the weary blues

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In case you haven’t heard, yet another woman has come forward today detailing inappropriate, sexual advances from Republican Presidential hopeful Herman Cain. What makes this particular allegation more significant is it came with a public appearance from the victim[1] and the fact that the allegation itself sounds more like sexual assault than mere harassment.

I admit when Cain first announced he was running for the Republican nomination, I assumed he’d be a no-name candidate vying for a fraction of a percentage point. His lack of command of the facts and outrageous, often nonexistent policy stances made him appear as someone looking for a regular seat on Fox News than legitimately attempting to be President one day. Six months later, he’s matching presumed frontrunner Mitt Romney in the polls. Unfortunately for him, the new accusations have an opportunity to not only derail his Presidential hopes (which isn’t hard to do), they could also damage his public image enough to repel Fox and other conservative outlets, hurting potentially lucrative post-election opportunities.

Earlier this year, Cain’s unreleased gospel album entitled Sunday Morning[2] leaked online. It was recorded in the 1990s, which is ironically in the same time period as the allegations are said to have taken place. This wouldn’t be the first time a politician’s put forth such a public display of personal spirituality and morality only to couple it with inappropriate, contradicting actions behind the scenes (especially in the ’90s). Included on it is “I Must Tell Jesus” (above, mp3) which features a swaying piano and baseline carrying a baritone Cain singing about being over-burdened and seeking compassion.

I wonder what Cain’s telling Jesus these days. So far, he’s told everyone else conflicting accounts of the alleged events masked in baseless cries of racism. So far, he’s shown no compassion for the burdened victims (or women in general, considering his stances on women’s reproductive rights). Better yet, what did Cain tell Jesus when confronted with an urge to approach the alleged victims? Ironically, Cain left off a verse from the century old song which contained a few lines addressing that very issue:

…What must I do when worldliness calls me? What must I do when tempted to sin?…

If the answer was to put those events behind him and run for President anyway, he should seek better advice.

1. Lots of the victim-blaming thus far stupidly revolves around the anonymity of other accusers. [↩]
2. Album cover designed by me. I was bored. [↩]

Paul Waldman has an interesting post up today about how new ideas are treated and incorporated into policy on the left and right. He writes:

Are Republican politicians just more interested in ideas? Not exactly. What they’re interested in is big, sweeping ideas. Not technocratic fixes, not proposals for a new agency, but ideas that upend the bases of how we think about politics and what we consider reasonable and insane. Democrats, not so much.

He makes some valid points, and I highly recommend reading his post. However, I feel he didn’t quite hit the nail on the head. The difference between the right and left aren’t the size and scope of ideas. What’s different is a disconnect between the idea makers and policy makers on the left.

Conservative thinkers, while quite fond of big, sweeping (and wrong) ideas, are much more pragmatic, and they tune ideas specifically for the politics at the time. During the Bush years, conservative thinkers were still writing in support of decreasing debt and the size of government. Yet were the same people also publicly criticizing Bush for drastically increasing both? Largely, no. The right is much more willing to look past old ideas and adopt new ones to push an agenda. While noble, the left simply isn’t.

Just look at the reaction to the President’s upcoming jobs speech. If this were a Republican president, Republicans would be out in full force with talking points and showing a willingness to hear and support whatever ideas the President would offer. Despite being set up specifically to present (what I hope are) large, sweeping ideas for job creation, the left largely views next week’s speech as useless. While it’s true that the Republican-controlled House will likely block every measure the President presents, the left’s reaction to the event only further discourages Democratic policy makers from incorporating new ideas.

Imagine if liberal writers and pundits grasped onto one idea the President presents next week (of which they agreed with) and pushed it publicly in unison. We’d have a better chance of controlling the discussion in Washington and perhaps implementing that idea down the line. Yet, liberal writers would rather talk about ideas the President didn’t present or how pushing the speech back a day made the President look weak. Another example is the public option. Because of conservative Senate Democrats, it had no chance of passing. Yet the reaction on the left hasn’t been to further articulate the benefits of a public option in hopes that the public or press catches on. It’s blaming the President for somehow not persuading Dems to vote for it.

