Democratic National Convention: Day Two Recap

After two nights of both conventions being down, the score is:

Democrats: 2
Republicans: 0

And if you broke down the scores it isn't even close. Elizabeth Warren and Bill Clinton came out and made great cases for why the Democrats should not only retain the White House, but gain back control of Congress. Just watch their speeches for yourself

Here's the future junior senator from Masschusetts:



And here's Bill Clinton's hell of a speech:



Tonight Barack Obama will accept the nomination as Democratic candidate for President of the United States. Obviously his speech will be the most anticipated, but there are several other speakers to look forward to, such as Vice President Joe Biden and the always fun Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.

As always, we'll be keeping up with the convention on twitter.

Democratic National Convention: Day One Recap

The first day of the Democratic National Convention was a good start, as there were many good speeches and a great tone in general. Compared to the RNC, which felt like a halfhearted meeting at a country club, the DNC was much looser, much smoother, and a much better representation of the United States as a whole.

If the day had any sort of theme, it was that the Democratic party is proud of Obamacare. Although two years late, it appears the party has finally gotten around to figuring out how to sell what is a complicated, flawed, but ultimately very beneficial piece of legislation.

Unlike the RNC, the speakers at the DNC actually seemed enthusiastic about supporting their candidate. They spent much more of their time speaking about President Obama and what he can do if re-elected, rather than blathering on about themselves. There were many great speeches from earlier in the night, such as former Ohio governor Ted Strickland, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick, and NARAL President Nancy Keenan. Even Harry Reid's speech was effective, if not quite the barnburner as later ones would be.

However, the best speeches by far were the last two. The keynote speaker was San Antonio Mayor Julian Castro. His speech reminded us of Barack Obama's speech at the 2004 DNC in Boston. Be watching for his name, as he is clearly going to be a major player in the Democratic party of the future. Unlike

If his speech was the last speech night, it would have been an unqualified success. However, Castro's speech was just a warm up for First Lady Michelle Obama. After such a successful night of speeches, the pressure was on her to deliver.

And deliver she did. It was a speech by a woman that clearly loves her husband, her President, and her country. It rebuked every thing the RNC tried to say about Democrats and President Obama, and did it all without being mean or without directly attacking Mitt Romney. In essence, it made a most compelling case for the President's reelection.

So now the bar is set for former President Bill Clinton and current President Barack Obama. Given their track record, I think they'll both do alright. We'll have to see if that is true.

Happy Labor Day (and a few words about the Conventions)

We here at August Prairie wish all of you a happy Labor Day. Please think about all the labor movement in America has brought us, from the two day weekend to the forty hour work week. And of course, for some, dental plans.

We know we never provided a recap of Day Four of the RNC, but we didn't get to see any of it, and frankly what is there to say about Romney's speech? It was dull, it was bland, and it was unremarkable. It was also overshadowed by an angry old man yelling at an invisible man. All in all, a fitting symbol for today's Republican party. Yep, the GOP is now nothing but Mr. Burns, Rev. Lovejoy, that crazy gun shooting Texan, and Grandpa Simpson. I think even Sideshow Bob would blanch at the current state of the Republican party (not that we want him and his monstrous feet on our side).

Stay tuned tomorrow for our coverage of the Democratic National Convention, where we promise less cries of BULLSHIT will probably be heard. Even if those may be deserved at times.

Until then, enjoy this song from one of the greatest episodes of The Simpsons. Oh, and a bit of "Classical Gas" as well.

2012 Republican National Convention: Day Three Recap

Three (well, two) days down, one day left to go. The big day, the one where we finally get the "tall, somewhat charming" fellow that is the GOP nominee for President. I'm guessing for his senior staff, it couldn't be a day too soon, considering how Ryan and Christie did their best to overshadow him.

However, that recap is for tomorrow. Today is about yesterday, which was all about "We Can Change That".

