugman,
Summers, and Wikileaks.
What is TPP? A trade deal being negotiated between the US
and 14 or so Pacific nations, perhaps a little more NAFTA-ish than most people
would like. It appears to be the economic portion of Obama’s “pivot to Asia.”
So, what are people saying?
The Good:
It’ll hold trading partners accountable regarding labor and
environmental standards in a way NAFTA didn’t, thus TPP is “the mostprogressive trade deal in history.”
Asian countries are creating all kinds of trade pacts that
are economically integrating the Pacific, if we don’t get on board, we get left
behind.
It may add 0.5% to the national income of the nations
involved.
It will revive the American manufacturing sector by opening
up new markets for our goods.
The Bad:
A 0.5% increase in national income may be optimistic.
Most of the protections that benefit the USA will mainly
help Hollywood and big Phrama—it’s about patents and copyrights, not labor,
jobs, and the environment.
I’ve heard from friends over in Europe that the EU is crying
foul on this agreement—though I do not know the specifics.
The Ugly:
The deal is being hammered out in a sort of secretive way.
So, a few thoughts:
If this is a race to the bottom, that’s no good, I hope the
“most progressive trade deal in history,” statements are more than just
rhetoric.
The idea that America can be cut out of regional markets is
a relatively new one for a whole generation of Americans, who assume
globalization is the norm and that the USA (or at least American Corporations)
is its main driver. We’re living in a more multi-polar world economically and
we will act as such.
My knee-jerk inclination is to separate “American
Manufacturing” from Big Phrama and Hollywood, but truth be told entertainment
and drugs are staple American exports.
