Far Center

While browsing Andrew Sullivan’s blog this morning I ran across a link to this article which is written by Bruce Bartlett, former policy advisor to Ronald Regan and treasury secretary to George Bush 1. 

It is a facinating article that simply recounts an instance a few years ago where he was quoted in the New York Times saying something that he figured would induce cringes amoung his conservative collegues.  But something interesting happened instead:

But in fact no one said anything to me–and not in that embarrassed/averting-one’s-eyes sort of way. They appeared to know nothing about it.After about half an hour I decided to start asking people what they thought of the article. Every single one gave me the same identical answer: I don’t read the New York Times. Moreover, the answers were all delivered in a tone that suggested I was either stupid for asking or that I thought they were stupid for thinking they read the Times.

This is the essence of the term Epistemic Closure and as Bartlett states, it has become much worse since then among today’s conservatives who never see, hear or read about the real world that exists outside of Fox News, Talk Radio and Conservative print media and Blogs.

I hadn’t heard this term before today but now that I have, it not only rings true to me, but explains a lot.  Why else would Tea Partiers freak out about higher taxes when the facts show personal tax rates under Obama are the lowest in decades? Because they are stuck in a world where that is not mentioned.

No wonder the fear and anger is so intense. The folks stuck in these loops have no idea what the other side of the argument is. 

I don’t think this is a never ending downward spiral however.  That would be disastrous. I think that in the next Presidential election when the masses are forced to hear both sides of the story by a billion dollars in ads they will escape the loop and be forced to make informed decisions. While I am a centrist, I can’t help but feel that the GOP candidate that is produced by a primary electorate engulfed in this Epistemic Closure will get trounced by Obama in the general election.

This I think will be the catalyst that breaks the loop.

Appears there are a few things that have <some> bipartisan support. This article about easing lending restrictions for credit unions is one of those rare instances where not only bipartisanship is evident, but where a republican has some praise for a far left democrat.

A well written commentary by an old Republican who can no longer relate to his party.

I am an old Republican. I am religious, yet not a fanatic. I am a free-marketer; yet, I believe in the role of the government as a fair evenhanded referee. I am socially conservative; yet, I believe that my lesbian niece and my gay grandchild should have the full protection of the law and live as free Americans enjoying every aspect of our society with no prejudices and/or restrictions. Nowadays, my political and socio-economic profile would make me a Marxist, not a Republican.

Read the full commentary here.

It’s been a slow week for non-partisan news so I’m posting a link to an clip showing former Bush communications adviser Dan Bartlett  praising Obama’s offshore drilling stance. Unfortunately he also admits it’s unlikely to provide any new GOP co-operation.

David Frum, conservative who recently wrote an article critical of the GOP strategy regarding Health Care Reform has been fired.  This is exactly the sort of message that discourages other commentators from abandoning partisanship for reason and why it’s so hard to find non-partisan articles for this blog.

You can read David Frum’s aforementioned Waterloo article here.

I spent a good part of my night last night and this morning watching a live feed of the US Senate as they voted on a host of amendments. It was surprisingly civil even as they trudged on through 2:30am.

I’m struck however at just how inefficient their procedures are. Both sides stand up and talk for a minute or two, then one guy asks if the matter should be voted on. This is followed by at least 10-15 minutes of verbal vote counting. When they finally announce that the matter will be voted on, once more one guy talks for a minute or two followed by the other side and then they start voting again in another 10-15 minute verbal count.  On and on it went.

It seems to me that it would sure be a lot more efficient if they either had a button like they have on ‘who want’s to be a millionaire’ where the vote is counted in seconds, or any number of other alternatives.

With a backlog of hundreds of bills passed in the House waiting on the Senate’s doorstep it would seem a more efficient process is sorely needed.

So I’ve had the site more or less operational for a day now and haven’t posted anything. Not because I haven’t wanted to, but because most of what I’m reading out there doesn’t have the criteria needed to link to it here. Either it is too partisan, or just not interesting enough. Sigh.

I’ll keep on keepin’ on.

Welcome to Far Center.  Please read my ‘about’ page for a quick word on why I created this blog.

At the moment I’m still configuring the site, and this is more of a test post than anything else. Useful posts will come shortly.