1. Left Limit, Right Limit: An Approach to Understanding Political Issues Part IIId

Today is the final purely informational report in a series I have been doing on fund raising letters from the two major political parties. Next week I will begin an analysis and comparison of the two parties based on the reports. I’ll ask questions like these. When a party writes this phrase in their letters, what does that actually mean? What does a party say in comparison to what they mean? What do parties actually do in comparison to what they say they will do? I think you’ll find it enlightening.

What I have for you today is a report on a Republican fund raising letter from Karl Rove. The themes Rove uses are pretty well the same I’ve reported on from before, but Rove’s framing of the issues is worth noting. I will quote three paragraphs showing Rove’s assessment of the Republican vs. the Democratic Party. According to Rove—

“The choice is between a party whose leaders want to use every resource to win the War on Terror and protect America. . . or a party who wants to pull our troops out before the job is done and deny our intelligence and law enforcement the tools they need to stop terrorist attacks.

“The choice is between giving individuals freedom to spend their money and own their own health care and retirement savings. . . or allowing the “government knows best” crowd to make those decisions for you.

“On issue after issue, Republicans trust you to manage your money and your life; Democrats want more power for government and more control over you. Republicans share your values and principles; Democrats have a Liberal philosophy that’s increasingly out of touch with mainstream America.”

End quote

I’ve noted for you before the “beating your wife” questions common to both parties’ fund raising letters. I should also note that both of them wave the crying towel at how well funded the other is by large organizations. (Democrats by Big Labor, for example, and Republicans by Lobbyists.) Rove notes that the average gift to the RNC is $41. I did a quick search to find the average gift to the DNC, but was unsuccessful. If anyone finds it and wants to provide the data as a comment, I would appreciate it. I imagine the figure is similar.

Here are some quotes from Rove’s letter I found interesting and will discuss later.

“Our country is evenly divided politically.”

“Republicans must recommit to our Party’s core principles of lower taxes, limited government, a strong national defense and individual freedom.”

“When Republicans get our message and ideas past the Liberal media filter and directly to voters—we win.”

Rove concludes his letter by contrasting the positions of Republicans vs. Democrats on three issues: Taxes and Spending, the War on Terror, and Health Care. The language varies a bit from the three paragraphs I quoted to you earlier, but essentially argue the same position described above.

See you next week when we begin our analysis.

2. Another Perspective on “Flip Flopping”

This whole business about candidates accusing one another of “flip flopping” has gotten out of hand. The reality is this form of political “gotcha” is doing more harm than good for individual voters like you and I. I did a posting on the topic on my Blog this week. Please take the time to read it. See if you don’t agree you would be served better by the approach I advocate.