The State of our Politics

These days when I talk about politics I have to admit to feeling a bit self-conscious. This is because lately the word ‘politics’ has become a dirty word, and perhaps rightfully so. When I begin to talk about my love for American politics and policymaking the discussion immediately evokes images of partisan vitriol and intransigence in the minds of my audience. There aren’t words to express how frustrating that is. It’s frustrating because I know that the American Democracy is the greatest deliberative system ever imagined on Earth. The problem is that we have forgotten how it works.

If you doubt this premise you need only look as far as the 2012 Presidential Campaign for evidence that it’s true. In a year when the economy is struggling to recover, millions of Americans are still unable to find a job, health care costs are rising, and nations like Iran and North Korea are threatening nuclear war it would seem that the debate over who should be president of the United States would have ample substantive material to discuss. But we’re not talking about these things. At least the Republicans aren’t talking about these things. Instead, the race for the GOP presidential nomination has been dominated by social issues. The same kind of wedge issues that Republicans have used to strike fear in the hearts and minds of Americans for decades are once again taking center stage in our national political dialogue. While Democrats are trying to talk about creating jobs and strengthening this fledgling economy Republicans are instead talking about making abortion illegal and restricting a woman’s access to contraception. While Democrats are talking about continuing to work toward a smarter, leaner, and more efficient government the Republicans are talking about creating a government big enough to force a woman to submit to a mandatory internal vaginal ultrasound, without her consent or the consent of her doctor, before she would be allowed to get an abortion. While Democrats are talking about increasing access to education and making reforms to ensure that our children will be able to complete in the job market of the future, Republicans are calling President Obama a “snob” for suggesting that all children should have the opportunity to go to college. While Democrats are talking about ways to move America forward, Republicans want to repeal and roll back America to a century ago. This is the campaign of 2012, but they’re behaving as if it’s the campaign of 1912. Enough is enough.

I’m not sure what the Republican Party stands for anymore, but I sure do know what they’re against. The Republican Party is against the middle class, they are against protecting the environment, they are against preventing unwanted pregnancies through family planning, they are against education, they are against science, and they are against protecting consumers from corporate greed and excess. The Republican Party has for a century claimed to be the party who wants limited government, but the truth is that they are the party who wants a government big enough to limit your choices and limit your opportunities, all in the name of freedom.

What’s at stake..

Now, more than ever, elections matter. Here is a video with my thoughts on why it is critically important for everyone to vote this year.

Shared Birthdays

October 19th is no ordinary day.  It’s the day when both my wife and my son celebrate their birthdays.

It took us by surprise.  Zachary was actually born two weeks early in order to share a birthday with his Mommy.  We were so surprised by his early arrival, as a matter of fact, that we had to stop at Target on the way home from the hospital to buy diapers.  Initially, I was skeptical of how this shared birthday would work out for them but over the past two years I’ve watched these two bond over their shared birth date in a way nothing else could have done.  They are inseparable.

So today I get to wish a Happy Birthday to the woman who completes my soul, and to the little boy who completed my life, all on the same day.  This really is a remarkable life.

Education is the key to jobs

If you want to solve the unemployment problem in America, educate Americans.  If that seems overly simplistic, keep reading and I’ll explain.

This past Friday the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its monthly report on the unemployment situation in the United States. If you listen to the news or pay any attention at all to the commentary you might assume that the take-home point of the report is that unemployment is still 9.1% which means that the economic situation in our country right now is somewhere between bad and awful. You wouldn’t be entirely wrong either because that statistic certainly does jump off the page when you read the report, but there’s something else there also. Check out this chart from the September jobs report.

Did you notice it? I circled it for you.  Unemployment among Americans with a Bachelor’s degree is only 4.2%. 4.2%!! That’s less than half the unemployment rate overall. If our average unemployment rate was that low people would be singing and dancing in the streets right now. Why this particular fact is buried in a 38 page report without so much as a highlight or underline to accent its importance puzzles me because I think that this is the most important statistic in the entire report.

