Sleight of hand, slighted honor

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By Carter Bundy The McCain/Palin convention (you can’t call it a Republican convention, since the party’s name wasn’t used) is one of the great misdirects of all time. With impressive chutzpah, the Republican Party has decided to try to convince the American people that they should fight against the last eight years of Republican control by… electing Republicans. Even stranger, they want Americans to elect Republicans with policies virtually identical to the current president, excepting maybe a little more objection to torture (and, before Palin, support for stem-cell research). It’s quite the sleight of hand, having the most powerful establishment people in America sitting in a convention center clamoring for change from — get this — themselves. I think it was Sprint who ran the TV ad where the CEO says he’s going with Sprint to “stick it to the man,” and then the assistant says “but sir, you are the man.” Apparently irony isn’t only for commercials anymore. Continue Reading

Small.

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By Carter Bundy I woke up Friday morning following Obama’s big, grand vision for America to hear some of the smallest, almost silliest news I’d heard during the entire campaign: Sen. McCain had chosen a running mate with less than two years of state-level experience and a stint as mayor of a town smaller than Grants. Nothing wrong with being mayor of, say, Grants. Or Milan. But it was stunning and borderline laughable (albeit scary) that Sen. McCain’s much-vaunted experience led him to make a purely political and gimmicky pick for someone one heartbeat away from being the most powerful person on the planet. From her introductory speech to GOP press releases, it was clear they had simply chosen a woman — any woman — to try to peel off Hillary voters, but had to find one acceptable to the extreme religious right. Continue Reading

Big.

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By Carter Bundy It was obviously a big moment. Everyone knew there’d be a big crowd. Everyone expected a big delivery. But throughout Barack Obama’s nomination acceptance speech, all I could think about was how much larger than the average presidential nominee he is. The guy’s got a really big brain. Continue Reading

Falling in line

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By Carter Bundy Recent events have convinced me that unless Democrats, liberals and progressives start coalescing around Obama, the GOP is going to survive what should be a free fall in local and national politics just fine. Republican hierarchies One of my favorite theories about the two major parties is that people drawn to the Republican Party generally believe in following orders and staying within a firmly established hierarchy. Think about three of the key legs of the GOP stool: military, church and corporate America. In the military, there can be a discussion of strategy behind closed doors by leaders, but once a decision is made, it’s absolutely critical that orders be followed. Soldiers aren’t there to question; they’re there to carry out the mission. Continue Reading

Wanted: full-time legislators

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By Carter Bundy The substantive issue in the middle of the back-and-forth between sitting legislators and nonprofits is ethics. The nonprofits communicated with the public about their opinion of the ethics of certain legislators and their donors’ influence. The legislators in turn sued, claiming that the nonprofits were really just political organizations who themselves won’t reveal donors (the Center for Civic Policy wisely has revealed the bulk of it donors since the lawsuit, even though legally it didn’t have to). It’s a legal near-certainty that the nonprofits’ actions are protected First Amendment speech. There’s not a court in America likely to overturn the elections in any event. Continue Reading

Wal-Mart gets it right

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By Carter Bundy I said it: Wal-Mart got it right. And the Wall Street Journal got it right. The Journal reported last week that Wal-Mart is actively encouraging their employees to vote against Democrats, particularly Barack Obama, to keep out unions. The Journal undoubtedly got it right. Wal-Mart is arguably the most aggressive union-busting company in recent history, shutting down the few stores where employees have bravely started organizing drives and firing many others for union activity. Continue Reading

The ants’ special opportunity

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By Carter Bundy Governor Richardson’s call for a special session is a good one. August generally is a down time for lawmakers. Most voters aren’t focused on state legislative elections, and in any event it’s awfully hot walking around knocking on doors. Low expectations, high potential This year, it’s particularly good to have a special session to lay the groundwork for health-care reform in the 2009 session. The governor is wisely downplaying the odds of significant health-care legislation in the special. Continue Reading

