Pleasantly Surprised (And Appallted by Politics)

I’ve been pleasantly surprised by law school and the people. When I did research on law schools a few years back and then more recently when I decided to take the LSAT, there were horror stories of people hiding books in the library so that assignments couldn’t be completed (along with similar stories).  Competition was fierce (and cutthroat) and that sabotage of a type occurred frequently.  However, none of that has happened here.  People have been so friendly. Just this morning, the Delta and SBA Reps handed out goodie bags for everyone in our section.  Others have done other things over the course of the semester.  The professors have been great too.  I really like that they stress being prepared for class and thinking through questions, instead of necessarily getting the right answer or the specific answer they’re looking for.  I’ve also been surprised at just how much I’m enjoying it on the whole. There are, of course, things that haven’t been so much fun, but on the whole it’s been good.

On another topic, I’m appalled by Wisconsinites right now.  Most specifically, I’m appalled by how easily Wisconsinites are being led astray this year.  I’ve been paying attention to Russ Feingold’s race, even though I’m living in Illinois now.  The idea that Feingold’s in serious trouble goes to show how pervasive the Tea Party movement is.  But the Tea Party candidate in Wisconsin is also a good example of the Tea Party’s lack of substance.  I’ve always been of the opinion that if you don’t like the ideas in place, present a new idea. But if you don’t have any new ideas, then shut up.  Ron Johnson, Feingold’s opponent is simply saying he’ll repeal the Health Care Bill and wants to get rid of unemployment benefits.  That’s all well and good, but without them what are you going to do to solve the problems they were meant to solve?  With all the media attention on Tea Party candidates, I’ve yet to hear any of them actually present new ideas to solve our problems.  All they’ve said is that they don’t like what the Democrats did. Some of the candidates are even saying some of the problems don’t exist.  Sorry, but ignoring a problem doesn’t make it go away; in fact most of the time it makes it worse.  For me, when I look at candidates, I’m looking at what ideas they’re presenting – what they’re going to do if elected.  Essentially, I want to know what I’m getting into when I vote to put a particular candidate into office.

When Ron Johnson has been asked what he would do if elected, he’s declined to answer.  He’s muddled his way through the question every single time he’s been asked it. That has led every major newspaper in Wisconsin to endorse Feingold.  For those unfamiliar with Ron Johnson, he’s a millionaire business man who owns a plastics factory in central Wisconsin.  He’s shipping well-paying jobs to other states where it’s cheaper.  He’s done that in a state already hurt by NAFTA before all the job losses in this recession.  Johnson supports tax cuts for the wealthy – a group of people who can more afford to save their money.  The unemployment benefits he opposes actually help those who most need them. Those benefits get spent on necessities and thus go back into the economy. If nothing else, we’ve learned since Reagan that trickle down economics doesn’t really work.  In that sense, giving tax breaks to the wealthy doesn’t make much sense.  Johnson critiques the stimulus bill.  No matter how you look at it, many many experts have said that without it, we’d have headed into another depression.  Johnson says this election isn’t about details.  Clearly people are agreeing with him, since if they actually looked at the details Feingold would kicking his butt.  Johnson’s answer that this election isn’t about details was in response to question about what we should do about the nation’s 107,000 homeless veterans.  Details-schmetails: the Ron Johnson campaign.

Feingold is also not afraid to work with Republics on issues, nor is he afraid to break party ranks if doing so would be in Wisconsin’s best interest. In the past, Feingold worked with John McCain on campaign finance reform (which has subsequently been overruled by the Supreme Court, leading to some new issues in this election).  More recently, he’s been working with McCain and Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma) on eliminating earmarks and with Congressman Paul Ryan (R-Wisconsins) on a bill to create a federal line-item veto.  Feingold also voted against the TARP bill and has pushed to use excess TARP funds to pay down the deficit.  Feingold also was the lone vote against the Patriot Act, concerned about the privacy and constitutional concerns.  Republicans, on the other hand, don’t seem willing to break ranks.   The Republican party leadership seems to aggressively enforce conformity amongst its members in Congress.  Doesn’t seem to me like that’s the best thing for Wisconsin.

Thanks to that Supreme Court decision mentioned above, there are several groups attacking Feingold.  One of those groups, SpeechNow.org is funded by millionaires hiding behind that group.   This is a good article on it: Millionaire Insiders Hide Behind Group.

Finally a third good article on Feingold’s campaign. Citizen Russ. It’s just so hard for me to believe that Wisconsinites, a group known for being mavericks themselves (just like their current Senator) could fall so hard for the empty Tea Party rhetoric.

"Life is measured not by the number of breaths we take, but by the moments that take our breath away."