If we want to put Americans back to work we have to educate them. If our government is serious about creating jobs than any legislation that intends to boost employment must include a plan to subsidize, at least in part, the education of our unemployed so that they can learn the skills necessary to work in the 21st Century. My Conservative friends would shudder at the thought of more spending but history has proven time and again that investments in education are one of the pillars of American success. If we’re going to spend money at all we should spend it on education.

We have to face the facts. Many millions of jobs that existed before the Recession are gone and they’re not coming back. Our society is, in many ways, reinventing itself to adapt to the realities of a global high-tech economy and we need to re-tool our workforce to allow them to find success in this new environment. This kind of investment is not a new idea, mind you. In 1944 Congress passed the GI Bill to address a similar reality. Our soldiers were returning home to a changed society and needed to readjust to the realities of employment in post-war America. The official name of the bill was actually, “The Serviceman’s Readjustment Act”. America has always found success in its ability to adapt to new realities and that need has never been more critical to our survival than it is today.

We are living in one of the most consequential times our nation has ever experienced. Ten years into this new century it seems as if we have forgotten the things that helped us succeed in the last one. If we are going to solve the staggering problems that face America today we need to invest in the things that have always been the foundation of our success. Education is at the top of this list followed closely by the kinds of investment in infrastructure, as well as research and development that the president included in the American Jobs Act. The modern economy is an innovation based economy and education is no longer optional. Education is the key to our success.

I want to make one final point. Americans need to accept that our recovery isn’t going to happen overnight. We are struggling with problems that developed slowly over a span of decades. It’s irrational to believe that we can reverse the trend overnight, or in one year, or even in the term of one American president. Education is the key to our success, but education also takes time. If we are patient, and we keep our eye on the prize, we will emerge from these troubled times stronger than ever before, and empowered by education to achieve great things once again.

Ten Years Later

Ten years ago everything changed. We lost our innocence, and realized that everything we thought we knew about the world was wrong. Our sense of security was shattered, and our faith in the fundamental goodness of humanity was called into question. But something else happened also. In the face of overwhelming tragedy we came together as Americans. Bound together by unspeakable loss we found our collective voice and stood side by side and hand in hand. We were united. That is the lesson of September 11, 2001. As we remember that day we have an obligation to live our lives in a way that honors those who were lost. With every challenge comes an opportunity. This somber anniversary represents an opportunity to recapture the unity of purpose and commonality that we all felt in the days and weeks following the attacks.

As we pause to remember the horrific attacks a decade ago it is hard to believe that so much time has passed. The world has been irrevocably changed, and those fundamental changes have revealed a very different future from the one we had imagined for our children.

Children born on September 11, 2001 are today entering the fifth grade. For them, there has always been a gaping hole in the Manhattan skyline, and an equal one in the soul of America. International Terrorism and war are a business-as-usual part of their daily lives. They don’t question, nor even seem to notice, this elephant in the room. Our babies were never privileged to the kind of innocence that defined their parents’ childhoods. It’s true that we who were born in the years between the end of the Vietnam War and the violent birth of the War on Terror came of age in a time of peace and prosperity in our nation. We did not witness evil in the magnitude that now exists in our children’s world until we were old enough to vote and buy alcohol. That kind of innocence has been robbed of our youngest generation who will come of age during one of the most challenging eras in our nation’s history.

As parents, our cardinal responsibility is to somehow raise our children with both a heightened awareness of human capability and a strong faith in the fundamental goodness of the majority. We need to somehow teach them to be discriminating in their observations but not in their hearts. They will live in a time that requires great vigilance but also an unwavering allegiance to the fundamental principles of humanity. Ours will be a monumental undertaking as we seek to raise our children in a world that requires a duality of seemingly incompatible perspectives. While this mission seems daunting in its complexity it is the calling of our time. What we do as parents over these next decades will determine the climate of our children’s perceptions about life and so that of our society’s future.

