Archive for the ‘Freedom Scores for Candidates’ Series

Freedom Scores for Candidates
1. Teach Our Children Mandarin!

Posted by Bob on December 10th, 2007

I missed my YouTube Presentation of Questions to the candidates because I was too old (young) to ask questions about the future (past). Furthermore, my question was too long (short) to reflect how much (little) I know about current (past) political elections. So here goes!

Several months ago, we pulled together a sampling of Route 128, Boston, business executives for a focus group on economic intelligence. I had one question for them:

“What new breakthrough technologies are coming down the pike to replace the now-attenuating multi-trillion dollar market generated by information technologies?”

After some huffing and haranguing over soft suggestions of nano-technologies, solar fuel substitutes, biophysics and the like, the 20 executives converged on one unanimous answer:

“None!”

To their minds, no technologies were capable of generating the robust and ubiquitous, multi-trillion dollar economic growth-power of I.T.!

The second question that I had drawn from their answer to the first reflected upon the executive policy-making dominating the latter part of the 20th century:

“In light of your answer, why do you persevere in your policies of extinguishing the ‘R’ in R & D?”

Again, after much haranguing about long-term debts and short-term payoffs, the executives answered with one voice:

“Teach our children Mandarin!”

This from a representative sampling of the executives of “Silicon Valley East!”

So my question is this:

“On what course are you leaders taking American in the 21st century?

“Another way of putting the question is this: How will you empower America to assume the leadership of the world in the 21st century?

“Or, is this truly the Chinese century?”

I will even provide the format for answers:

“When I am president,
I will (will not) do anything (nothing)
that will (will not) inspire
leadership (followership)
in the 21st century
global (local) village.”

Freedom Scores for Candidates
2. Back to the Boiling Cauldron!

Posted by Bob on December 11th, 2007

One of the most critical ingredients or dimensions that has been related by research to Peace, Participation, and Prosperity in our time has been Cultural Relating or the relationships between the different cultures and classes of citizens in America. Historically, the “Melting Pot” for various waves of immigrants has become the metaphor for America’s greatness.

As I listen attentively to the music behind the words of the Republican candidates, I hear only the following proposal:

“When I am president, I will subcontract with a friendly Multinational Corporation to build a wall or fence to keep our neighbors (“illegal aliens”) out of this country (except when our Agribusinesses and other Multinational Corporations need them). This should ensure our leadership in the 21st century. Oh, by the way, we will build the fence using “legal aliens” because they will keep their feet on the Mexican side of the border!”

If I heard the Democratic candidates accurately, their answers sounded like they followed this format:

“When I am president, I will embrace our neighbors (future union members) and grant them amnesty (pardons) by shrinking the citizenship requirements that legal applicants must meet, and by expanding our budgets to meet the social, medical, and educational services that these families have, and by qualifying them immediately as voters in the Democratic party, ‘the true party of illegal people.’ This should ensure our world leadership in the 21st century. I might add that we will keep the costs per family below the $1 million estimated by the research of the Heritage Foundation!”

Freedom Scores for Candidates
3. No Multinationals Left Behind!

Posted by Bob on December 12th, 2007

The second critical ingredient or dimension that has been related to America’s greatness has been Participative Governance. Historically, the metaphor that represents America’s greatness on this dimension has been “We the People,” the constitutionally-mandated policy-makers of governance.

Listening with “the third ear” led me to hear the following affective message in the pronouncements from the Republican candidates:

“When I am president, I will ensure the preservation of wealth and the stability of the upper one percent investment class (who are losing large numbers due to their poor judgments in changing markets) by introducing new tax relief for the rich and legislation for the corporate investments that they make. Labeled ‘No Multinational Corporation Left Behind,’ this legislation will ensure that America becomes the ‘Parasitic Consumer Host’ for all Multinationals and their foreign co-conspirators by continually declaring war on every country with energy resources. From this point forward, let us lead by making a vow that all Republicans will be ‘War Presidents’.”

Applying the same affective sensitivity to the Democratic candidates yields the following economic pronouncements:

“When I am president, I will introduce legislation for the redistribution of wealth by ‘taxing the rich’ (even though through their docility, 27% of the top one percent of earners have already fallen out of that category over the last decade—1996 to 2005) and ‘subsidizing the poor’ (even though 91 percent have risen above the bottom five percent of wage earners into the lower middle class over the last decade). By tearing the wealthy down and building the poor up, we can look to leadership in ‘The Equality of Income Distribution’ over the 21st century. Is that mobility or what!?”

