Hearing the Falconer #46 ~ 31-May-2019 ~ The Importance of Moderation

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

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31-May-2019:
In Defense of Moderation
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Today I am sharing a nice little article about moderation from a man who also wrote a big book about moderation.

I believe moderation is the essential virtue that makes society possible. Unless we are planning to live all alone on a desert island we will need to develop some level of moderation to live in a society and to make that society successful.

One of the things we mean by moderation is just the ability to discuss an issue, and learn from people who disagree with you.

Moderation is the ability to compromise – to get SOME of what you want while giving your opponents some of what they want as well, to get SOMETHING done rather than NOTHING and shutting down the government or leaving it paralyzed.

The Constitutional Convention of 1787 was filled with examples of moderation and compromise. Without this kind of moderation the United States would not even exist.

It is moderation that makes society of possible, and it is moderation that keeps society safe. As our great Founding Father John Adams said “without the great political virtues of humility, patience, and moderation every man in power becomes a ravenous beast of prey.”

We should always fight for what we believe in but let's also remember the importance of moderation, avoid extremes, and look for opportunities to compromise.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

If you want to support Hearing the Falconer please click on book links you see here and make a purchase. Hearing the Falconer will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #45 ~ 27-May-2019 ~ Raising America's Pay

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
27-May-2019:
Raising America's Pay
**********

One of the fundamental goals of any society should be to promote growing and widespread prosperity. If the median worker's wages and benefits only increased 7.9% between 1979 and 2013 while “economic growth and productivity” grew by 64.9%, that is a problem.

If we do nothing about growing and sharing prosperity I think that is too extreme in one direction. If we try to completely manage the economy that would be far too extreme in the other direction.

Other extreme positions would be to help business but not workers, or to help workers but not business. We all need to work together to increase prosperity for ALL.

I was happy to find this “Raising America's Pay” project that was launched a few years ago at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).

The EPI is focused on:

• Raising the minimum wage
• Protecting the right to overtime pay
• Protecting the right to collective bargaining

All these items are important but I think there are a few other factors that could be even more important:

• We need to promote innovation so we can create new jobs
• We need to promote increasing productivity so we can pay higher wages
• We need to offer good educational and training opportunities so people can prepare themselves for better jobs.

By finding the right smart and moderate policies we can make sure prosperity in the United States keeps growing and that all citizens have a chance to participate in that prosperity.

We are all on the same team. Let's do what we can to make sure the whole team succeeds.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

If you want to support Hearing the Falconer please click on book links you see here and make a purchase. Hearing the Falconer will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #44 ~ 24-May-2019 ~ Joe Biden: "Stop Fighting and Start Fixing"

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
24-May-2019:
Stop Fighting and Start Fixing
**********

I listened to Joe Biden's official campaign launch speech from Philadelphia on May 18, 2019, and the more I listened the more I liked it.

He took off his jacket, rolled up his sleeves, and promised, “You will not hear me speak ill of another Democrat.”

When the crowd started booing a heckler he said, “Other campaigns do it this way. We don't do it this way.”

For me the key line of the speech was “Let's stop fighting and start fixing.” In seeming contradiction, Biden also says, “I know there are times when only a bare-knuckle fight will do.” He also reminds us that Trump deliberately tries to divide people and fill them with fear.

I think the point Joe is trying to make with all these statements is that we DO need to fight about politics, because we have real disagreements, but we also have to STOP attacking and demonizing our fellow Americans.

The current president is dividing us. Biden wants to unite us again. Other candidates are talking about policy details, and that is important. But Biden is talking about something even more important, he's talking about the kind of country we need to be, and how we can't get there until we get a new president.

As a moderate Democrat I am happy to see Joe running, and I believe he deserves to be in the top tier for 2020.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

If you want to support Hearing the Falconer please click on book links you see here and make a purchase. Hearing the Falconer will earn a commission. Thanks for visiting, and thanks for your support!

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #43 ~ 20-May-2019 ~ Andrew Yang and Universal Basic Income

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
20-May-2019:
Andrew Yang's Universal Basic Income
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Andrew Yang is a 44-year-old entrepreneur who filed with the Federal Election Commission to become a candidate for the Democratic nomination on November 6, 2017. He has spent most of his career in start ups working on healthcare software, college test prep, and a program for getting talented students into start ups across the country.

Yang's most famous idea is his promise to institute a Universal Basic Income or UBI if he is elected. This program would give $1,000 per month to every American aged 18-64. The idea is that automation is continually reducing the number of good-paying jobs in the United States and this is a way to help the people affected by this socioeconomic change.

Apparently Yang got this idea from Martin Ford's book “Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future.”

It is true that automation, robots, and artificial intelligence are eliminating jobs and will continue to do so. Still, I think our focus should be on encouraging innovation that will create new jobs that pay fair wages, and on preparing people to succeed in those jobs.

A jobless future is not in anyone's interest. Without jobs the poor and middle class won't be able to put food on the table. Without jobs the rich won't have anyone to sell their products and services to which means, ultimately, they won't be rich anymore. Since a jobless future hurts everyone we should be able to find a solution that will include good jobs for everyone.