Take a moment today to pause and remember the event which was the catalyst of our social metamorphosis. Mourn for a moment those whose futures were robbed from them, and whose eventual contribution was robbed from all of us. Cry if you will, be angry if you must, but then take a deep breath and move forward. Remember that every moment we live in defiance of evil is a tribute to those who gave their lives ten years ago. Our resilience in defining of our children’s future in a manner incompatible with the ideals of those who attacked us is a tribute to our character and to the character of the United States of America.

May God bless those we lost and empower those who survived. May He guide our hand as parents and lift our children’s hearts. May He grant us the strength, knowledge, and will to overcome what once seemed inevitable and to give our daughters and sons the greatest gift any parent can bestow upon their child – a bright future in a peaceful world.

The freedom to love..

I have always believed that the true measure of a life is love. From the moment we draw our very first breath we are nurtured by the love of those around us, and the pursuit of love is one that defines us until our last moments on this Earth. Love is universal. We cannot choose who we love any more than we could choose the style of music we enjoy. Love isn’t a choice.

For some time now in America we have regulated love by legislation. If you live in New York, among other places, the government says that if the love of your life is not of the opposite gender you may not marry. By law, the love of gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender individuals is invalid. In this nation founded on the principle of inalienable rights, love is for heterosexuals only. The history of this flawed premise is complex but at the heart of the matter you will find life’s greatest nemesis: Fear. We have, for far too long, empowered fear with the force of law. As a result of our fear we have created two classes of individuals: Those who may love, and those who may not. The advocates of this anachronous arrangement claim that allowing two individuals of the same gender to marry somehow threatens the entire institution of marriage. These propagandists will tell you that allowing marriage equality for all will corrupt our children by creating a society in which homosexuality is accepted. Since when has the belief that all of us are created equal been corrupt?

The time has come for us to come together against the politics of fear and demand equality for all. We must no longer empower fear with the force of law. In the United States of America we are only as free as our most oppressed citizens and the time has come for this oppression to end. In New York State we are closer than ever to passing legislation that would guarantee marriage equality for all. Doing so will correct an injustice that has been allowed to fester for far too long. We cannot choose who we love, nor should government choose who we may marry.

Love is not reserved for the privileged few. Love is as essential to our survival as oxygen or nutrition and it must not be stifled by ignorance or fear. The time for marriage equality is now. Call your State representatives and insist that they support marriage equality. Then call the Governor and tell him that he must sign this legislation into law. Do this for our future. Do this for our children. Do this for love.

So.. We’re still here.

So, the government didn’t shut down.  I have to admit that doesn’t make me feel much better though.  The lesson that must be learned from last week’s antics in Washington is that politics matter, and elections matter.  It’s more important than ever for people to be engaged in the process and to make their voices heard.  The ideological battle that we’ve seen unfold in Congress in the aftermath of last year’s midterm elections illustrates the consequences that come from an ambivalent electorate and we can’t let that happen again.

The magic of the American democracy is that every citizen is granted equal power under the Constitution to influence the destiny of our society.  With our votes we can choose our leaders and choose the direction we wish our nation to follow.  If we fail to exercise that power we surrender our rights to others.  In America today we are not governed by a simple majority, but rather by a majority of those who participate.  What will the future look like?  It’s up to us.

If we sit idly by while the Republican Party forces its agenda of ideological extremism down our throats than we will have to reap what we’ve sown.  If we allow the Tea Party to continue to spew it’s anti-government and anti-family rhetoric freely without exposing the truth, than people will begin to believe what they hear.  If we do not confront the lies, they will become truths.  If we allow all of this to happen that our future will be a very dark place where our most vulnerable citizens are forced to fend for themselves and where the wealthiest among us wield limitless influence over our government, reinventing America to serve only them.

If you believe that the prosperity of the United States of America is bound to the success of big corporations and the wealthiest among us, than by all means keep doing what you’re doing.  If, on the other hand, you believe that we have a collective responsibility to each other and that government has an obligation to help those who cannot help themselves, then stand up and fight for those beliefs.  If you believe that the hard-working middle class is the heart of this nation, and that quality education and health care are fundamental rights of citizenship in this great nation than do not be afraid to write or call your representatives and demand they preserve those rights.

