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Geeking out about Melinda May using the alias Chastity McBryde (from Elektra Assassin) in SHIELD this week.

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Vote Obama #3/7: Pragmatism vs Ideology

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Today's argument for why you should vote for Obama is about pragmatism and ideology.

(Wednesday's was about the obstructionist Republican congress and shape-shifting Romney. Thursday's was about the Democrats' respect for science.)

Here's the basic thing. Obama is at heart a pragmatist. He does things because he believes they will work in a particular circumstance.

The Republican party, at the moment, is ultra-ideological. They do things because they believe in their ideology, and they apply that ideology in all cases no matter the circumstances, and no matter whether that ideology has been proven not to work in the past.

The Democratic party as a whole is probably in-between here. Today I'm just focusing on Obama and not the Democrats as a whole.

Obama's basic decision-making process is to get a bunch of experts together. He intentionally gets ones who don't agree with each other. Then he has them all make an argument for their position, and rebut each other's position. After hashing it out for a long time, and asking them many questions, he comes to an answer that he believes is the most effective of all the available options. This decision-making process of his has been reported in multiple news sources.

The Republicans right now base their approach to government on a philosophical stance that is both extreme (in relation to the previous stances of the Republican party--it has been said by many current moderate Republicans that the Republicans of just 20-30 years ago wouldn't even understand the party's current incarnation, and that the actual policies of Reagan, who is idolized by the current party, wouldn't pass in a current Republican congress) and pure, in the sense that it is supposed to be applied in all situations.

By this I mean that they believe in minimizing government, balancing the budget and cutting taxes. They have actually almost all signed a pledge to a lobbyist named Grover Norquist to never raise taxes. These are not necessarily bad goals, but their worth depends on the context. For instance, the federal government is supposed to be able to run on a deficit. State governments can't, but there are times when it is helpful to the country that the feds can borrow money and spend it for stimulus reasons. Administrations of both parties have done this for decades to beneficial effect for the country. When it comes to the size of the government, how small is too small? They don't really provide an answer, but it seems like the answer is, when we cut all the things that help poor people, but don't cut the things that help large companies. When it comes to taxes, are there no circumstances when we should raise them? The problem is they see the country's budget needs as a zero sum game. But If we are attacked, or have to engage in a war, or deal with a hurricane, don't we need to raise extra funds? According to the Republicans, and in contrast to previous US policy, no, because it's against their ideology--circumstances don't matter.

If the economy is good, their prescription is lower taxes, and if it's bad, their prescription is lower taxes. According to them, the lower the taxes, the better the economy. So with zero taxes we'd have an infinitely strong economy? And never mind the fact that studies show that there is almost no correlation between low taxes and economic growth, or that history has shown that economic growth has been stronger under Democratic presidents than Republican ones. For Republicans, the facts don't matter, only the philosophy behind their economic theory matters.

Whereas Obama picks and chooses economic policies based on studies and facts about what has worked best in the past.

Another economic example was the debt ceiling. Every administration and congress has always raised the debt ceiling. It's got nothing to do with overspending, it's just a standard process. But because so many of the new Republican congressmen were so ideological (and so economically uneducated), they forced a needless showdown on it, which ended up downgrading the US bond rating. Even the older Republicans didn't think this made sense, but the ideological wing is in charge now.

On immigration, Obama has tried to get support for practical solutions that make it harder for undocumented immigrants to one in, and deports those who cause trouble, but finds a path to citizenship for those willing to join the army or pay a fine first. This is a plan many Republicans used to support, but now they are following a purist philosophy that says the only way to deal with them is make sure they can't get in--an impossible task. But since they are ruled by ideogical thinking, they can't bend, no matter how practical the alternative is.

In fact, they are now ideologically against compromise in general. It used to be that the minority party would oppose the majority's plans in order to get a better bargaining position, then compromise. Now they believe it's their way or the highway. Compromise, once the very hallmark of American government, is now seen as evil by them. Meanwhile Obama and the Democrats stand waiting and willing to compromise, and have altered many of their bills in order to get bipartisan support. But the Republicans won't do it.

The same goes for many social issues. These examples could also have gone under my "republicans don't support/know science" blog, but they'll work here too. This year two Republicans have made absurd statements about rape, because they are ideologically against it in all circumstances, and aren't willing to compromise and just have common sense restrictions on it, as most Americans believe there should be. No, they are so stuck in their ideologically- driven mindset that they have ignored all reality and scientific fact and believe that women who are raped can somehow not get pregnant, and that there is no such thing as a pregnancy that can threaten the life of the mother, even though such things unfortunately happen all too often. But the Republicans can't see past their ideology to see the medical facts.

This effect may partly come from demographics. There is a theory that this election, or maybe the next election, are the last ones the Republicans can win, simply because of demographics. The percentage of the voters that is female and ethnic minorities is getting larger and larger. Soon, if the Republicans continue to rely on the white male vote as their main demographic, they simply won't have enough votes to win. What studies have found is that when an ideological is near extinction, or has its back against the wall, it flares up and becomes temporarily more extreme before it fades away. We may be seeing this right now with the Republicans' nativist, hyper-individualist, anti-federal, anti-tax, culturally conservative ideologies (as seen n the neo-cons under bush and the Tea Party now). Whereas the democrats in general, and especially the last two Democratic presidents, tend to be very open to whatever solutions work, and have especially done a lot of economic triangulation. Democratic economic policies actually look a lot like moderate Republican policies from a few decades ago.

Basically the Republicans see everything as black or white, right or wrong. Whereas Obama sees things as shades of gray.

Myself, I want leadership that sees shades of gray, that can find a middle ground, that will use whatever solution works, instead of always trying the same solution no matter what it's track record is. I believe in compromise, if for no other reason than the fact that endless hardball stalemating degrades civility and stops the day-to-day governance of the country. Now, I can believe that some people think the all-or-nothing approach is the way to go—the Republicans admit to pretty much everything I’ve said here, they just think it’s a good thing. But me, I'm a pragmatist.

What about you--do you prefer pragmatists or ideology-driven government?

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