Tom Allen speaking about the Political Divide in Congress
- January 24 · 7:00 PM
Former Democrat Senator Tom Allen will be speaking about / promoting his new book: "Dangerous Convictions, What's Really Wrong with the U.S. Congress." From the publisher:
"The rhetoric of the 2012 presidential campaign exposed the deeply rooted sources of political polarization in American. One side celebrated individualism and divided the public into "makers and takers;" the other preached "better together" as the path forward. Both focused their efforts on the "base" not the middle. "
Thanks to Mike at the Controversial Topic Book Club for pointing out this event! If there's enough interest in this topic, we'll schedule a We Need To Talk session at a later date.
Info on the Carter Center events: http://www.jimmycarterlibrary.gov/events/
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Ron Drynan
Hi Simone,
I sent the following message to everyone signed up in our group:
[quote]Just to clarify, I'm not hosting the session this Thu. evening ... it's an author-talk at the Carter Center downtown. I posted it in our group because I thought it'd be of interest to some of you, and it seems to be.
If you're interested in socializing afterward, here's a note from Scott Driscoll at the "Controversial Book Club" …
Lisa and I will just be in-and-out for the session, but I'm sure you'd be welcome to join the group at Java Vino's if you like.[/quote]
Our discussions are held at a restaurant or in a members’ home, and they’re specific to our group. Hope you can make it to one!January 26
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simone
I thought the presentation was good although it did confirm a lot of what I've already heard through other channels and concluded on my own. I would have preferred a longer Q&A session as well as a way to find other folks from this group. I joined the so-called discussion group after this event and I can't post my opinions online but I won't be joining their meetup and it left such a bad vibe with me that I'm considering dropping this group as well. I hope the next meetup for this group is more organized.
January 26
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Danny
If you think the so-called "Bail outs" were wrong, Gaurav, I would really like to understand what you proposed as an alternative. But please let's not clog this up with that. My opinion, for those that are interested, is that Bush made the initial, fundamental and system-threatening blunder by not nationalizing Lehman. Those that would have suffered, had we done nothing, would have been the millions that would have lost their savings, jobs, insurance policies, pensions. But Bush was not alone - Merkel also made a similar error on Greek debt held mainly by French and German banks. The debt ended up being nationalized anyway and the European population ended up paying the bill.
January 25
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Danny
3. Your comment about 'automaker bailouts' needs to be accompanied by some facts about costs and benefits which I do not possess. I am unsure as to why you mention the Yugo (long gone and hardly representative of anything) and not Renault/Nissan, Mercedes or BMW? ]
January 26
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Ron Drynan
Clearly I' not being as funny as I think I am. :-( Ah well, I’ll try harder. For the topics at hand, I’ve started new discussion threads, plus added one where I’m inviting everyone to post their favourite quotations. Let us commence our tilting at windmills!
January 26
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Gaurav Bhatia
Personally, I would have liked to see more talk about some of the similarities of both parties. Democrats like to blame Bush for the deficit while Republicans like to blame Obama, but both Presidents have escalated our military budgets and have not done very well in spending cuts. Also, both parties had their campaigns funded through corporate means. Also, both parties supported the bailouts of Wall Street and the big banks. Likewise, it would be nice if Tom Allen spoke about some of the possible solutions for getting the country divided once again.
January 25
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Ron Drynan
Good points, Guarav. I think he reserved the "solutions" for the last chapter to entice us to buy his book. Nice guy, and as Danny said he's well-informed, well-intentioned, and a good speaker. However, I didn't feel compelled to buy the book because as Marian noted: "Nothing new presented."
January 25
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Marian Hirschkorn
OK. Nothing new presented. Very pro Democrat , Republicans causing the divide (expected).
January 24
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Ron Drynan
Lisa and I came away with the same feeling, Marian.
Tom Allen apparently wanted to play nice with an even-handed spreading of blame, but it didn't come across that way. In examples, he had specific names and dates for every Republican problem, but glossed over those of the Democrats in a Reagan-esque passive voice (i.e. "Mistakes were made.").
Having said that, I do see how [insert broad stroke here...] the Republicans' obstinateness can give the impression of conviction despite the evidence. What's generally missing from the debate is the idea that neither side is arguing over the absolutes of its core issues ... rather both sides are arguing over matters of degree.
January 25
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Danny
A man with real knowledge of his subject, a genuine desire to do good work and excellent presentation skills. A credit to his country and its political system. He was even prepared to exchange views with a filthy foreigner...though he seemed to be reluctant to get into the gun control debate. So, even though he works in the publishing industry and writes books, he is still a political animal that has to nurture an electorate.
2 · January 25
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Barbara M
I received Ron's email about Java Vino. They also have a private room upstairs. Don't know if it will be available after the talk.
January 23
14 attended
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