Politics matters because it is the process through which we determine the climate of our society, and of our children’s future.  Get involved, and stay involved.  Let the world know that you’re there, and don’t ever settle for less than you deserve.

Are you paying attention?

Are you paying attention?  Because if you’re not, you should start.

As I write this the government of the United States of America, home of the largest economy on planet Earth, is less than four hours away from shutting down.  If the government shuts down over 800,000 federal employees across the nation, including 8,500 in my own community, will be forced to live without paychecks until further notice.  Military families will also be among those whose income will suddenly screech to a halt despite the fact that their loved ones continue to put their lives at risk defending all of us.  If the government shuts down millions of Americans will find themselves without the government services they have come to depend upon.  You’d have to assume that for Congress to allow this to occur there must be some extraordinary circumstances in play, right?  I mean, they wouldn’t drag the country to the brink of a government shutdown unless it was really worth it, right?  Wrong.

If the government shuts down tonight it will do so entirely as a result of ideological extremism.  The Republican Party, which you’ll remember is being controlled by the Tea Party these days, has so far refused to strike a deal on the budget unless that budget includes certain ideological policy riders.  These riders do things like defund the recently enacted health care law, remove federal funding from Planned Parenthood, and strip the EPA of its regulatory authority to control greenhouse emissions.  Both parties and the president of the United States have largely agreed on the spending cuts that will be included in the budget but, despite the Republicans’ claim that spending cuts are their top priority, they are holding up the process and threatening to shut down the government over ideology. 

The Republicans will force a government shutdown if the budget does not defund the health care reform law whereby millions of children with pre-existing conditions would lose their health insurance.  The Republicans will force a government shutdown if the budget does not eliminate all federal funding for Planned Parenthood, and repeal Title X which is the law that allows federal funds to be used for women’s health care such as cancer screenings.  You might find that last one particularly strange since this is the party that opposes abortion unconditionally, and eliminating Planned Parenthood would also eliminate birth control and family planning services that prevent unwanted pregnancies.  Last but not least the Republican Party will force a government shutdown if the Environmental Protection Agency is not stripped of its authority to regulate greenhouse gases.  That’s right, the Republican Party is holding America hostage over ideology. 

If it wasn’t clear to you before how important the decision of who we elect to public office is to our society it probably is now.  What is happening now is a direct result of the 2010 Midterm Elections that gave Republicans a majority in the House of Representatives and introduced a bumper crop of ultra-conservative Tea Party representatives into our government.  It is this body that is blocking a deal on the budget, and if the government actually shuts down it will be entirely the fault of this body. 

There’s not much any of us can do now except to watch, and wait to see what happens.  But I would strongly urge you to pay very close attention to what is happening in our government right now, and unless you like what you see you might want to consider getting involved in the 2012 campaigns, or at the very least voting on Election Day.  That way we can begin to turn back the tide of extremism that has taken America hostage and get back on the path toward winning the future for our children.

Letter to the Governor on Education

Below is a letter that I wrote on behalf of the Southeastern Brookhaven Democratic Club, which is the organization in which I will soon be president.  The letter is in response to Governor Cuomo’s proposed education cuts in the 2011-2012 Executive Budget.

*****

The Honorable Andrew M. Cuomo
Governor of New York State
New York State Capitol Building
Albany, New York 12224

March 16, 2011

Dear Governor,

We believe that the primary mission of a responsible government in this economic climate is to craft a strategy for balancing the budget while simultaneously protecting our most vital services and our most vulnerable citizens.  A review of the 2011-2012 Executive Budget has resulted in some serious concerns regarding the manner in which you have chosen to address the State’s budget deficit.  Primarily, we are extremely concerned about the extent to which the burden of sacrifice has been placed upon the education system.  One of the defining characteristics of the State of New York is our commitment to quality education.  As important as we all agree it is to balance the budget we must be sure that we are not doing so at the expense of our most vulnerable citizens. 

