2023 Archives

"The results are clear. Gun deaths are a problem amenable to reduction like any other public health problem. International differences in rates between countries show this. The United States has the worst record of gun deaths of any [developed] nation, exceeded only by that in chaotic nations with massive law and order problems." —Simon Chapman, professor at the University of Sydney’s School of Public Health and lead author of a peer-reviewed study on the impact of Australia’s 1996 gun-control laws

The GOP has become the party of Putin, bin Salman, and Orbán, rejecting George Washington’s warning about partisanship replacing patriotism and, increasingly, rejecting the very idea of democracy... “[I]t is of infinite moment that you should properly estimate the immense value of our national union to your collective and individual happiness; that you should cherish a cordial, habitual, and immovable attachment to it; accustoming yourselves to think and speak of it as of the palladium of your political safety and prosperity; watching for its preservation with jealous anxiety; discountenancing whatever may suggest even a suspicion that it can in any event be abandoned, and indignantly frowning upon the first dawning of every attempt to alienate any portion of our country from the rest or to enfeeble the sacred ties which now link together the various parts.” — George Washington Farewell Address September 17, 1796

Nearly every generation since this nation’s founding has seen forward progress toward the ideals that our Founders, and Lincoln, FDR, JFK, and other American leaders have declared. Until Now... Nations don’t just exist geographically; they also exist psychologically. Every nation has a story it tells itself about who and what it and its people are, how it came to be and the core values that brought that about, and its ultimate goals as it works toward its highest purpose. For most of American history, the story we told ourselves about America was that we were a good and decent people who were striving to achieve a government that drew its legitimacy from “the consent of the governed” and championed the values of the Enlightenment. Clearly we didn’t always live up to those standards: from slavery to the Native American genocide to our support for foreign dictators and overthrow of democratic republics, we’ve come from a pretty grim start and made a lot of terrible mistakes. But always, at the core of the American ideal, was that goal, that ideal, that we are dedicated to expanding human freedom and possibility for all.

“Wait a minute!” I can hear you saying. “Cutting taxes on rich people makes them richer, but cutting taxes on working class people cuts their pay? WTF?!?” It’s labor day, so let’s look at the radically different ways income tax cuts or increases affect working class people versus the morbidly rich. Over the past 40 years, Republicans have pulled off an incredible magic trick. They’ve convinced average working people that tax cuts benefit them when in fact the opposite is true. It all boils down to two simple principles, which are — unfortunately — a mystery to most Americans and ignored in both our political and media discussions of income taxes. 1. Income tax cuts for the morbidly rich raise a nation’s debt but do nothing else.