The Ultimate Entanglement

Over at Political Animal, in an explanation of his prediction that a Republican defeat in the upcoming election will not trigger a reconsideration of the rightward march of the party, Ed Kilgore makes an important and often overlooked point.

“In case folks haven’t noticed, the import of the advent of “constitutional conservatism” and its continued ascendency is that the Right and the GOP are in the process of chaining themselves to a permanent, immutable vision of governance that for many adherents is quite literally a divine gift to the Founders and the entire purpose of America. You don’t “rethink” this birthright, or debate it. And the usual search of political parties for “new ideas” is a bit irrelevant.”

This is a reference to a transfiguration that has been lost on most of us unreconstructed rationalists, but is evident to anyone who follows the fevered pronouncements of the Michelle Bachmann wing of the party, or the wildly ahistorical inventions of David Barton and his ilk.

We react with shock and bemusement when Republican members of Congress–including several members of the Science and Technology Committee–emphatically reject science, evolution, global warming and pretty much the entire intellectual structure of modern life, but we think of these as isolated instances. We don’t see those regressive opinions for what they are: part and parcel of a coherent, if frightening, worldview that has gradually become the worldview of the base of the Republican Party.

The “true believers” have always lurked on the fringes of the party, but gradually they have prevailed; they have entwined “biblical” Christianity and radically reactionary political positions in a new version of Constitutional Christianity. In this reading, the Constitution (as they read and interpret it) was a gift from God. it isn’t the product of a group of gifted men, a brilliant document that nevertheless requires inclusion of new populations and application to new realities; it is inspired by the God of fundamentalist Christianity, and must be approached with that understanding. Deviate from their literal beliefs–about the bible OR the Constitution–and it’s not a different point of view, it’s blasphemy.

The sane and moderate folks who used to make up the vast majority of the GOP have either left the party or failed to recognize how completely the crazies have assumed control. With the exception of a few people–David Frum, Bruce Bartlett and Norman Ornstein come to mind–they’ve kept quiet.

It has become a truism that demographics bode ill for the GOP’s future. It is increasingly, as many have noted, a party of old white men; furthermore, the party’s increasingly wild-eyed conspiracy theories and religious extremism are wearing very thin with the general public. Those trends bode well for Democrats, but not for the country, which needs two sane, responsible political parties.

Benumbed by the Crazy

When I get a chance, I check a few blogs on both the left and right, just to see how the “wings” are portraying what they see. I see exaggerations from both sides–but I have to say, there really isn’t much question who is crazier. There is spin, and then there is “are you f***ing kidding me?”

Yesterday, Crooks and Liars posted a poll to Daily Kos, asking respondents to rank the week’s most egregious examples of loony-tunes. Here were the contenders–all Republican:

Arkansas state House candidate Charlie Fuqua, for claiming that all Muslims in the U.S. should be deported.

U.S. Rep. Todd Akin, for claiming that doctors perform abortions on women who aren’t pregnant.

Jack Welch, for accusing the Obama administration of manipulating the latest jobs numbers.

Georgia Rep. Paul Broun, a member of the science and technology committee, for saying that evolution and the Big Bang theory are ‘Lies straight from the pit of hell.’

Meanwhile, three Republican legislators from Arkansas have weighed in with noteworthy contributions that the pollster somehow missed: Jon Hubbard has said and written that slavery was not so bad compared with normal African life at the time of American slavery; Loy Mauck has described President Abraham Lincoln as a terrorist; and Charles Fuqua (yep, same guy who wants to expel all Muslims) expressed support for the death penalty for rebellious children.

This isn’t spin. Each of these statements was widely reported in credible media sources. How has it come to this? How could presumably sane American citizens elect people like these? How have we come to the point where most Americans simply shrug off these displays of monumental ignorance and/or bigotry? This isn’t a matter of contending positions or policy differences–this is lunacy.

When did the general public become so desensitized to the GOPs descent into radicalism, and its rejection of reality? What happened to turn the party of sober fiscal conservatives and thoughtful social liberals–the party that I used to call my own–the party of Gerald Ford and Dick Lugar and Bob Orr and Bill Hudnut–into some sort of dangerous cult?

I feel like we’re the rabbit in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons–the one who is plopped into that pot of water that is slowly, diabolically heated…so slowly that the rabbit doesn’t notice the water boiling until it’s scalding him. In the years since Reagan (who, by today’s standards, was a commie), the delusional quotient has been rising gradually, incrementally, inexorably….until we’re suddenly in the deep water of an alternate reality.

How much hotter does it have to get before we come to our collective senses?

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Random Thoughts on a Frosty Morning….

Back in Indiana, on a morning that lets us all know fall is here…

Some ruminations.