One in four million

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By Carter Bundy The president of the United States is a big deal. Really big. Most powerful man in the world, in charge of tens of thousands of nukes, commander-in-chief of the largest war machine in world history, spokesperson for the free world with unlimited use of free media, and owner of the most listened-to bully pulpit this side of the Vatican. But when we elect a president, we’re not just electing one guy. We’re electing the person who will be the executive in charge of a four-million-person organization that enforces our laws, carries out over a trillion dollars worth of direct activity every year and oversees and/or regulates trillions of dollars of private economic activity. Continue Reading

W’s best and worst

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By Carter Bundy This week, briefly, I was actually proud of our president. Of course I respect the office, but those of us who believe in fiscal responsibility, opportunity for all, war as a last resort and basic constitutional freedoms and the rule of law have had a tough time finding things to be proud of in our executive branch the last seven years. President Bush’s shining moment came during a July 4th citizenship ceremony at Monticello, the home of free-speech hero Thomas Jefferson. The proceedings were interrupted by a small group of people protesting President Bush. What they were protesting really doesn’t matter. Continue Reading

Randomness and the rule of law

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By Carter Bundy There’s nothing that defines America’s greatness more than the rule of law. It may be the single most incredible accomplishment of our republic. Without it, our other freedoms like speech are rendered meaningless. Assaults on the rule of law don’t always come in the form or partisan politics or high-profile leaders, as in the Domenici-Wilson-Iglesias case. Sometimes, attacks on the rule of law come disguised as sympathetic plaintiffs who have suffered unimaginable tragedy. Continue Reading

‘Market’ scams, taxpayer backlash

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By Carter Bundy There seems to be much confusion of late about what constitutes private property and freedom. Today’s conservative political, business, energy and developer leadership, and the think tanks they fund, flatly state that things belonging to all of us — all Americans — should in fact be owned by a handful of energy companies or developers. It’s happening at the local, state and federal levels. To a large degree, it’s the central philosophical battle between the major parties, although there are some Democrats who have fallen prey to the nearly unlimited financial and political clout of those who wish to raid general funds and public lands for corporate gain. Contrary to the big-business spin, this isn’t about whether energy companies or developers should be allowed to conduct their business or whether they add something to our society and economy. Continue Reading

Undoing Dubya

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By Carter Bundy One of the trendier things people say in politics is, “Well, I guess I don’t care who’s in the White House, as long as the other party is in control of at least one house of Congress.” It’s perfectly cool, because it implies a certain disdain and aloofness from politics, while at the same time making a statement against the extremes. It makes one a maverick. An independent. Non-partisan. A thinker. Continue Reading

Primary perspectives

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By Carter Bundy I’ve been in 10 states over the last seven months supporting my union’s candidate for president. That candidate was Hillary Clinton, although my union has already endorsed Barack Obama because his labor record is 180 degrees from Senator McCain’s. Having front-row seats for the longest presidential primary campaign in American history has been an incredible privilege. While our program consisted of union-member outreach, it wasn’t hard to learn something about the different campaigns along the way. Just because I think political geeks like myself might find it interesting, here are a few of my observations about running a national campaign (primarily focusing on field work). Continue Reading

Primaries gone bad

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By Carter Bundy Can politics ever mean too much? Maybe. Sometimes the desire to win — not only by the candidate, but by his or her supporters — leads to two types of negative attacks that reflect more poorly on the attacker than the target. Strangely, these attacks seem even more common during primaries than in general elections. Personal prevarications The first types of attack are personal smears. Continue Reading

Eating, not mistreating

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By Carter Bundy OK, I swear I’m not stalking Heath’s other columnists. Really. Not that I didn’t love Mike Swickard’s last article on no-kill shelters. I did. But Heath can tell you I’ve been planning on doing an animal-food article for a few weeks, and hopefully the two complement each other and help raise awareness of the broad variety of animal issues we can do something about. Continue Reading