(Paul Ryan tells another lie about Barack Obama and Medicare)

Hmm, it appears we were interrupted by Paul Ryan. Let's hope that doesn't happen again. Anyways, night three of the convention was a showcase for some senators, a few more governors (former and current), and two really annoying Attorneys General from Florida and Georgia. With Senator John "Bomb bomb bomb, bomb bomb Iran" McCain and former Secretary of State Condolezza Rice speaking, it was also a night for neoconning it up in regards to Foreign Affairs. They also finally recognized that the Bushes existed, with a short tribute video that we unfortunately missed. For a second there I thought the GOP had forgotten that there was a President from their party in office between Clinton and Obama. It appears they've still forgotten about NCLB, Cutting taxes while fighting two wars, and creating Medicare Part D, as well as turning those Clinton surpluses into deficits. You gotta feel sorry for the poor saps, don't ya?

(Paul Ryan blames the 30 Year War on Barack Obama, despite the fact that it started centuries before he was President)

Ugh, will he quit that? We're getting tired of all the interruptions, even more so because they are so damn full of lies. Well, where were we? Oh yeah, we were talking about Foreign Affairs night at the GOP. Condi Rice appears to be fairly intelligent, and I doubt she believes most of the crap her party spews. Were we facing a world of the Eisenhower or Kennedy administrations, she probably would be an excellent foreign affairs specialist. But like a lot of her peers in that field, they were trained for a world with the USSR, and just can't handle that it is gone. They can't work without that black hat to glare at. As we saw in Iraq and may yet see in Iran and/or Syria, this confusion and angst has caused us great problems. But hey, the speech was entertaining and probably the least offensive thing spewed forth by a professional political figure at the convention.

(Paul Ryan takes what was Republican obstruction over the debt ceiling, and blames it on President Obama)

GORRAMIT, PAUL RYAN! WILL YOU STOP INTERRUPTING US WITH THIS DRIVEL. CLEARLY IT WAS YOU AND YOUR ILK IN THE HOUSE THAT CAUSED OUR CREDIT RATING TO BE LOWERED. THE AGENCY EVEN SAID OBSTRUCTIONISM WAS THE SOURCE. AUGGHGHGHGHGARGLEBARGLEFOOFERAWBlahagoighewagpvhapgewgeagphewpgoewuepw9

-----------

(SIGH)

OK, we're better now. We've muted any way Paul Ryan could interrupt us, and we've triple locked the doors, so he won't try to come in and interrupt as well. Now back to the coverage. Man, wasn't Pawlenty and Portman both boring and disingenuous. A real winning combination there, ain't it. And of course there was also Mike Huckabee, and the birther Attorney General from Georgia, and that governor of New Mexico who balanced her budget without raising taxes (in part with Federal monies, but she forgot to mention that). I'm sure she's working real hard to get that blue meth off of the streets of Albuquerque.

And now on to the centerpiece of the night, the speech by Paul Rya-

(Paul Ryan tells same lie about Barack Obama and Medicare from before)

GAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHSCREWCRSERPWWTWEPGUWPEWPTWPEOSPCREWPUPWPREWPUPSFPFPUPGWDJFPWEOUPWEOJGFPLGDPOGUWEPOUEPOR42FGPWOEWEU$#$$PGPDJGPWOUPTOEWUJVMppgoaugpoeuepwotapotewuoagpagaowtepwpagmagowewepwea

OK, enough of this crap, that's all for this recap. See you tomorrow for the recap of Mitt Romney's speech. I'm sure Chris Matthews will love it, then five minutes later hate it.

2012 Republican National Convention Recap: Day Two

The theme for Day Two (effectively Day One) of the Republican National Convention was "We Built It". To me, that seemed like an odd choice, as it sounds awful close to the Obama campaigns theme. Of course, what they really mean by it is "I Built It", a response to the incorrect assumption based upon heavily edited comments from Obama that made it look like he said small business owners didn't build their company.* If you were to pick the theme based upon the small business owners that spoke yesterday, the appropriate theme would have been "We Built It with Government Assistance and Contracts".

Another theme would be "We're the Republican governors, and we'd make MUCH better Presidents than this idiot." These governors liked to tout their record, while trying to make the contrasting point that Obama is a failure. On top of that balancing act, they also had to say all of this in spite of either contradictory evidence, or the fact that their state's revival was due in part to Federal funds or the auto bailout.