The big ideas are present on the left, but they’re being held back by a base more concerned with purity than political expediency and an opposition party willing to evolve its own ideas to win.

Steve Jobs chose the perfect time to resign. Apple is in its prime. High off the success of the iPhone 4 and iPad 2, Apple briefly pushed past Exxon earlier this month to become the world’s most valuable company in terms of market cap. The iPhone 5 is set to be released in October with rumors of Sprint being added as a carrier. They made $7.31 billion in profit last quarter alone. Jobs has no doubt solidified his icon status by turning Apple and Pixar into institutions of innovation and leadership in their respective industries. However as Jobs resigns as Apple’s CEO, it’s his philosophy that can leave the biggest mark, above any iconic product he introduced to the world. And if there’s anyone that should take a closer look at Jobs’ approach, it’s our government.

The federal government and Apple are two very different entities. A CEO doesn’t have to share power with two other branches of leadership. Apple isn’t a company in gridlock due to competing factions. Yet, there’s so much our political leaders can learn from Jobs’ tenure at Apple. The US is currently facing many of the same challenges Apple faced in the early ’90s. Apple was losing to an exploding competitor, Microsoft. Their OS was stagnant and out-dated. Their stock was tanking. Apple needed more than a jolt of fresh products. It needed a new philosophy. In Apple Confidential 2.0: The Definitive History of the World’s Most Colorful Company by Owen W. Linzmayer, the newly appointed Apple CEO Jobs is quoted as saying:

“The cure for Apple is not cost-cutting. The cure for Apple is to innovate its way out of its current predicament.”

Today, the US is going the route of a Jobs-less Apple in the early ’90s. It’s choosing austerity over investment, contraction over transformation. Indeed, the cure for the US is not cost-cutting. The cure for the US is to innovate its way out of its current predicament. The solution is not closing factories and schools. It’s finding and creating new industries, rebuilding our infrastructure, and investing in education to produce the world’s brightest leaders and innovators.

Steve Jobs defies the “conservative business leader” image our political culture and media are so fond of. At a time when many feel traditional conservative business thinking is the answer to the US’ current predicament, Steve Jobs is living proof of the opposite. Anil Dash says it best:

So, who is this man? He’s the anchor baby of an activist Arab muslim who came to the U.S. on a student visa and had a child out of wedlock. He’s a non-Christian, arugula-eating, drug-using follower of unabashedly old-fashioned liberal teachings from the hippies and folk music stars of the 60s. And he believes in science, in things that science can demonstrate like climate change and Pi having a value more specific than “3″, and in extending responsible benefits to his employees while encouraging his company to lead by being environmentally responsible.

Every single person who’d attack Steve Jobs on any of these grounds is, demonstrably, worse at business than Jobs. They’re unqualified to assert that liberal values are bad for business, when the demonstrable, factual, obvious evidence contradicts those assertions.

This should come to no surprise:

Louisiana made its annual dismal showing in the Kids Count Data Book, which ranks states on a list of indicators of overall child well-being such as children living in poverty, infant and child mortality, the rate of school dropout and births to teens. Louisiana ranked 49th nationwide, a ranking it’s received for at least 10 years. Neighboring Mississippi is No. 50, a ranking it’s held for at least a decade in Kids Count data, which has been released yearly by the Annie E. Casey Foundation for the past 22 years.

Meanwhile, Louisiana politicians are calling for even more cuts to social programs, state leaders are making efforts to gut public education, the state continues to get redder, and Governor Jindal is cruising to reelection. No one is holding state leaders responsible, and state Democrats don’t seem to budge unless the oil industry is involved. Louisiana is ripe for progressive leadership. Until it appears, Louisiana will remain at the bottom of such lists. To no surprise, of course.