Balancing the budget on the backs of our children is shortsighted and misguided policy.  Our children have only one opportunity to attain the quality education that they need to compete in the job market of the future.  For them, the dramatic cuts you have proposed to their education are not temporary or short term sacrifices.  The sacrifices they are being forced to make will have lasting ramifications for the rest of their lives.  By eroding the quality of our schools we are, in effect, setting up the next generation of New Yorkers to be replaced by out of state workers who are better educated than they are.  The very kind of outsourcing we have castigated when American jobs are shipped overseas is exactly what we will see years from now in New York when our children are less qualified for jobs than their out of state counterparts. 

We must ask ourselves who we are as New Yorkers.  New Yorkers are regarded as highly competitive, well educated, and trend setting.  This did not happen by accident.  This perception is the direct result of the commitment to fundamental values that have always guided our decisions in New York.  With the statistics already showing that our students have fallen far behind students in other countries this is a time to be investing in our education systems not plundering them for financial gain.  Our children simply cannot afford the cuts that are being proposed. 

We are not blind to the fact that there are flaws in our education system.  There is no doubt that waste exists, and there is clearly room for reform but that reform needs to be based upon a strategic evaluation of the entire structure to identify wasteful practices and non-essential areas first.  Applying a uniform budget reduction across the entire education system demonstrates a lack of appreciation for the consequences of that action.  It seems to be conventional wisdom that, due to the high costs, education is a popular target for spending cuts.  These days it seems that government prefers to choose the easiest targets rather than to take the time to identify areas of the budget that could afford significant reductions without sacrificing our most essential services or our most vulnerable citizens.  The uniform 10% budget reduction proposed across the board in the education budget is the financial equivalent of performing brain surgery with a hatchet instead of a scalpel.   

As a political organization on Long Island we must also point out that there are education issues unique to our region of the State that have been evaded by State government for years.  The formula used to allocate education funds to the various regions of the State results in Long Island contributing far more in tax revenues to the State than the region receives in State aid.  Taxpayers in our region are seeing their money used to finance school districts in Upstate New York while their own districts are struggling to make ends meet.  Now, as a result of your budget and the perceived affluence of our communities, Long Island will also receive a higher reduction in State aid than other regions which will further complicate the budget crisis faced by our schools in this difficult economy.  You have often spoken of shared sacrifice with regard to your budget, but these sacrifices are far from equitable.

In light of the obvious need for reductions in State spending it seems that it is time to look at areas outside of tax generated revenue where funds can be located and redirected to compensate for the reduction in State aid for education.  The New York State Lottery from its inception has promoted itself as a source of money for education.  The average citizen believes that the balances of the funds collected from the Lottery that do not go directly to the winner are then allocated for education.  According to research performed by the New York State Assembly in 2006 only 32% of the funds collected by the Lottery go toward education with an additional 12% going toward operating expenses (56% is disbursed to prize winners).  Although we cannot presume to know just how much money could be reallocated from this 12% it seems a reasonable place to begin the search for waste and inefficiency.  Funds that could be directed to schools could begin to fill the void left by the budget cuts in State aid.

As a consequence of the budget cuts proposed to education there would be a statistically significant increase in the number of teachers collecting unemployment benefits from the State.  It does not appear from the documents we have reviewed that this increase has been included in the savings calculations provided by your office.  We strongly suggest researching the overall budget impact of this increase in benefits on the projected savings.  New York taxpayers, given the choice, would much prefer that their hard earned money go toward paying the salary or benefits of a teacher in the classroom rather than the unemployment benefits of one who is forced to sit at home while they look for a job.  We believe that it is the obligation of a responsible government to do everything possible to keep quality teachers in their jobs. 

Finally, your budget places an enormous focus on student achievement as a measure of teacher performance.  Although there is undoubtedly a place for this in the formula, it cannot be the only measure used.  There are many other components that contribute to student performance not the least of which being the degree of parental engagement in the education process.  Students who lack parental support will perform more poorly than students with strong support regardless of the talents of their teacher.  By making schools compete for funding based upon student performance you are holding schools hostage to circumstances which in some cases may be out of their control.