The crown jewel of these governor speeches was the keynote address by New Jersey governor Chris Christie. In many ways it resembled the speech given by then Illinois senate candidate Barack Obama in 2004, albeit with a meaner and more divisive tone.** Effectively it was a speech that touted the speaker far more than the Presidential candidate it was supposed to support. The result was a speech that overshadowed Mitt Romney, who was clearly not impressed by it as he sat there watching it awkwardly. There is little doubt that Christie's speech was more about launching his 2016 GOP nomination campaign.

Looking forward to tonight's line up, it appears there will be plenty more governors speaking, as well as a cavalcade of senators. This all will lead up to the speech by the Republican candidate for Vice President Paul Ryan, where I assume he will try to play down his own budget ideas, while totally winking to the crowd that he still will push for those ideas.

Like last night, we here at August Prairie will be live tweeting about the convention, so if you haven't followed us yet on Twitter, please go do so now. We'll wait.

As for Thursday, it is unlikely that there will be any live coverage, at least not early in the evening. Real life has imposed itself, and we'll be on the road for much of the day. Hopefully we'll be back to cover the main event, which will be the speech by the candidate himself. No matter what, we'll definitely have a recap of at least that speech come Friday.

*Obama was talking about roads, bridges, and helpful teachers, the GOP likes to cut that part of his speech out. Note that they don't show the video of him saying it, as that would clearly show the editing job.

**It also wasn't anywhere near as great as a speech as the 2004 DNC speech. You can't doubt Christie's energy, though. You can doubt his sense in killing needed infrastructure upgrades, while giving away large tax breaks to the wealthy in NJ.

2012 Republican National Convention Recap: Day One

Thanks to Tropical Storm Isaac, which at one time appeared to be heading straight for Tampa, but instead is heading much farther west, the first day of the RNC was rather short. Nevertheless, in just about five minutes of time it already had me wondering if covering this Klassic Komedy Kavalcade* is a good idea.

Perhaps it was those annoying "debt clocks"** that they had, including one that started when RNC Chair Reince Priebus*** gaveled the session to order (before immediately adjourning until later today). Perhaps it was the blinding whiteness of hundreds of puffy red faced middle aged men and women that was giving me a headache. Whatever it was, I was not looking forward to day two.

At least Trump won't be showing up, so there's that.

Stay tuned for more as the day continues.

*As there will be plenty of dog-whistles being used in the speeches this week, I figure I'd use a not so subtle half-assed Simpsons reference in response.

**Seriously, where the hell were these clocks when St. Gipper the Jellybean King Reagan and Bush 43 were loading up our deficits? Oh that's right, debt is bad only if a Democrat is President.

***When your party chair's name sounds like either a) a tertiary character from Star Wars or b) a shampoo used to wash the mane of the Romney's dressage horse, you probably are going to have some problems. I know, I know, this is glib and unfair. Because the GOP has never made fun of the President's name.

How we got here, Part 2: 1824

Remember how I said that 1796 was the beginning of two party politics in the United States? Well, it was, but only the first beginning. You see, after 1800, the Federalists, always little more than a minority party primarily centered around the elites of New England, started to wane in importance. Sure, they ran candidates for the Presidency up through the 1816 election, and a few held on even longer in Congress and the Supreme Court. However the party's power had diminished as Jefferson, Madison, and Monroe each served two terms. By 1820, James Monroe ran virtually unopposed for his reelection, with one elector voting for John Quincy Adams. It was the "Era of Good Feeling", and it appeared that our partisan divide had been eliminated.

Of course, just because everybody called themselves "republicans" didn't mean that they were in harmony on every issue. As the "American System", a combination of tariffs and internal improvements, was pushed by leaders such as John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay, many southern and western leaders pushed back, arguing that tariffs hurt their constituents, and that internal improvements were the domain of the states, not the Federal government. In the middle of these fights came the contentious debate over the admittance of Missouri, and the ultimate compromise which brought Maine and Missouri into the Union, and kept a nation divided over the issue of slavery together for another three decades. Everybody was a part of one party, sure, but as the 1820s dragged on there became a clear division between two factions of that party.