Random thought #1. I talked to folks in Cleveland about what happened to the “Flats,” an old warehouse area that had been revitalized with restaurants and entertainment venues a couple of decades ago. The area is now pretty desolate; their explanation was that crime had increased–folks were mugged and beaten–and people had stopped patronizing those establishments. That made me think about the current problems in Indianapolis, where police presence has dropped significantly and the city has allowed important amenities like the canal to deteriorate. If we don’t want to emulate Cleveland–and we don’t–we need to send a message to City Hall.

Random thought #2. I see where Governor Daniels had a pretty bad weekend. Somehow, he’s blown through all that money he got from selling off–er, leasing–the Toll Road. So the portion of I69 between Bloomington and Indy evidently won’t get built, at least not without a lot of extra tax dollars. (That’s the problem with funding government by selling off state assets–when the money’s gone, so’s the ability of the asset to generate added income.) While the national unemployment rate dropped below 8%, Indiana’s rate increased to 8.3%. And legislators are beginning a real push-back on Daniels’ love affair with coal gasification and his plan to dump lots of state money into a coal gasification plant in southern Indiana, raising questions that should have been asked before this. But better late than never. But never fear–the Governor isn’t going to let these pesky problems distract him from important duties like shilling for the online “education” provided through WGU. (How’s that Purdue presidency coming along, Mitch?)

Random thought #3. Over the weekend, the Star somehow managed to avoid setting off the irony meter, in an editorial decrying the performance of Indiana’s public schools. The editorial writer wondered why a state that has managed its fiscal affairs so well (i.e., we have a surplus) hasn’t been able to improve education. Um…guys? Where do you think that money came from? Think that might have something to do with the problem?

Happy Indiana Autumn …

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Random Thoughts and a Great Video

Yesterday, I spoke to the Northern Ohio Chapter of CFI–the Center for Inquiry. It was refreshing to be in a group where science and empirical evidence are respected–especially on a day when yet another embarrassing Congressman (on the Science subcommittee, no less!) makes a fool of himself.

One of the highlights of the program was this video created by one of the members, Mark Tiborsky. It’s a bit long, but really funny.

For me, another highlight was meeting lots of bright, nice people–all of whom seemed to have more than a nodding acquaintence with the Constitution!–and finally getting to meet Ed Brayton, whose blog–Dispatches from the Culture Wars–has been a favorite of mine. (If that isn’t on your personal blogroll, it should be.)

Me with the rest of the panel--Ed Tabash, Ed Brayton and Michael De Dora

Watch the video!

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Perverse Incentives

There has been plenty of hand-wringing over the current emphasis (okay, infatuation) with high-stakes testing. Teachers have complained that they feel forced to “teach to the test.” Educators have pointed out that subjects not being tested–art, music, civics–get short shrift, despite their undeniable value.

Less often noted is the incentive to “game the system”–the temptation of school administrators faced with less than satisfactory test results to fudge the numbers. To cheat.

This week, the Superintendent of Schools in El Paso, Texas, was sentenced for just such behavior.  According to news reports,

One charge stems from García directing six unindicted co-conspirators and others to fraudulently inflate student test scores so struggling schools would appear to meet federal accountability standards, which are based on 10th-grade state standardized exams.

The scheme involved school district employees changing grades from passing to failing to keep some students in ninth grade, holding Mexican transfer students in ninth grade regardless of their transcripts and implementing credit-recovery programs so intentionally retained students could catch up to their appropriate grade and graduate on time.

García received $54,000 in bonuses that were stipulated in his contract if the district did well on state and federal accountability standards.

 Most school officials, of course, don’t engage in such blatant law-breaking. Instead, they spin results. They play games calculated to make their performance look better. Here in Marion County, Dr. White’s administration has been particularly generous with so-called “waivers” that allow students to graduate without passing the mandatory tests; the administration has also seen a mysterious increase in students purportedly leaving the system to be “home schooled,” and thus not counted as drop-outs.

If we really are intent upon reforming the nation’s public schools, we need to revisit some foundational questions. What are the skills and attitudes we want our schools to provide? What can be measured by testing and what can’t? How should test results be used in assessing teacher performance? What safeguards do we need to put in place to insure that Superintendents and others aren’t gaming the system? How do we create rewards for good performance and honest reporting, and avoid providing perverse incentives that encourage cheating?

And perhaps the hardest question of all: how do we shift our resources and emphasis back to the all-important classroom and hardworking, dedicated teachers, and away from the bureaucrats concerned mainly with protecting their turf?

In an ideal world, non-teacher school system employees would see themselves as support staff, there to provide classroom teachers with resources and services they need in order to do the important job of actual instruction. Superintendents would not see themselves as important executives entitled to big bonuses when those teachers do well, but as ombudsmen of a sort, encouraging and enabling classroom success.

Someone needs to remind these guys they aren’t bankers.

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