As a moderate I believe that NOT helping people displaced by technology is too extreme in one direction but just handing them a wad of cash is too extreme in the other direction.

As independent thinkers and political moderates, we can do better.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Isaiah Berlin and the Quest for Freedom

Sunday Morning. May 12, 2019.

This morning I was studying the great political philosopher and historian of ideas Sir Isaiah Berlin.

He believed that societies always struggle with competing values where there are no absolute "right" answers about what we should do.

He developed concepts of "negative liberty" and "positive liberty." Negative liberty means the government leaves you alone to do what you want, like start a business, or speak your mind. Positive liberty means you have the ABILITY to do what you want, like go to college, or get medical care.

These are both good things but we will usually find that we can only increase one of them at the expense of the other. And there are no tablets of stone to tell us how to find the ideal balance.

My own example of this is the tension between individual freedom and democracy. If individual freedom means individuals get to decide and democracy means groups get to decide that means we can only get more freedom by restricting democracy, and we can only get more democracy by restricting freedom. We need BOTH. But there are no tablets of stone to tell us where the perfect balance is.

Isaiah Berlin himself believed that the closest the world has ever come to a perfect balance was in the United States of America, during the New Deal under Franklin Roosevelt. Could be....

As I studied Isaiah Berlin this morning I started feeling envious. He spent his whole life studying philosophy and history.

And then I remembered... so have I. ;-)

Sunday Morning

***

[If you want to understand politics, REALLY understand it, you have to read Isaiah Berlin.]

[If you want to support "Anything Smart" just click on book links like the one below and the other ones throughout this blog to buy your books. "Anything Smart" will receive a commission. Thanks!]

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #42 ~ 17-May-2019 ~ Freedom of Speech

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
17-May-2019:
Freedom of Speech
**********

Freedom of speech is a good study for independent thinkers and political moderates.

Freedom of speech is a strong principle in the United States but there are exceptions – some types of speech are not protected.

As independent thinkers and political moderates we need principles but we also need to carve out appropriate exceptions to those principles.

If we follow principles in a very rigid way we will be too extreme in one direction. If we have no principles, or if we make too many exceptions, that would be too extreme in the other direction.

In the United States “core political speech” is strongly protected. This is a principle. On the other hand “time, place, and manner restrictions” are permitted. These are exceptions.

So, we can't stop people from talking about politics. We CAN stop them from talking about politics through a bullhorn, in front of our house, at midnight. The way we handle freedom of speech in the United States gives us a good model for thinking about other rights and other political issues.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #41 ~ 13-May-2019 ~ John Delaney was the First Democrat in the Race

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
13-May-2019: John Delaney Was the First Democrat in the Race
Why I'm Running For President
**********

This morning I see Democratic Candidate and former Congressman from Maryland John Delaney at 0.6% among his rivals. Biden is at 41.4%, Sanders at 14.6%, and Warren at 8.0%. So Delaney is far back in the pack, but that's a shame because Delaney deserves our serious consideration.

Delaney was the very first Democrat to announce his candidacy all the way back on July 28, 2017 in a Washington Post Op-Ed. He has already been running for almost two years! But I like that he knows what he wants and goes after it and doesn't keep people speculating for months about what he will do.

I also like that he did not try to keep his Congressional job while running for President. Too many people try to keep one political job while running for another which seems to suggest they are not fully committed to the people who already elected them. Delaney is not doing that.

I like that Delaney talks about excessive partisanship and the need to cool that down.

In his Op-Ed Delaney says: "As a progressive businessman, I’ve made it a priority to be solutions-oriented and have been consistently recognized as one of the most innovative and bipartisan members of Congress. I’ve done this by simultaneously celebrating the power of our free-market economy while insisting that there is a role for government to set goals and rules of the road and take care of those who are left behind."

This is exactly what we need!

• Bipartisanship.
• Free-markets limited by reasonable rules.
• Help for people suffering from economic forces over which they have no control.

Delaney also understands that we need to plan for the future and not try to escape into fantasies of the past. He says: "Technological innovation, automation and globalization are the most powerful forces in the world today. These forces have been enormously positive; they will continue to make life better, enhance productivity, solve some of the world’s most difficult problems and open societies. Sadly, these forces will also eliminate certain jobs and require workers to learn new skills more quickly. They will create security risks and strain our resources. We need to respond to these large-scale opportunities and challenges by thinking about policy from a fresh perspective. What are the resources we have, how do we compete and create jobs, how can we ensure that everyone has a fair chance, and how do we protect ourselves?"

This is exactly the kind of talk we need to hear; these are exactly the kinds of ideas we need to consider; this is exactly the kind of candidate we need in the race for the Democratic nomination!

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #40 ~ 10-May-2019 ~ Cory Booker Proposes New Gun Rules

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
10-May-2019: Cory Booker Proposes New Gun Safety Rules
Cory Booker's Plan to End Gun Violence
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As a moderate Democrat I believe in the right to keep and bear arms, but I also believe in reasonable regulations to keep guns out of the hands of dangerous people.