Thus, as the nation came together to choose it's next President in 1824, it was clear that a near unanimous vote was unlikely. In fact, quite the opposite was to occur. Four candidates won electoral votes in the race, with Adams and Andrew Jackson, a war hero and lawyer from Tennessee being the two clear favorites. Jackson won the popular vote and the electoral vote, but did not reach the necessary majority of the latter. For the second time in our country's history, a Presidential election headed to the House of Representatives.

As per Constitutional rules, only the three candidates with the most electoral votes were allowed to be selected by the House. Therefore, the House could choose from Adams, Jackson, and William Crawford of Georgia. The fourth major candidate, Henry Clay of Kentucky, was left out. However, as he was Speaker of the House, it was likely he would play a major role in the selection of the next president.

Unlike the contentious 1800 House vote for President, the 1824 vote picked a president on the first vote. The winner was Adams, who beat Jackson and Crawford 13-7-4. Clay, who agreed with Adams on his plan of tariffs and internal improvements and did not like Jackson at all, played a big role. He put all of his support behind Adams and was a big reason that the Massachusetts politician took the office his father had held previously. Whether part of a "corrupt bargain", or because Adams thought Clay was the best man for the job, Clay would become Adams' Secretary of State.

With good reason, Jackson was incensed. He had won the popular and electoral vote, albeit with pluralities instead of majorities. For him and his supporters, it was clear that Clay had bargained the Presidency for the job as Secretary of State. For the next four years this would be their rallying cry, as they were determined to right that wrong in 1828. Jackson supporters, which included a large amount of poor and middling Americans who could vote now that property restrictions were falling away, started calling themselves Democrats. Adams, Clay, and their supporters chose instead to call themselves National Republicans. Partisanship was back in America in a big way.

Next Time: Anti-Masons get their trip into the history books, as the birth of nominating conventions come about in 1832

The source for this post is the Wikipedia article on the 1824 Presidential election. Yeah, I used Wikipedia as a source. This is a little read political blog, not a scholarly paper. Also, I know for a fact that Napoleon helped Adams make his agreement with Henry Clay and Magneto.

UPDATED: Apologies in Advance to My Neighbors: August Prairie Covers the 2012 RNC

Assuming it isn't washed away by Tropical Storm/Hurricane Isaac, August Prairie will be covering the Republican National Convention. No, not in Tampa, but from the comfort of our living room. We can't promise our coverage will be thorough, entertaining, or even coherent. Honestly, it may just be a string of profanities and drunk ramblings. However, we do promise to try to try and give meaningful coverage.

We'll be live blogging each of the main speakers, such as the keynote by New Jersey governor Chris Christie, Vice-Presidential candidate and Wisconsin Representative Paul Ryan, and of course the acceptance speech by former Massachusetts governor Willard "Mitt" Romney. Expect other posts throughout each afternoon and evening, and for stuff that is too ephemeral or unworthy of a major post can be found via twitter.

Because I'm an effete, arugula nibbling islamofasciocommunosocioanticolonial community organizer with a fancy-schmancy Opossum League degree*, I'll be watching MSNBC's coverage, with occasional jaunts to CNN or CSPAN if MSNBC is showing Pat Buchanan, Tweety Matthews is having feelings go down his leg, or they switch to a prison lockup show. You couldn't pay me enough (okay, if I were getting paid MAYBE) to watch Fox News.

Please note that short of him announcing a floor challenge to Romney, or that he was a Democratic plant all along, we will NOT be covering whatever that fat-fingered vulgarian Donald Trump has to say.

UPDATE: Obviously, there won't be any coverage on Monday, because the RNC cancelled its Monday session due to weather concerns. We'll see if there are further changes because of Isaac. Stay tuned...

*To everyone but me, this is known as the Ohio Valley Conference. GO EIU PANTHERS!

How we got here: A history of partisan politics in America

For about twenty years after the signing of the Declaration of Independence, the vast majority of the leaders of the young United States of America attempted to rise above partisan politics. It wasn't that they agreed with each other (far from it), but more that as "gentlemen" they were supposed to be above the rough, seemingly destructive nature of party politics. Sure, there had been an informal division between supporters of the Constitution (Federalists) and those who had doubts about parts, or even the entire document (Anti-Federalists). Still, these groups were far from the nineteenth century parties, let alone our modern concept of parties.