As the father of three beautiful daughters you must look at this issue through the eyes of a parent.  Our children need to work harder than ever before to compete in the future.  Advances in technology have made their world smaller than ever and have placed them at the negotiating table with children from around the world.  As parents, we owe it to our children to invest in their future by committing to their education.  The return on this investment will determine the economic climate of their future, and the extent of their opportunities.   

We welcome the opportunity to discuss our mutual commitment to education with you.

Sincerely,

Where are the jobs?

Nearly four months ago the Republican Party swept into power on a promise that their singular focus would be to create jobs, build the economy, and reduce the deficit.  A lot has happened since then, but one very notable thing has not.  In the 47 days since the new Republican majority took office they have not introduced a single job promoting piece of legislation.  Not a single one. 

What have they been doing, you ask?  The answer may frighten you.  Since the moment they took office Republicans across the country have been engaged full speed ahead on a mission of ideological extremism.  Day One.. First order of business.. House Resolution #1.. Repeal the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  That’s right, their first order of business was to rob the American people of the right to quality health care.  Rather than creating jobs they thought it was best to start out of the gates by telling millions of children with pre-existing conditions that they were no longer entitled to health insurance coverage.

Since then the list of accomplishments has only grown more terrifying.  The Republicans weren’t satisfied robbing Americans of their right to health care.  Next, they focused on the most aggressive assault on Women’s Rights that we’ve ever seen.  Legislation has been introduced in Congress to redefine rape so that funding for abortion could be limited.  Republicans in Georgia are trying to change the legal term for victims of rape, stalking, and domestic abuse from “victim” to “accuser” which would have a profound impact on the public perception of these individuals.  Republicans in South Dakota want to make it “justifiable homicide” to murder a doctor who performs abortions!  Congressional Republicans have introduced legislation that would allow hospitals to deny a woman an abortion even if it means she will die.  Funding for Head Start, a pre-school program for low-income women and their children, is being reduced by over a billion dollars depriving more than 200,000 children of their place in the school.  And just yesterday Republicans in Congress voted to cut all federal funding for Planned Parenthood. 

Terrifying as it may be, the assault on our rights hasn’t stopped there.  Republicans want to take away Worker’s Rights as well.  That’s right, the same people who promised to create jobs want to rob the American worker of what few protections they have for their benefits and income.  This week in Wisconsin the Republican controlled State Legislature has teamed up with the newly minted Republican governor to propose legislation that would eliminate all collective bargaining and other union rights to every teacher, nurse, and other public employee in the State.  Because the Republican Party holds a majority in both chambers of State government as well as the Governor’s Office the only way that Democrats in Wisconsin could delay the inevitable was to flee the state and deny the Republicans the quorum required to conduct business.  Despite their heroic actions the bill is expected to pass and be signed into law by the Governor. 

When the Republican Party is not robbing Americans of their rights, they are holding the government hostage instead.  Less than two weeks from now the Federal Government will run out of money unless the Congress passes legislation to raise the debt ceiling so that the government can continue to function under a continuing resolution that would fund the government while Congress and the president negotiate a budget.  The Republicans have threatened to block this legislation and shut down the government entirely leaving millions of government employees unable to work, and delaying Social Security and other benefit checks to Americans who depend on that money to pay their bills every month.  Does this sound like the same people who promised to represent the American worker?  I think not.

Every day more truths emerge about the Republican Party’s intentions and each bit of news is more horrifying than the one before it.  Worse yet, we will not have the opportunity to vote these extremists out of office until 2012.  The only defense the American People have against this Republican assault is to exercise their right to protest.  Make phone calls to your Senators and Representatives, write letters to the editor, start a blog, and don’t be afraid to express your disapproval of the Republican agenda.  Make yourself heard.

When you talk to one of your Republican elected officials be sure to ask them one thing:  Where are the jobs?