If we do nothing to control who gets guns, that is going too far in one direction. If we try to stop law-abiding citizens from getting guns, that is going too far in the other direction.

Let's take a look at some of Cory Booker's recent proposals.

I disagree with the limit of one handgun purchase per month. Far more important is WHO is buying the handgun. For the same reason I am skeptical about banning assault weapons and high capacity magazines. Maybe.... But again, far more important is WHO is buying them.

So let's get to the parts I agree with:

• No loopholes for background checks. Yes. If you want to buy a gun you go through a background check. No exceptions.
• Federal background checks. Yes. Let's make sure the background check is thorough.
• Handgun microstamping to help trace shell casings back to the gun they were fired from. Of course.
• Require reporting of lost or stolen firearms. Critically important. We need to keep guns in the hands of good people. When a gun is lost or stolen we need to know so we can try to find out where that gun went.
• Close the boyfriend loophole. Certainly. An abusive boyfriend should be disarmed just as surely as an abusive spouse.
• More funding on gun violence. I certainly agree with this if it will give us some hope of understanding which people are most likely to commit acts of violence and how we can intervene in a Constitutional and effective way.

So, for a moderate Democrat, there are lots of good ideas in Booker's proposal. It needs to be tweaked to protect the rights of law-abiding citizens but there are some good proposals in here to help us stop bad people from getting guns.

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway

Hearing the Falconer #39 ~ 6-May-2019 ~ Plastic Pollution in Our Oceans

Turning and turning in the widening gyre
The falcon cannot hear the falconer;
Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;
Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world....
from The Second Coming, William Butler Yeats, 1919

The middle of the road is all of the usable surface.
The extremes, right and left, are in the gutters.
Dwight D. Eisenhower

**********
6-May-2019: Plastic Pollution in the Oceans
Banning Plastic Straws Will Not be Enough
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To solve a problem, independent thinkers will gather information in order to focus on the real causes of the problem, while moderates will be likely to look for ways to attack different parts of the problem simultaneously, instead of focusing on just one element, that will leave the bulk of the problem unaddressed.

Over the past year there has been a lot of attention on banning plastic straws to reduce the problem of plastic in our oceans, but, as this article points out, “straw bans alone … will barely dent the flood of plastic spewing into the environment each year.” So what else can we do to tackle this problem?

According to this article, the most common type of plastic found in the ocean in 2017 was cigarette butts with plastic fibers in their filters. This accounted for 22% of plastic objects found. How about encouraging tobacco companies to design a new type of filter that does not use plastic filters?

If we combine plastic bottles and caps we have an even greater contributor: 24% of all plastic in the ocean. How about bigger deposits on bottles to encourage people to return them for a refund?

Plastic food wrappers account for 16% of the plastic in the ocean. So, how about mandating paper wrappers instead of plastic?

These three suggestions alone, or something similar, would help us tackle 62% of the plastic found in oceans in 2017.

This article also points out that huge amounts of plastic enter the ocean through rivers. China's Yangtze River alone dumps an estimated 1.5 million tons of plastic into the ocean every year. That's about 17% of the total. A focus on cleaning up the Yangtze could have a big impact on solving this global problem.

I was surprised to learn that 46% of the garbage in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch is from fishing nets. So, how about encouraging net manufacturers to eliminate or reduce the amount of plastic used in nets?

Getting back to straws, one thing I have heard before, and that is mentioned in this article, is that straws are very light, which makes it difficult for recycling systems to “contain” them and so they “escape” into the waste stream. How about enclosing the recycling systems so the straws can't escape?

Finally, how does this plastic actually get into the oceans? According to the article there is 275 million tons of plastic waste every year. 99.5 million tons is produced along coasts, 39.9 million tons is “mismanaged,” and about 8.8 million tons ends up in the ocean. If we do further research on HOW this coastal plastic waste is mismanaged and then put smart new regulations in place maybe we can have an impact that way.

By gathering facts like the ones reported in this article we can focus our attention on the key factors causing the problem. By attacking the problem from multiple directions simultaneously we should be able to make significant progress.

In the meantime, if you want to do something right now, stop using those plastic straws!

**********

The "Hearing the Falconer" Library

Books for Independent Thinkers

Truman

Moderates: The Vital Center of American Politics, from the Founding to Today

The American Political Tradition: And the Men Who Made It

Unapologetically Moderate: My Search for the Rational Center in American Politics

The Deliberate Moderate: Influencing From the Middle

Eisenhower: The White House Years

The Constitutional Convention: A Narrative History from the Notes of James Madison

Lincoln

Reflections of a Radical Moderate

Washington: A Life

The Reluctant Republican: My Fight for the Moderate Majority

Rule and Ruin: The Downfall of Moderation and the Destruction of the Republican Party, From Eisenhower to the Tea Party

Franklin D. Roosevelt: A Political Life

Theodore Roosevelt: A Life

The Three Languages of Politics: Talking Across the Political Divides

Beyond Red and Blue: How Twelve Political Philosophies Shape American Debates

***

Copyright © 2019 by Joseph Wayne Gadway