Freedom Scores for Candidates
4. No Entrepreneur Gets Ahead!

Posted by Bob on December 13th, 2007

The third critical ingredient or dimension that has been related to America’s greatness has been Free Enterprise Economics. Historically, the metaphor that represents America’s greatness on this dimension has been “The Entrepreneur,” the uniquely American version of the innovative driver of American capitalistic economics.

Again, “listening with the third ear, here is what I hear from the Republican candidates:

“When I am president, I will continue to side with Big Businesses because they are here to stay and ‘Trickle Down Economics’ really work. The Gates’ Model ensures the stability of the marketplace: ‘The only thing I am afraid of is two guys in a garage’ (think the Wright Brothers!) We will hunt those little guys down and make them offers they can’t refuse: ‘Join big or get out!’ After all, there are 23 million of them and their numbers alone may get large enough to challenge the Multinationals. Just think about it! These small guys produce 90 percent of the new jobs for employees who are going to join the Democratic Party. Stick with the Big Boys! Make alliances with the Bad Boys! That will get us back in the pack in the 21st century.”

Finally, here is the Democratic candidates’ positioning on economics:

“When I am president, I will continue to side with the poor and the down-trodden because, like Jesus says, they will always be with us and our children will never want for a political or social service job. The Alinsky model works for us: ‘Continuous Class Conflict keeps the down-fallen stirred up and the up-starts falling down.’ The only ones we’re really afraid of are those pesky entrepreneurs who generate 80 percent of the innovation in the marketplace. We can prevent them from getting leverage by denying them support, regulating their patent application (HR 1908), and taxing their benefits because, after all, all these guys want anyway is to make enough money to join the Republican Party and vote against the poor folk whom we represent. That’s the way we Democrats maintain leadership: “Give them more—keep them poor!”

Freedom Scores for Candidates
5. Zeroes!

Posted by Bob on December 14th, 2007

We were asked to generate “Freedom Scores for Candidates.” We believed that to be a rather straight-forward scientific task as it had been for rating communities, cultures, and countries: study the policies, analyze the behaviors, project the implications. This has not proved to be straight-forward for the following reasons:

  • No candidates are addressing The Freedom Functions that made America great.
  • No candidates are addressing The Freedom Functions that will keep America great.

In this respect, on scales from 1 to 5, none of the candidates deserve ratings above zero on any of the Freedom Functions:

  • Cultural Relating which transformed us from a “Boiling Cauldron” to a “Melting Pot” of cultures.
  • Participative Government which transformed us from the “Dependent Subjects of the First King George” (Thank God!) to the “Empowered Policy-Makers of the Last King George” (Thank God!)!
  • Free Enterprise which transformed us from a “Colonial Economy” into an “Entrepreneurial-Driven Capitalistic Economy.”

Unfortunately, the Democratic candidates led by Hillary Clinton promote a socialist policy calculated to restore us again to our former dependency heritage:

  • “The Boiling Cauldron” of culture and class warfare;
  • “The Colonial Economy” based upon the redistribution of wealth that we can no longer generate;
  • “The Dependent Subjects of Authoritarian Governance” where no one has titles but everyone is entitled.

Just as unfortunate, the Republican candidates seek to replace “The Last King George” whose policies have already reduced us to the following:

  • “The Dependent Minions” of Monarchical Classism made in the image of “The First King George;”
  • “The Parasitic Consumer Host” of Multinational Corporations and their conspiratorial Nation-Partners along with entrenched American politicians who trade state secrets for foreign contributions to their campaign coffers;
  • “The Chain-of-Command Governance” of “The GRIM Complex”—Government Reinforced Industrial-Military Complex” which Our Honest and Heroic President Dwight Eisenhower warned us about.

Overall, the Modal Freedom Scores for Democratic and Republican candidates may be summarized as follows:

Democrats Republicans
Zero Zero

This is because everyone talks but no one “hears;” everyone “spins” but no one “wins;” everyone “knows,” but no one “grows!”

In short, everyone lies and no one even asks for the truth!

To even participate in this “political game” is to make us fraudulent!

This is our best effort. But we are still looking for “The Third Way!”

     
     
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