By the time George Washington set a very important precedent by stepping down at the end of his second term, partisanship was already well entrenched. On one side were the Federalists, led by John Adams and Alexander Hamilton. There power was based in the aspiring aristocracy of the Northeast, with a much smaller base centered around the lowland plantations of South Carolina. On the whole, they were proponents of a strong activist government, a central bank, and good relations with Great Britain. They were suspicious of too much democracy, rattled by the Whiskey Rebellion in Western Pennsylvania, as well as the deteriorating mess of the French Revolution.

The other group would eventually be known as the Democratic-Republican. Led by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison, their power base were the farmers and most (but not all) of the plantation owners of the south, as well as many of the business owners and merchants in the Middle Atlantic and New England states. They were generally in favor of smaller government, and shunned most of the pomp and ceremony held dear by Federalists. Most of them were skeptical of a central bank, mistrustful of its power over the economy. They tended to favor the French, seeing them as fellow republicans amidst a sea of absolutists and aristocrats. Unlike the Federalists, they were incredibly wary of standing armies, and believed commerce between republics would ultimately end the need for war.

The election of 1796 was the first contested Presidential election in the history of the United States. At the time only nine of the sixteen states at the time bound their electoral college votes to the popular vote. Just a small percentage of the population could vote even in the states where it mattered, in most cases only white property owning men 21 years or older. John Adams won the most electoral votes and Thomas Jefferson came in second. Under the Constitution at the time this made him Vice-President. As Adams' term went on, it was clear that having a hostile Vice President was not exactly the best idea, particularly in a partisan world.

As the European wars continued, and both French and British fleets harassed American merchant ships, tensions continued to rise. At various times it appeared the USA would go to war against Great Britain, France, or both. The Federalists passed the Alien and Sedition acts, which led Madison and Jefferson to push for the theory of nullification, first by the young state of Kentucky, and later by the Old Dominion of Virginia. By the election of 1800, which would pit Adams and Jefferson against each other again, it was clear partisan politics were here to stay.

Over the next couple of weeks, as the Republicans congregate in Tampa and the Democrats meet in Charlotte, I'll be taking a trip through our nation's tumultuous history of partisan politics. My main purpose for this is to shed some light on how the modern parties became what they are. I figure the best way to do this is to divide posts up by various election years that I find most important. Note that these years don't always line up with Presidential election years, or with the most obvious years. However, they are the years which to me seem most pivotal in the development of our two party system. Two of the years will be midterm elections, harbingers of much larger developments for the waves that would happen the next Presidential elections. Since they are so recent, and we have yet to see their last impact, I'll tackle 2006, 2008, and 2010 together.

One final note before I give you the list of years I'll be writing about. Clearly this blog is tinted a deep, dark blue. However, I have no intention of clouding these posts with any sort of judgement, merely to document what led to these shifts, and what impact they would have for years to come. The one exception is the last post, which will detail where we sit here in 2012, and where I see things going.

And now, here are the years we'll be visiting.

Part 1: Introduction and 1796 (This post)
Part 2: A Return to Partisanship: 1824
Part 3: The Legacy of the Anti-Masons: 1832
Part 4: The Junior Party is Born: 1856
Part 5: Silver and Gold: 1896
Part 6: Progressives Ascendant: 1912
Part 7: The Business of Americans is Business: 1920
Part 8: The New Deal Coalition Emerges: 1930
Part 9: The Great Southern Shift Begins: 1964
Part 10: The Rise of the Rabid Right: 1978
Part 11: The New Democrats and Triangulation: 1992
Part 12: Bush v. Gore: 2000
Part 13: A Partisan Roller Coaster Ride: 2006, 2008, and 2010
Part 14: Where We Stand Today: 2012

August Prairie, Round 2

This evening I watched one of my favorite movies, 1776. It is a musical from 1972 based on the Broadway show of the same name. As made somewhat obvious from the title, it is about the men who gathered together in Philadelphia in June and July, 1776 to debate whether or not to declare independence from Great Britain. Although many delegates have parts, the main characters are Thomas Jefferson, Ben Franklin, and especially John Adams. Of all the members of the 2nd Continental Congress, Adams has to be my favorite. Sure, everyone loves witty old Dr. Franklin, and as he was a tall intellectual, I can relate to Jefferson. Adams, of course, was known for being sarcastic, caustic, and absolutely committed to independence for the assembled colonies. For months on end, he kept trying to push the Congress to accept in law what had happened in practice: That we were a free and separate nation from the British Empire. Here is the opening scene of the movie which shows Adams berating the Congress for delaying a vote or even debate for independence.
My friends, family, and occasional neighbors have likely had a similar reaction to my frequent political rants. I can imagine as I reach a crescendo of "GOOD GOD WHY CAN'T THESE PEOPLE BLAH BLAH ROMNEY BLAH BLAH BACHMANN BLAH BLAH McCARTHY BLAH BLAH RATIONAL RESPONSIBILITY" that they are thinking "Sit Down, Andrew". As annoying as Adams could be, it didn't change the fact he was right. Of course, his caustic nature certainly hurt his cause, as that crucial vote for independence took more than principled indignation to get done. It took diplomatic skill, agonizing compromises (thank you, South Carolina), and a crazy 80 mile dash by Caesar Rodney to get it done. Far too often I've lashed into long diatribes on this and that, usually in the presence of my family. It has reached the point where they have gotten sick of it, and for good reason. Sometimes it is because I'm preaching to the choir. Others times it is because I 'm being so antagonistic that I trigger a defense mechanism to redouble on your views, even if they may be unsound. I consider myself a strong believer in nuance and complexity, and consider viewpoints differing from my own to be just as valid. However, when I am talking, or discussing issues, I can be awfully forceful and combative. The biggest reason I do this is because often I'm too willing to abandon my position when some other point of view comes along. Because of this, it is hard for me to stand my ground, so I force myself to take a harder line in order to keep from being too wishy-washy and indecisive. Also, I'm apparently intimidating to some people, which seems ridiculous to me (I've never seen myself that way). However, I suppose a large guy who looks like he has a scowl on his face and can make his voice rather loud can be a bit imposing.

After my sister finally confronted me on this, I decided to make an effort to stop with the stump speeches when at my parents. It's made things less contentious when I'm there, although it has been hard biting my tongue a few times these past few weeks. Of course, it could be worse, as we're still in silly season. Once the campaigns REALLY start (i.e. after the conventions) it will be harder, especially if they have the news on when I am there. As I have given up annoying my family, and I still maintain my internet rule #1*, this blog is my one major source of political discussion. I've not done a damn thing with it since 2010, and I won't be doing much with it for the next few weeks.

Frankly, absolutely nothing that happens during this time of year will impact the election in November, at least not in regards to the news. Until both parties give their nomination bashes in Tampa and Charlotte, we're all just pissing in the wind. But once Romney mentions Reagan 85 times per minute in his speech, and Obama tries to evoke the memory of President Bartlet in the hearts of disillusioned liberals, there just isn't much to write. So other than maybe a few posts about the Civil War, or on governance or politics independent of our current situation. But come August 27**, game on.

One final note: On my hiking blog I discuss a very influential hike at Hetch Hetchy Reservoir in Yosemite. In it I mention making it a life mission to work on solving some of our most vexing ecological and environmental issues. While I don't have any plan or anything set up at this time, I will be sticking to this vow. As Walk With Nature is a hiking blog (with a bit of nature), this will likely be the place where that mission will begin. Please stay tuned for further developments.

*THOU SHALL NOT DISCUSS POLITICS ON FACEBOOK. This even extends to posting links to this blog. I kind of wish I'd violate this, but I'm keeping politics out of Facebook, as it and politics mix like oil and water. Tumblr, however, well that is fair game.

**The start of the Republican National Convention. I can't promise I'll watch all of it, but I can promise I'll try to watch some of it. Remember, conventions are mainly meant to fire up the base, and as I am so fucking far from the base of the GOP, the speeches will not be targeted towards me. I imagine I'll have an easier time with the DNC.